1. Land Tenure and REDD+:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Anne Larson, Maria Brockhaus, William Sunderlin, Amy Duchelle,
Andrea Babon, Therese Dokken, IAP Resosudarmo, Galia Selaya
and Abdon Awono
THINKING beyond the canopy
ISEE, June 18, 2012

2. Central questions
 Under what conditions does
REDD+ present a threat or
opportunity for local land/
forest tenure rights?
• Good: opportunity
• Bad: communities
marginalized and/or REDD
does not work
• Ugly: threat to local rights
and livelihoods
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3. Overview
 Why tenure matters for REDD+
 Methods
 Research results
 Taking stock
 Moving forward
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4. Why tenure matters for REDD+
1. The essence of REDD is to reward carbon
sequestration and compensate lost
opportunities (who will be rewarded?)
2. The reward is conditional on compliance (who
will be held accountable?)
3. Unclear or non-formal tenure may lead to
forest people’s exclusion, and to land grabbing
4. Certain forest uses will be prohibited (FPIC?
Increased hardships?)
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5. Why tenure matters: the ugly
“No Rights No REDD” movement
 REDD+ has the potential to result in “the biggest land grab of
all time… threatening the very survival of indigenous peoples
and local communities”
• Still no binding commitment to rights or safeguards
• Land tenure insecurity
• Govt failure to insure Free prior and informed consent (FPIC)
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6. Research Methods
CIFOR Global Comparative Study
National
- Country profiles
- Media analysis
- Policy network analysis
Project level
- Interviews with 19 project proponents
- Village focus groups in 71 project villages
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7. National level results
 Tenure problems and policies table: substantial
problems, weak solutions if any
 But popular topic in stakeholder interviews and
position statements, however… only rhetoric?
 Media analysis of 500+ articles: largely absent as
main focus of article
 Policy network analysis: the organizations
concerned with tenure are not influential
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8. Project level results
 Tenure problems and policies table:
• substantial problems
• substantial local project proponent
initiatives, but… limited by national
framework & lack of national-level attention
to the problem
• less than half of proponents satisfied with
results to date, all agree more to be done
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9. Table. Land conflict or insecurity
Villages with an Villages with tenure
area of land in insecurity over at least a
Country
conflict portion of village lands
(number & %) (number & %)
Brazil 7 (44%) 8 (50%)
Cameroon 5 (83%) 6 (100%)
Tanzania 6 (24%) 8 (32%)
Indonesia 11 (55%) 17 (85%)
Vietnam 0 (0%) 0 (0%)
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10. Taking stock:
some interesting developments?
 For the first time, tenure is broadly recognized as
important for REDD+
 New attention given to the issue of local rights
 Bold statements by Indonesia’s REDD task force
chair and others
 Tenure seen not just an issue of rights but also REDD
effectiveness -> incentive?
 REDD is meeting resistance from big deforesters
 Carbon cowboy scandals (e.g. PNG) are being revealed
and reversed (watchdog organizations)
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11. Tenure for whom?
Tenure issue Opportunity Risk
Lack of clarity  Rights clarified and  Rights secured to
on ownership, secured for local people more powerful
overlapping parties/ elite
claims
capture
Customary  Rights and recognition of  State asserts its
rights v state traditional land formal rights,
ownership distribution controls process,
imposes rules
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12. The way forward?
 Who will ally with whom? What role for
communities?
 What role with “the state” play? Who is willing
to lead in…
• Challenges to business as usual in forests
(deforestation)
• Challenges to business as usual in forest
tenure rights
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13. Good, bad and ugly
 Paste photos???
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14. www.cifor.cgiar.org
Thank you!
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