NEWS

Land tenure rights are widely recognized as being central to advancing sustainable development goals, but they are only one part of the picture. As it happens, tenure rights to trees are entangled with, but different from, those to land, meaning both must be acknowledged to incentivize stewardship of the landscape by local communities.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks a qualified candidate to fill the position of Senior Research Fellow in the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).

The CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research is calling for research proposals on the topic ‘Feminization’ of agriculture: Building evidence to debunk myths on current challenges and opportunities. Proposal submission deadline - September 17, 2018.

Studies that explore incentives for communities and smallholders to engage in forest restoration practices have found that clear and secure tenure rights are often key contributing factors to widespread uptake of these practices. To find out whether and how the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology processes take into account tenure and the related issues of governance and equity, CIFOR scientists reviewed ROAM reports for Brazil, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda.

In the 1970s, Nepal began an ambitious nationwide forests rights devolution program, eventually seeing a significant range of forest uses and management taken out from the purview of the national government and put in the hands of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs). PIM-supported research by CIFOR looks at the changes in ecosystem services following the shift to CFUGs, showing a host of improvements, particularly for women.

Land can have multiple uses with complicated, often contentious, overlapping boundaries. A forest can be the site of agricultural production, while a wetland can provide valuable nutrition in the form of aquatic protein. So what happens when multiple players are vying for land and its various uses, while continuously contesting the overlapping boundaries?