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View/Open - Sokoine University of Agriculture

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most likely pose new challenges. The review <strong>of</strong> the strategy made by the pilot projectscalls for policies which deals with the status <strong>of</strong> community carbon rights, andmanagement <strong>of</strong> REDD funds (REDD Pilot Projects 2011). Central to this is dealingwith what the strategy sees as “inadequately defined property rights rendering forestsas “open access” resources”(United Republic <strong>of</strong> Tanzania 2010, p.43.) by which theyare referring in particular to the issue <strong>of</strong> General Land (and subsequently also GeneralLand Forest). For as this residual or unreserved land outside <strong>of</strong> village boundaries isgoverned by the Land Act and under the control <strong>of</strong> the Lands Commissioner it mayalso include village land that is “unused” (Sulle and Nelson 2009) and still fall underthe control <strong>of</strong> the Lands Commissioner. Many civil society groups argue that as theland in question is within village boundaries it should be governed by the VillageLand Act and thus fall under the control <strong>of</strong> village jurisdiction. For as the VillageLand Act dictates, it should include all land and forests, which has customarily beenused by villagers (B<strong>of</strong>in, du Preez et al. 2011, p.62.). The ambiguity over what “type”<strong>of</strong> general land should be governed by whom can <strong>of</strong>ten create great confusion, but inthe hierarchy <strong>of</strong> jurisdictions the Land Act is superior to the Village Land Act, andhave therefore power to rule over this “unused land” (Brown, Garrucho et al. 2009).This contestation <strong>of</strong> tenure rights needs to be addressed and resolved, as studies haveshown that if adding unreserved forestland within village land to general land as awhole it will account for nearly half <strong>of</strong> all forestland, and thus will be crucial toREDD implementation and how benefits will be shared (Ibid.). It is also the landcategory where most deforestation happens, where as a result <strong>of</strong> open access to theforest resource, the local communities (economic actors) can without any restrictionaccess the forest and carry out forest extraction activities.On this note, a legal framework and a system <strong>of</strong> benefit sharing is also essential forREDD and it needs to be established clearly which stakeholders will be responsiblefor what and set the rules and regulations which governs them.However, addressing and resolving conflicting activities and interests cannot in allinstances automatically be achieved simply by an enabling legal framework,stakeholder participation and coordination <strong>of</strong> activities. Some <strong>of</strong> them also needs to beaddressed and overlaps with issues <strong>of</strong> governance.164

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