Indigenous Peoples and Community Forestry

One of the primary factors regarding the use of forest resources are the ownership rights of the forests. The FAO definition of forest ownership implies exclusive legal rights over the forest resource, including the right to fully control and utilize the forests. So, to understand the rationality behind the management of forests we have to understand who owns them. In that way, it is also possible to shape the forests by shaping who owns them.

An estimated 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods including half of the world’s ‘very poor’. It is important to keep these people and communities in mind as this question of ownership and rights to use the forest resources often concerns especially indigenous people and other communities living in the actual forest.

So, how has the current forest ownership been shaped by history? What is the role of community forestry nowadays and in the future and could it possibly solve at least some of the problems caused by forest ownership and land use rights conflicts?

This module is mainly based on the Who owns our forests? – Public, Private and Communal Ownership webinar organized by the IFSA Partners Commission in January 2021. The complete webinar can be found here.