Land tenure and rewards for environmental services
Posted in land tenure, News, participation, Policy, Resource material on Dec 10th, 2008 No Comments »
PRESA aims to facilitate rewards to encourage the people of Africa’s highlands to maintain ecosystem services, for example by adopting conservation agriculture techniques to prevent land degradation.
Wide shot of expansive highland forest in Africa. PHOTO/Presa
But what if highland forest communities don’t actually own the land? Why should they care about sustainable management when they can be asked to move at any time by the state or other land owners? Can an effective rewards for environmental service contract be established when eviction looms?
Existing research has found that giving people greater certainty over land is a crucial part of maintaining essential watershed functions. At a practical level, experience from the RUPES[1] project in Asia found that negotiating security in land tenure for highland communities is an adequate incentive for initiating positive changes in land usage, which results in more consistent river flows and decreased sedimentation. (more…)