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The Rights and Resources Initiative is a strategic coalition of international, regional and community organizations engaged in development, research and conservation. Together, we are working to encourage greater global commitment and action on pro-poor tenure, policy and market reforms.
The RRI coalition is formed by a group of core Partners who conduct work in specific areas of their regional and thematic expertise. Partners also engage with a wide group of collaborators who participate in and support RRI activities around the world. RRI is a strategic coalition that goes beyond the traditional set of international development actors to involve a wide spectrum of organizations, each of which provides a critical perspective in the larger chain of actors necessary to advance change.
Our Mission
RRI’s Mission is to support local communities’ and indigenous peoples’ struggles against poverty and marginalization by promoting greater global commitment and action towards policy, market and legal reforms that secure their rights to own, control and benefit from natural resources, especially land and forests.
Global Challenge, a Global Opportunity
Forests cover close to 30 percent of the world's land area, and more than a billion people rely on forests to a significant extent for their food, fuel and income.
An estimated 350 million indigenous and tribal peoples are at least partly dependent on forests, including some 60 million who are substantially dependent on forests for their subsistence and livelihoods. Forests are also particularly important to poor women, who shoulder much of the burden for hauling wood and collecting and marketing forest products.
Dominant models of forest industry and conservation have often exacerbated poverty and social conflicts and have precluded pro-poor economic growth. The lack of clear rights to own and use forest land, develop enterprises, and trade in forest products has driven millions of forest dwellers to poverty and encouraged widespread illegal logging and forest loss.
The world will not meet national and global goals to reduce poverty and protect the environment unless poor peoples' rights to land and resources are strengthened. Neither will the world effectively mitigate or adapt to climate change without clarifying local tenure and governance. The next two decades are critical--both for the poor and for the forests.
There are reasons for optimism. Organizations of indigenous peoples and forest-dwelling communities are gaining voice and opportunity, and after decades of limited action many countries are beginning to consider far-reaching legal and policy reforms. There is a major opportunity to advance the rights and livelihoods of forest peoples by establishing the institutional foundations for sustained conservation and forest-based economic development.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 91 - 95 of 109Power, progress and impoverishment: Plantations, hydropower, ecological change and community transformation in Hinboun District, Lao PDR
This report documents the contemporary ecological, social and economic transformations occurring in one village in Lao PDR’s central Khammouane province under multiple sources of development-induced displacement. Rural development policy in Laos is focused on promoting rapid rural modernisation, to be achieved through foreign direct investments in two key resource sectors: hydropower and plantations. Laos’ land reformprogram is also a key component of the changes underway in the countryside, as swidden (or shifting) upland cultivation is targeted for stabilisation and elimination.
Beyond Tenure: Rights-Based Approaches to Peoples and Forests - Some lessons from the Forest Peoples Programme
Abstract: In large parts of the world, forests remain the domain of the state in which the rights of forest-dependent
peoples are denied or insecure. E fforts to restore justice to, and alleviate the poverty of, these marginalized
communities have often focused on tenurial reforms. S ometimes those reforms have led to important improvements
in livelihoods, mainly by stabilizing communities’ land use systems and by giving them greater
security. H owever, these improvements have not prevented communities from suffering other forms of
Land, Forest and People: Facing the Challenges in South-East Asia - Rights and Resources Initiative
This is a regional overview of the main legal and regulatory questions concerning ownership or access to and management of land-based natural resources. Using the Listening Learning and Sharing (LLS) method, RECOFTC, the Southeast Asia office of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and other RRI partners from the Asia region produced a regional overview of the main legal and regulatory questions concerning ownership or access to and management of land-based natural resources.
Strengthening Proximity Justice in Rwanda (SPJR) - OLD - Strengthening Proximity Justice in Rwanda (SP
General
Support to ABUNZI II through RCN Justice et democratie aims at continuing some activities of ILPRC project and some other interventions to strengthen the capacities of local mediators (ABUNZI) to handle land issues but specifically ensure women land rights In Rwanda
Objectives
The Embassy supported RCN to implement a Project to Support Proximity Justice in Rwanda (SPJR). The project implementation lasted from 1st August 2015 – 31st March 2019. The program was originally planned to end in 2018 but extended to 2019 to cover delays encountered due to understandable reasons. SPJR project was implemented in seven districts of Rwanda (Nyanza in the south, Burera and Gicumbi in the north, Nyarugenge in the city of Kigali, Nyabihu, Ngororero and Rutsiro in the west). The project reached a total of 145,318 men and women. Of the total, around 65% were women. The Embassy also notes that the approach focused on behaviour change using outcome mapping so numbers were collected but not prioritised. The programme was intended to support citizen participation in proximity justice. It would facilitate constructive dialogue and raise awareness about the rights and duties of the population, the law and the functioning of proximity justice. It would seek to safeguard the rights of vulnerable and marginalized groups in particular women’s access to justice and participation in decision making. The programme would promote the role of civil society and reinforce the capacity of CSOs to fulfil their mandate. The programme would provide institutional support to Justice Reconciliation Law and Order (JRLO) sector institutions and local authorities to enable them to discharge their duties, including capacity building, knowledge transfer, coaching and materials. It would conduct and disseminate original research and engage decision makers with evidence-based advocacy. It would support exchanges at local and national level between proximity justice and civil society actors. Due to the fact that the program used outcome mapping approach, there were two outcome challenges: 1) Proximity Justice Actors have the necessary knowledge and materials that allows them to deliver high quality justice services in conformity with their mandate and human rights principles. PJA collaborate to allow each other to fulfil their mandates. PJA inform and support the population of their rights and about the functioning of the justice system so citizens, especially women, vulnerable and marginalized groups, are able to exercise these rights"; 2) Audiences are active citizens who share and debate their own experiences, expectations, recommendations and knowledge with Proximity Justice users and service providers. They have knowledge of their basic rights and the administration of proximity justice allowing them to exercise these rights. They are confident that they can defend their rights and do so before appropriate judicial authorities. Audiences take steps in support of more equitable conditions for women and vulnerable or marginalized groups to access justice services to exercise their rights.
Support to RCN Justice et Democratie for local mediators (ABUNZI)
General
The overall objective is to ensure that the land reform in Rwanda is an opportunity for everyone to improve their socio-economic situation and uphold the equal treatment of women and men in rural areas by improving management of land conflicts in 15 districts with particulat attention to safeguarding women's rights and interests in land.The project targets Abunzi committees and opinion leaders.