Natural Resource Tenure

This report represents a snapshot of the issue of tenure and sustainable use by a number of leading practitioners and academics in the field. The book is in two parts: Influence of Tenure and Access Rights on the Sustainability of Natural Resource Uses and Tenure and Sustainable Use. Volume I is a collection of papers from a workshop held at the World Conservation Congress organized by the Sustainable Use Initiative, 17-20 October 1996, Montreal, Canada. Vol. II is a collection of papers from the workshop "Tenure and Sustainable Use" Organized by the Center for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway, (11-14 October, 1998) in collaboration with the Sustainable Use Initiative.

This study is broad in scope: it covers agricultural land as well as urban. It covers water, wetlands, coastal areas, forests, rangelands, protected areas, genetic resources and petroleum and minerals. It shows how strongly development priorities such as pro-poor growth and the fulfilment of human rights apply to natural resource tenure. Environmental sustainability and climate change, gender equality, peace, security and democratic governance are all closely related issues. Experiences and cases from different parts of the world illustrate key messages; supported by a selection of photos. The overview and the recommendations may provide guidance for the development and implementation of policies and programmes that are urgently needed.

The devastating environmental effects of deforestation and the exploitation of other natural resources in the developing world have been well documented, yet their impact on local communities has received far less attention. This volume fills this gap by looking at how land degradation and deforestation are being addressed at the local level, where households have experienced the reduction of farm size and the decline of natural resources. Through a comparison of Asia and Africa, Land Tenure and Natural Resource Management examines the evolution of land tenure institutions within diverse cultural, natural, and policy environments. Specific topics include the evolution of customary land tenure, the impacts of land tenure policies, and common property management. The editors conclude that the best strategy for managing land and forest resources lies in promoting the establishment of property rights and investment in the improvement of the natural resource base. Topics Include: Issues and Theoretical Framework; Quantitative Methodology; Agroforestry Management in Ghana; Agroforestry Management in Sumatra; Tree and Cropland Management in Malawi; Customary and Private Land Management in Uganda; Management of State Land and Privatization in Vietnam; Common Property Forest Management in the Hill Region of Nepal; Timber Forest Management in Nepal and Japan Toward New Paradigms of Land and Tree Resource Management.

The developing worldOCOs poorest people live in marginal, often harsh rural environments. The natural resource base tends to be fragile and highly vulnerable to over exploitation. Yet these rural people depend directly on access to the food, forage, fuel, fibre, water, medicines, and building materials provided by local ecosystems. What types of natural resource management (NRM) can improve the livelihoods of these poor people while protecting or enhancing the natural resource base they depend on? New approaches to NRM are needed OCo ones that move beyond the earlier narrow focus on productivity (such as crop yields), to include social, institutional, and policy considerations."

Collaborative international research on tenure dates back at least to the early 1960s when the Land Tenure Centre was established at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and conducted some studies in collaboration with CGIAR social scientists. CGIAR interest in tenure increased in the early 1990s when natural resource management was strengthened as a component of the CGIAR agenda and the Centers on forests, agroforestry, and water (CIFOR, ICRAF, and IWMI) entered the system. CAPRi began to operate as a systemwide research program on tenure and collective action in the mid-1990s, and became PIM Flagship 5 on governance of natural resources in 2011. From 2021, a renewed research agenda on tenure is essential for advancing the One CGIAR mission of “science and innovation that advance transformation of food, land and water systems in a climate crisis.”