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01 December 2020 the Netherlands
After two decades of failed interventions across the cocoa sector, cocoa farming communities are still battling the effects of poverty, child labour and deforestation. The 2020 Cocoa Barometer report published this week is a rallying call to action: it outlines the necessary steps governments and industry should take, together with farmers and civic society organisations, to end deforestation and human rights abuses in cocoa supply chains.
02 November 2020 Bolivia
In Bolivia indigenous communities are managing over half the natural forests, and yet, they face many challenges in the administration of their resources. This video shows how the Indigenous Territory of Lomerío has regained control over its natural resources by restructuring their forestry technical branch, and by strictly following their well-established decision-making processes. They have become one of the few indigenous territories in Bolivia having full governance of their forest resources.
02 November 2020 Ghana
Yaw Gyabeng, a rice farmer at Elluokrom in the Juaboso-Bia landscape in Ghana, has changed a common traditional practice of clearing river and stream banks for farming. For about a decade, farmers had held the belief that stream and riverbanks would be more productive than other areas and therefore ignored any customary and statutory laws to conserve vegetative buffer zones of water bodies. Despite criticism of other village members, Yaw decides to restore and respect the buffer zone along rivers.
12 October 2020 Indonesia
When there is a will, there is a way. A group of Laman Satong village community members in Ketapang District, West Kalimantan have made their dream come true. This video shows how the community members of Laman Satong organized themselves and with help of Tropenbos Indonesia set up an ecotourism business “Laman Besolek” around the beautiful waterfall inside the deep forest of Gunung Palung National Park "Riam Berasap".
12 October 2020 DR Congo
For local communities, the forest is not only a source of life (reservoir of resources, climate, fresh air, livelihoods, clean water etc.) nor a simple place to live, it is life. But forests now a days are more than ever threatened. In DR Congo forests are increasingly the subject of monopolization/grabbing by “big men”, often educated and urban, to the detriment of local populations.
09 October 2020 General
Over the last couple of decades, many governments have formalized the forest rights of local communities and indigenous peoples, with the expectation that this would contribute to both conservation and sustainable development. With forest tenure reforms underway, this is a good time to reflect on the experiences so far: Have these reforms led to the desired outcomes? And, what are the conditions for success?