State of the Rainforest 2014

are more effective than strictly protected areas focused exclusively on conservation. Most effective of all are the indigenous areas. 65 This is also supported by a recent report by RRI and WRI, 66 based on studies of legally-recognized community forests in 14 countries, including five Amazon countries as well as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The report finds that deforestation rates inside community forests with strong legal recognition and government protection are dramatically lower than in forests outside those areas. Traditional knowledge and forest management Several studies have argued that the indigenous peoples, through their practices, may increase the biological diversity within their lands, by management of landscapes and knowledge of a wide range of species. 67 As our examples show (see section 3), the lives of forest peoples is intimately linked to the maintenance of the forest and its biodiversity. Sacred forests, mountains or rivers, as well as managed patches of forest or gardens, can serve as vehicles for forest and biodiversity protection. Home gardens and agroforestry systems, common in tropical forests regions of the world, can function as human-made refuge areas for species of plants and animals, notably in areas heavily affected by deforestation. 68 Knowledge about rainforest resources help forest dependent societies to be prepared for crisis. Their knowledge about the resources in their environments, the extensive range of products and practices – small-scale agriculture, hunting and gathering, forest extraction, agroforestry, fishing, and handicrafts – results in the maximum utilization of landscapes, and low-intensity usage makes it compatible with forest protection.

more clearly in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, 2007). Also other ethnic groups with firm bonds to the land have rights associated with land and land use. 62 Their customary rights are based on their historical use of the forest. On the national level however, customary land rights are often found to be in conflict with formalized land rights, as established in national land registries. Tenure Most forest communities are characterized by collective management of resources, often in combination with individual plots of land to each family. Their land claims often involve a claim for collective land for the community, rather than individual rights to private land, and as such they are based in customary and ancestral rights. 63 Even if most of the world’s tropical forests are used by local communities, the state is usually the formal owner. According to Sunderlin, 64 in the 30 most forested countries (containing 85 per cent of the global forest), governments control about 75 per cent of forest land. Only approximately 11 per cent of the forest is owned or designated for use by local communities and indigenous peoples. The finding that there is less deforestation in areas where local people have their rights recognized shows that indigenous territories and collective rights to land for local communities can be effective measures against deforestation. A study by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) shows that, globally, forest reserves that allow for sustainable use by local populations

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014