percent of global forest area .
www.rightsandresources.org
community ownership since 2008 is less than 20 percent
of the area secured in the previous six years.
Results were also compared across countries that are
implementing REDD+ initiatives and those that are
not see Table 2. The slowdown in recognition of
rights occurred despite implementation of REDD+
initiatives—which often talk of tenure security as a key requirement for success—in 28 of the 33 countries.
Furthermore, the relatively limited share of forests owned by individuals and firms reflected in Figure 2 masks a major ongoing change in individual and corporate access to forest land and resources. The 21st
century wave of large-scale land acquisitions by investors in LMICs has primarily taken the form of concessionary and long-term leasing arrangements between the state and private investors, which do not
transfer ownership. While several estimates have been made,
213
the true extent of these leases is not yet fully understood on a global scale.
LMIC trends disaggregated by region
Within the sample of LMICs, it is possible to disaggregate forest tenure data by region.
Regional distributions across the four statutory tenure categories are presented in Figure 3.
As a complement to the regional aggregates in Figure 3, Tables 3-5 in the following regional
sub-sections list countries complete cases only in descending order based on the proportion of
their forest land under community ownership and community control. Since countries within
a region differ significantly in size, this information allows changes taking place in
smaller countries to be highlighted and, conversely, ensures that changes in one or a
few large countries do not obscure a lack of change in other, smaller countries.
Africa
As Figure 3 demonstrates, there was only limited change in forest tenure in the 12
countries with complete data in Africa in the
Designated for Indigenous Peoples and
local communities Owned by
Indigenous Peoples and local communities
2002-2008 2008-2013
2002-2008 2008-2013
LMICs
+26.8 +19.7
+66.8 +11.2
of which
REDD+ Countries
+19.3 +16.7
+50.3 +9.3
Non-REDD+ Countries
+7.5 +3.0
+16.5 +1.9
TABLE
2
Change in area of statutory community tenure in LMIC, REDD+, and non-REDD+ countries, in millions of hectares
Government administered Designated for Indigenous Peoples and local communities
Owned by Indigenous Peoples and local communities Owned by individuals and firms
FIGURE
3
Statutory recognition of forest tenure, by region
2002 2013
Africa
95.5 4.2
5.9
93.7
2002 2013
Asia
67.4 26.9
3.5 2.2
30.6 2.5
6.0
60.9
2002 2013
Latin America
22.4 2.0
14.5 32.9
17.9 6.2
61.1 42.9
0.3 0.3
See endnote 211 for details on REDD+ versus non-REDD+ countries
18