Land rights key to forest challenge: Report

A new report from the Rights and Resources Initiative finds that land rights are central to the challenge of slowing deforestation. This is a welcome development for those of us who worried about the REDDD clause under the UNFCC turning into a carbon trading clause and a way of disempoering native groups.

“The dramatic shifts under way in markets, politics and the planet’s climate create new and very large challenges for achieving peace and prosperity in forest areas,” the report states. It argues the key to balancing local and global needs lies in recognising and strengthening forest peoples’ property rights. This is the only basis for protecting forest people, providing certainty for outside investors and giving social guidance to conservationists.

Report (PDF)

related:

• deforestation

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