Community families throughout tropical regions derive an important share of their income from multiple forest products, with generally positive outcomes on their livelihoods. The production of these products in a multiple-use forest management scheme (MFM, the production of multiple forest products within a single management unit) encompasses many (yet) unknown socioeconomic and ecological feedbacks.

Widespread palm oil production causes much controversy due to its negative impacts in the tropics. But whatever is said about it, it is big business and getting bigger by the day due to increasing global demands. Alongside this, the size and depth of the social and environmental debates surrounding palm oil production are also growing. As a major globally-consumed commodity, its production in the humid and sub-humid tropics raises concerns due to its impacts on the environment, biodiversity, local communities, smallholder livelihoods, land rights and climate change.

Recognition and respect for tenure rights has long been recognized as an important concern for development, conservation, and natural resource governance. This paper discusses why secure tenure rights for local communities, indigenous peoples and women are central to good natural resource governance and important for livelihoods and human rights, as recognized in multiple international conventions. The paper reviews both challenges and opportunities for securing rights in practice and highlights successful cases of tenure reform.

Oil palm plantations in Indonesia have been linked to substantial deforestation in the 1990s and 2000s, though recent studies suggest that new plantations are increasingly developed on non-forest land. Without nationwide data to establish recent baseline trends, the impact of commitments to eliminate deforestation from palm oil supply chains could therefore be overestimated. We examine the area and proportion of plantations replacing forests across Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Papua up to 2015, and map biophysically suitable areas for future deforestation-free expansion.

This publication is based on a range of past studies on ICCAs conducted in several regions of the world in the last two decades, and, most recently, on 19 country level case studies. The latter were commissioned as part of a project on ICCA Recognition and Support, undertaken by the ICCA Consortium, coordinated by Kalpavriksh.

It also incorporates some key findings of a parallel project on ICCA Legislation, also undertaken by the ICCA Consortium, and coordinated by Natural Justice.

The publication intends to:

We examine the emergence of land markets and their effects on forest land appropriation by farm households in Jambi Province, Sumatra, using micro-level data covering land use and land transactions for a period of more than 20 years (1992–2015). Based on a theoretical model of land acquisition by a heterogeneous farming population, different hypotheses are developed and empirically tested. Farm households involved in forest land appropriation differ from those involved in land market purchases in terms of migration status and other socioeconomic characteristics.

This brief study has been produced by the partners of the CoNGOs consortium to share our different knowledge and experience, and to set out a joint understanding of the current state of play in relation to community forestry in Cameroon.

El presente informe describe seis problemas vinculados al cambio y variabilidad climática, así como ejemplos de proyectos ejemplares de adaptación y educación referidos a dichos problemas. En particular, se presentan los problemas vinculados a: (1) desglaciación, (2) escasez hídrica, (3) “heladas”, (4) deforestación, (5) inundaciones y (6) contaminación hídrica.

This survey report provides findings of a survey to measure the impacts of LIFTs rural land rental market and access to finance interventions..This resource was published in the frame of the Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) Programme. For more information;please check: https://landportal.org/community/projects/land-investment-transformation...

While Burma’s ethnic states are blessed with a wealth of natural resources and biodiversity, they
have been cursed by the unsustainable extraction and sale of those resources, which has fuelled
armed conflict. Instituting a system of devolved federal management of natural resources can
play a key role in resolving conflict and building a lasting peace in Burma.
Despite some ceasefires on paper, Burma remains in a state of conflict. Ongoing offensives in
Kachin and Shan states alone have left hundreds of thousands homeless. Fundamental calls for

This survey report examines changes in land-related disputes resulting from increased tenure security.This resource was published in the frame of the Land Investment for Transformation (LIFT) Programme. For more information;please check: https://landportal.org/community/projects/land-investment-transformation...