New Perspectives on Addressing Forest Conflicts

New Perspectives on Addressing Forest Conflicts

(Christiane Röttger - "Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation" Newsletter - August 2009)

Addressing forest conflicts and promoting the conservation and sustainable use of forests requires rights-based approaches. This is the message of two recent studies that focus on forest conflicts from different perspectives.

Highlighting the perspective of forest companies the report "Company-Led Approaches to Conflict Resolution in the Forest Sector", published by The Forest Dialogue and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), offers a set of tools and approaches, which could be used by forest companies to reduce conflict around their operations. Although companies often recognize the negative impact of conflict on their long-term profitability, they lack the knowledge and skills to implement effective mechanisms. The report provides best-practice examples for company-led conflict management and discusses international norms and standards such as the principle of free prior and informed consent (FPIC), outlined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. FPIC is aimed at giving indigenous people a formal role in the consultations and decision making process about local development projects to ensure their rights to self-determination, their access to land as well as a share of the revenues generated through the utilization of the respective resources. While such international norms provide guidance, they need to be accompanied by national legislation, meaningful multi-stakeholder dialogue, and integration of conflict management into the general business practice.

The report "Rights-based approaches: Exploring issues & opportunities for conservation", by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), discusses an increasingly prominent approach to climate change mitigation - Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). The goal of REDD is to provide positive incentives for forest conservation and carbon emissions reduction through compensation and payment structures. However, REDD mechanisms could also create new incentives for states to restrict access rights of forest-dependent communities, thereby exacerbating land use and property rights conflicts. Marginalized groups might not be able to participate in payment programs and carbon contracts, although they play an important role in forest conservation. The authors therefore argue for a rights-based approach to REDD, including revenue transparency and grievance mechanisms as well as the FPIC of affected communities.

The IIED report "Company-Led Approaches to Conflict Resolution in the Forest Sector":

http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=G02510

The report "Rights-based approaches: Exploring issues & opportunities for conservation":

http://www.iucn.org/news_events/?3533/Dont-forget-human-rights-in-conservation