Land tenure

Strengthening land tenure is a key part of the Equitable Forestry model. 

Typical plantation forestry businesses displace subsistence farmers, encouraging deforestation. Click for a larger view.Many smallholders practice slash and burn development, which involves logging, clearing, and squatting a piece of tropical rainforest. Subsequent activities such as subsistence farming and cattle ranching further degrade the land. As this land loses fertility, it becomes more difficult and capital intensive for a smallholder to work. Typical monoculture timber plantation businesses contribute to the problem by purchasing smallholder land and encouraging the settling of more forest. 

Keeping small land owners on their existing plots is an important step in mitigating tropical deforestation. Their existing incentive structure promotes migration and settling of new forests. A new approach is needed to encourage land tenure.

Long term land leases

Encouraging land tenure promotes more sustainable opportunities for smallholdersA key component of the Equitable Forestry model is long term land leases of smallholders’ land for sustainable forestry.

These leases keep land in the hands of smallholders while helping them maintain and increase their earnings potential over the long term.

The leasing approach seeks to ease the slash and burn cycle by encouraging land tenure through consistent lease payments and profit sharing. Leasing provides our partners with an alternative income stream - and one that is based on sustainable practices. These payments ease their financial dependence on migratory development practices and demonstrate the potential of managed forestry as an alternative. 

Based on an existing framework

Long term land leases for forestry must gain widespread acceptance in order to have the greatest impacts. Because new ideas are often met with skepticism, we based the leasing structure off of accepted norms. Short-term land leases for cattle grazing or a single crop cycle are routinely used in rural Panama.

Extending the leasing period to 25 years for forestry is our iteration of that practice. By using an existing leasing framework, we believe that the overall Equitable Forestry model will gain acceptance more quickly.

Finally, recognizing that traditional subsistence practices must be respected, we only lease parcels of land that are already deforested and undervalued. Our goal is that smallholders see managed forestry as an integrated part of their overall land management.  

Indigenous considerations

For indigenous communities, land is a central part of their ethos. Without their own land, most indigenous peoples would consider themselves on the pathway to extinction. Leasing their land allows us to engage with them while respecting their culture and way of life.

With our indigenous partner, there is a larger upfront lease payment so that the community can invest in parallel or alternative income-generating activities. More importantly, after the land returns to the community at the end of the lease period, the community can start a new plantation cycle fully owned by the community agricultural association.

Land management planning is also important to indigenous communities. Planting Empowerment works with the community to select the most appropriate plots for forestry projects.