24.0 What Future for Reform? | Documents | LifeMosaic

Rights and Resources Initiative period 2002-2013. Six countries recorded increases in the recognition of community rights in the period 2002-2013. As detailed in Table 3, tenure reforms have affected less than six percent of the country’s forest area in five of the seven countries where communities’ rights are recognized. Only Tanzania and the Gambia exceeded this proportion. Togo and Kenya appear to be regional outliers in their respective proportions of forests owned by individuals and firms. Overall, as of 2013, less than six percent of forests within the sample for sub-Saharan Africa are “designated for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.” The implementation of Tanzania’s Village Land Act 1999 and Forest Act 2002 account for over 89 percent of this area. Furthermore, there is no recorded area under community “ownership” in Africa. This partly reflects a lack of data for the two countries—Mozambique and Liberia—that have enacted statutory frameworks recognizing community ownership of forest land. 214 The forest area owned by communities in these countries may be substantial because these laws recognize the rights of communities regardless of whether or not formal titles exist; however, the extent of this area is not yet known. Nevertheless, even if the entire forest estate of these two countries is recognized under community ownership, there would still be very limited recognition of community rights in the region, due to limited implementation of legal reforms in the Congo Basin region, 215 where states retain legal administrative control over 99 percent of the region’s forest estate. Nearly 68 percent of the forests in sub-Saharan Africa are in the Congo Basin. Asia 216 Of the 12 countries with complete data in the Asia region, three countries recorded increases in the area owned by communities while nine recorded increases in the area recognized as designated for communities between 2002 and 2013. During this period, two countries also recorded increases in the forest land owned by individuals and firms. By 2013, all 12 countries had implemented some form of community tenure regime; however, as Table 4 shows, this implementation has affected less than four percent of the country’s forests in seven of these countries. 217 TABLE 3 Statutory forest tenure in 12 sub-Saharan African countries, 2002-2013 Country Government administered Designated for IPs and local communities Owned by IPs and local communities Owned by individuals and irms 2002 2013 2002 2013 2002 2013 2002 2013 Tanzania 54.9 32.5 44.8 67.0 0.3 0.5 Gambia 95.6 88.1 4.3 11.9 0.04 0.05 Cameroon 100 94.1 5.9 Republic of the Congo 98.0 97.9 2.0 2.1 Ethiopia 99.9 98.3 0.07 1.7 Gabon 100 99.98 0.02 Angola 100 99.99 0.002 Togo 27.1 28.2 72.9 71.8 Kenya 78.2 74.1 21.8 25.9 Central African Republic 100 100 Democratic Republic of the Congo 100 100 Zambia 100 100 19