Rural Livelihoods: Revitalizing Community Forest Resource Rights for Poverty Reduction

Abstract

"The use of poverty tools highlighted important challenges for existing policy governing the commons, spanning: (i) forms of collective land titling and registration; (ii) criteria for designation of lands for extractive industry and conservation within the National Forest Estate; (iii) mechanisms for managing the overlaps with local community land-use systems (prior informed consent, compensation, community development); (iv) the opportunities to secure these reforms within the framework of decentralisation and special autonomy laws; and (iv) the legal and institutional safeguards needed to ensure the poor do not lose out (amongst others, work by MFP partners in Sulawesi showed that the incentives for community-based forestry work very differently for the poor).

"This demonstrates the importance of a solid framework for poverty analysis (linking assets, social exclusion and voice) when reviewing options for restructuring and revitalizing the forestry industry. It also demonstrates the importance of partnerships with agencies primarily responsible for operationalizing forest plans like local government, the private sector (natural resource concessionaires, eco-tourism) and conservation groups, in undertaking poverty analysis. It this respect, the introduction of Forest Management Units (KPH) as devolved decision-making structures presents an important policy opportunity."