INVESTING IN TREES AND LANDSCAPE ... - PROFOR

Fenske (2011) points out that while the link between land tenure and agricultural investment is
strong, 20 years of empirical studies have failed to show its robustness in Africa. His analysis of
land tenure and agricultural investment in West Africa found a significant link between tenure and
investment for fallow and tree planting but a less robust relationship between tenure and labor
use, chemical fertilizer, and other inputs. The importance of use in securing land rights in the
region explains the strong link between tenure and fallow investment: Land left fallow may be lost.
Because tree planting commonly enhances rights, the activity may sometimes be more prevalent
on insecurely held lands, while elsewhere there are strong social norms against making such land
claims. In general, greater rights can bolster incentives to plant trees.
In parts of Africa, the forestry sector has developed independently of land tenure policies for
agriculture and pastoralism. The omission of community forestry principles is an obstacle to effective
management of land. These laws give rights to local communities for forest use and management.
Ownership transfer from the state to an interested community extends land and tree tenure on
the basis of customary rights and aims to motivate people living near forests to protect and ensure
sustainable management as a permanent source of income and livelihood, thereby dramatically
reducing the risk of tenure insecurity. While most African countries have decentralized their forest
governance systems within the past two decades, policy reform in the forest sector has taken many
different forms—from partial devolution of management responsibility to more profound devolution
of ownership to communities—and the distribution of benefits has varied (German, Karsenty,
and Tiani 2009). Table 2.1 provides a snapshot of forest land ownership in 18 African countries,
demonstrating that while the area in public and private community use and ownership increased
between 2002 and 2008 in most countries, it remains a small proportion relative to forest land
administered by government entities.
Nevertheless, government acknowledgment of customary rights, involving local institutions in
decentralization processes, and involving local people in management improve protection of
investment in forest management and development while fostering a more equitable distribution
of benefits (Barrow et al. 2009). The value of securing private rights is illustrated in the Niger
example in box 6. A spatial analysis of which countries have forest reform laws, overlaid with other
dimensions of tenure security, would provide a useful tool for predicting where forest tenure would
be conducive to stable and rewarding investment.
TABLE 2.1. CHANGES IN FOREST TENURE IN AFRICA, 2002–2008
COUNTRY PUBLIC PRIVATE
(by descending area
of forest cover as
identified by FAO 2006a)
Areas in millions of
hectares (Mha)
Governmentadministered
Reserved for
communities and
indigenous groups
Owned by
communities and
indigenous groups
Owned by
individuals and firms
2002 2008 2002 2008 2002 2008 2002 2008
Angola 59.73 59.10 0 0 0 0 0 0
Burkina Faso 6.69 6.35 0.23 0.39 0 0 0.05
Cameroon 22.80 20.11 0 1.14 0 0 0 0
CAR 22.90 22.76 0 0 0 0 0 0
Chad 12.32 11.22 0 0.70 0 0 0 0
Congo 22.06 22.01 0 0.46 0 0 0 0
64 INVESTING IN TREES AND LANDSCAPE RESTORATION IN AFRICA