This article reports on findings from a research project, in more than 30 sites in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, aimed at analyzing cases where changes in formal tenure rights for forest-based communities had recently occurred or were in process. Though by far largest proportion of the world's forests are owned by the state, over a quarter of forests in developing countries are now owned by or assigned to communities. This suggests, at least in some ways, a marked departure from the historic trend towards centralizing. The project, led by the Center for International Forestry Research in coordination with the Rights and Resources Initiative in 2006-2008, sought to identify issues and concerns from the perspective of socially and economically vulnerable groups that were seeking rights reforms. The objectives were to understand reform processes, particularly the extent to which community rights had improved in practice. This article reports on the analysis of three aspects of the reforms: the broad global trends shaping them, challenges in implementation and outcomes for livelihoods and forests.

comunitarios e individuales comparten

Forest tenure reform differs from agrarian reform. •Besides responding to livelihood demands, it also explicitly aims to conserve forests, and is often driven by demands for ancestral

This occasional paper is the result of research carried out from 2006 to 2008 on the effects of new tenure rights for forest-based communities in Latin America on access to forest resources and benefits. Focused on seven different regions in four countries, the paper examines changes in statutory rights, the implementation of those rights in practice, and the extent to which they have led to tangible new benefits from forests, particularly to new sources of income. The research sites included several types of conservation and settlement communities in the Brazilian Amazon, an indigenous territory and agro-extractive communities in Bolivia, indigenous territories in Nicaragua and community forest concessions and highland communal forests in Guatemala. Though the granting of tenure rights signifies an important achievement for many communities, new statutory rights do not automatically turn into rights in practice. Virtually all of the cases — even those in which benefits have been significant — encountered substantial challenges along the road from rights to benefits: conflicts with other resource claimants; the failure of the state to define the tenure right appropriately or defend it effectively; problems with local authorities and governance institutions; the superposition of new models over existing institutions; obstacles to community engagement with markets; and the lack of systems to support forest resource management. The bundle of rights granted is sometimes overwhelmed by an accompanying bundle of responsibilities, or limited by restrictions on use, and may include an important ongoing decision-making role for certain state authorities. Institutional arrangements are also shaped by a variety of local authorities, some of which have been created or given substantial new powers in the reform process but lack experience and clear accountability relations. The state often appears more concerned with establishing management regulations than with defending community rights; for their part, communities and their organizations are forced to waste time and resources defending their rights from outside interests, rather than using these to strengthen local governance and forest management capacity. Policy frameworks have generally failed to establish an enabling environment for endogenous, community-based management opportunities. The gains that have been won and the potential of these processes for improving rights and livelihoods demonstrate the value of promoting efforts to overcome these obstacles.

This occasional paper is based on the results of a three-year project examining the emergence of forest-based grassroots movements in Latin America.Funded by the Ford Foundation, the Support to Grassroots Community Forestry Organizations in Central America and Brazil Project sought to understand how grassroots groups develop and influence conservation and development.The project focused on four noteworthy cases in Central America and Brazil, each representing 'successful' broad-based collective action to defend local control and use of forest lands.Cases included the Association of Forest Communities of the Petén in Guatemala, the Siuna Farmerto-Farmer exchange programme in Nicaragua, the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and the Brazilian rubber tapper movement in Acre.Although the context and outcomes varied, in these cases grassroots collective action to defend local livelihoods emerged when initially weak government institutions attempted to counteract chaotic frontier conditions through the imposition of conservation and development initiatives, provoking local resistance.A combination of indigenous capacity for collective organization and significant external assistance helped produce grassroots forest movements capable of becoming proactive partners in the management and defence of protected areas.These groups still confront external incursions into their hard-won resources rights and strive to respond to changing membership needs.The cases suggest that local communities can become effective forest stewards when acquired rights are duly recognized, avenues exist for meaningful participation, costs and benefits are distributed fairly, and appropriate external support is provided.

This study would not have been possible without the support and quality fieldwork of our partner organizations and numerous researchers who participated in various phases of the research upon which this report is based.Our partners include the Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua (URACCAN) and Masangni (Nicaragua),

This paper describes the Grassroots Assistance Project's approach to research and strengthening of community analysis and management capacities. It summarizes context studies of four grassroots forest organization in Central America and Brazil, focusing on the conditions shaping their emergence, the roles of the state and external technical assistance, and impacts on conservation and development. It briefly discusses the results of innovative community self-studies in Guatemala and Nicaragua. It then turns to an alternative model of technical 'accompaniment' emerging from the communities' own experiences that may more effectively help build community capacity to manage forests for conservation and development. Grassroots forestry organizations are showing that conservation and development need not be opposing strategies. Rather than being part of the deforestation problem, organized forest communities can potentially be key allies in the protection and management of the environment for the future