1) Industrial logging concessions dominate forests in Central Africa, comprising 60% of the area compared to only 18% designated for or owned by local communities. 2) Strengthening community tenure rights over forests is important for effective forest management, reducing land conflicts, and increasing rural development opportunities, including for REDD. 3) Several countries in Africa and around the world have implemented reforms to increase community forest tenure rights, providing examples for Central African countries to learn from and scale up their own reform efforts.

1. Tropical Forest Tenure
Assessment: Status, Trends and
Implications for Central Africa
Samuel Nguiffo
Secretary General
Centre pour l'Environnement et le Development Cameroun
Yaounde
25 May 2009

2. Tenure distribution of
Tropical Forests, 2008
4%
18%
65%
13%
Public: Administered by government Public: Designated for use by communities & indigenous peoples
Owned by communities & indigenous peoples Owned by individuals & firms
Source: RRI, 2009

3. Why this matters today?
• Capacity of the state to effectively manage
• Tensions/conflicts over land and resources are
rising throughout the world
• Low economic development in rural areas and
nationally in many high forest countries
• Environmental degradation and the global
climate
• Government ownership of forest contradicts
trend to decentralize

4. Progress just starting in Africa
Africa
Asia & Pacific Latin America

5. Industrial concessions dominate
African forests
Comparison of the area of industrial concessions and community
forest land in the Central African ITTO Producer countries
Industrial logging
Concession
Areas Mining
Other (including oil and gas)
Designated for
and Owned by Designated for communities and
Communities indigenous people
and Indigenous Owned by community and
People indigenous people
0 20 40 60 80
Millions of hectares

6. Why it matters for Central Africa
• Enormity of potential (vast forest resources)
• There is enough for everyone, little potential for
communities causing harm to land and resources
• Rush from foreign countries for forests, mining &
plantations that is likely to cause problems in this
context: conflict, pollution, rights abuses
• Rural poverty has increased in the last ten years in all
Central African countries
• REDD presents potential benefits, but requires clear
tenure

7. Scaling up reform is possible, and
experiences exist to build on
• Amazon Basin versus Congo Basin: It will take
260 years at today’s rate for Congo Basin to
reach the Amazon Basin’s level of community
forest ownership
• If Congo Basin moves at the speed of the
Amazon it will only take 16 years…
• Can learn from Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador,
Mozambique, Tanzania, India, Canada,
Sweden, Finland, China, etc.

8. Examples of reform
• 20 countries over past 10 years have made legal and policy reforms to
strengthen the rights of forest communities; 8 of these countries are in
Africa
• Brazil
– Once behind now leading the way in recognizing forest community rights
• Mozambique
– developed participatory policy making and implementation
• Tanzania
– Village land acts and PFM programs
• India
– Forest Rights Act makes advances on JFM and gives more authority and land
rights to local groups
• Central Africa:
– Over the past 10 years, increased actions to support and implement
community forestry in Central Africa: Cameroon, Rep of Congo; Gabon; CAR.
• Challenges still exist, but the first steps have been taken

9. Mozambique: Recognizing tenure rights
based on historic use and occupation
– Peace Agreement (1992)
– Elections (1994)
1992 – Return process (1993‐1994 onwards)
– Ad hoc Land Commission (1993)
– Research (1992 – 2004)
– Land policy (1995)
– Inter‐Ministerial Land Commission (1996 ‐ 2003)
– Participatory development process ‐ Land Law (1996 ‐ 1997)
– Land Campaign and land law dissemination (1998 ‐1999)
– Regulations to the Land Law (1998)
– Technical Annex for community land registration (1998 ‐1999)
– Community land registration (1999 onwards)
– Provincial support to land policy implementation (Zambézia, Nampula, Sofala)
– Cadastral reform and decentralisation (2000 onwards)
– Training judiciary (2001 onwards)
2009 – Multi‐donor Community Land Use Fund (development from 2003 onwards), MCC
support to land administration from 2008

10. Some lessons
• Recognized the multiple uses and actors present in
rural areas
• Created a multi‐stakeholder negotiation and
consensus building process
• Civil society became a partner in policy development
• Local communities become rights holders and
investment partners
• A long process with complications, stumbles and
advances that is still being implemented today with
the support of national NGOs and civil society

11. Challenges
• Acknowledge that it is difficult but possible
now
• And it will be more difficult tomorrow – more
interests to accommodate in a clear legal and
practical environment
• Tenure reform is often understood as only for
communities – but it is a question of benefits
for the state, private investors