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Responsible Land Governance: Towards an Evidence Based Approach
Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poerty
March 2017
Securing Forest Tenure Rights for Rural Development in Latin America
Gerardo Segura Warnholtz
The World Bank Group
Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice
Global Public Goods Unit
This contribution presents results of a study supported by the Program on Forests
(PROFOR) of the World Bank.
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One of the most important challenges that governments face in their efforts to reduce poverty and
inequality in rural landscapes, and achieve environmental and climate goals, is to recognize and
secure the land and forest tenure rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. Promising
progress has been made by many developing countries, particularly in Latin America, in
introducing the legal framework and targeted policies to transfer or devolve forest rights to local
people. In many cases, however, these reforms remain partial, and their implementation and
enforcement is still far from materializing. Cumbersome regulations, limited institutional capacity,
and powerful competing interests continue to impede the realization of legitimate customary rights,
contributing to insecurity, conflicts, and displacement among some of the world’s poorest rural
inhabitants.1
These unfinished tenure reform agendas have significant impacts on the ability of countries to
achieve their poverty reduction and environmental goals. There is growing evidence of the critical
links between tenure security and local economic development, biodiversity conservation and
carbon emissions reductions. A substantial body of research documents the essential foundations
land and resource tenure provide for food security and sustainable livelihoods,2 and the global
consensus on these links has been expressed in international frameworks such as the Voluntary
Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context
of National Food Security.3 With regard to deforestation, a comprehensive review of relevant
studies undertaken in 2014 found that where communities have legal rights to their forests and
government support for management and enforcement, deforestation rates (and associate carbon
emissions) are significantly lower than in areas outside those community forests.4 In spite of this
encouraging evidence, unclear and insecure land and forest tenure rights remain widespread in the
developing world, and continue to threaten the integrity of local livelihoods and the provision of
environmental services, while impeding poverty reduction and increasing the negative effects of
climate change.
As a region, Latin America has led the way in recognizing local and customary forest tenure rights.
As of 2013, approximately 39% of the region’s forestlands were owned or controlled by
indigenous peoples and local communities.5 To achieve this, countries have undertaken significant
legal and institutional reforms leading to more robust and inclusive tenure rights. However, the
success of these reforms has been constrained by many factors including the policies and
institutional arrangements that government agencies use to implement them (e.g. forestry,
agriculture, land administration/regularization agencies), and the resources they have to respond
to increasing demands from communities to regularize, administer and enforce tenure regimes, and
support the resolution of conflicts over unclear boundaries and multiple land claims.
Resolution of these constraints to the security of community tenure rights is critical for the future
of Latin America’s forests and people. Forest ecosystems cover as much as 21% of the land (940
M ha) in Latin America, and represent 50% of the world’s tropical forests. However, rates of
deforestation are among the world’s highest, and carbon emissions associated with the destruction
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of forests, and degradation of soils and other ecosystem elements, currently surpass those of other
productive sectors of the economy and are also highest in Latin America (CO2 emissions from
deforestation in the region are above 46%, whereas the world average is less than 17%). Even in
those countries that are beginning to control deforestation, such as Brazil, forestlands continue to
be significantly threatened by rapidly expanding agribusiness (e.g. soy, oil palm and sugarcane),
oil and gas infrastructure, mining, illegal logging and drug cultivation.6
This contribution presents the results of a six-country study designed to assess the current status
of forest tenure reforms in Latin America and identify the actions needed by governments to
leverage sustained political, institutional, financial, and technical support to strengthen and
operationalize them. It aims to contribute to the discussion and analysis currently under way in
many countries in Latin America, and in other parts of the world, regarding the key policy, legal,
institutional and technical elements that are needed to strengthen, secure and expand indigenous
and community forest tenure. Following a brief introduction to the study methods, this report
presents key overarching findings from the six country studies, and concludes with
recommendations for future work, including recommendations on ways World Bank programs can
support further recognition and realization of indigenous and community forest rights.
1
Anderson 2006 –
2 Sunderlin et al 2008; Food and Agriculture Organization 2002, Deininger 2003, Department for International Development
2007, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency 2007.
3 FAO 2012. Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the Context of
National Food Security.
4 Stevens, Caleb, Robert Winterbottom, Jenny Springer, Katie Reytar 2014. Securing Rights, Combatting Climate Change.
Washington, DC: World Resources Institute.
5 RRI 2014.
6 (Pacheco, 2012; Nepstad el. al. 2006)
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