Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?

With communities in many parts of the world achieving stronger, legally recognized, collective rights over their forests and other natural resources, important questions arise regarding how communities can overcome perceived barriers to investment and deliver sustainable development. Normative econo...

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Main Authors: Gnych, S., Lawry, S., McLain, R., Monterroso, I., Adhikary, A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Elsevier 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/112617
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author Gnych, S.
Lawry, S.
McLain, R.
Monterroso, I.
Adhikary, A.
author_browse Adhikary, A.
Gnych, S.
Lawry, S.
McLain, R.
Monterroso, I.
author_facet Gnych, S.
Lawry, S.
McLain, R.
Monterroso, I.
Adhikary, A.
author_sort Gnych, S.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description With communities in many parts of the world achieving stronger, legally recognized, collective rights over their forests and other natural resources, important questions arise regarding how communities can overcome perceived barriers to investment and deliver sustainable development. Normative economic theory posits conceptual and practical barriers to investment in commons-based enterprises. This paper considers evidence and draws on lessons from four countries—Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, where communities have been granted rights to forests, and Namibia, where communities have significant new rights to wildlife—to better understand the pathways emerging to deliver investment in the commons. We find that investment in community-owned resources is taking place and describe a process of "investment readiness." During a first stage, rights devolution triggers inward investment and development of community user groups and sustainable resource management plans subject to government review and approval. In a second stage, social enterprises, commonly referred to as Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs), are spawned or licensed by the community user groups. Stronger local social capital and the effective performance of local enterprises attract new forms of private investment in a third phase. Improved community capacity enables diversification and investment into new sectors, linking to value chains that adhere to global market and environmental standards. Progress from one stage to the next is in part conditional on increases in the level of assurance stakeholders have that the obligations of each party will be met. We also find that community rights have fostered investment that recognizes the social character of commons ownership, to deliver environmental and social returns, as well as profits. CFEs help drive social innovation in rural regions by solving social, economic and resource governance problems that neither the state nor the market has proved capable of addressing. CFE-based solutions remain experimental and fragile, however, and longer-term success of community-based forest enterprise depends on states and markets adopting innovations of their own that are supportive and not corrosive of community-based resource governance and development.
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spelling CGSpace1126172024-10-03T07:40:51Z Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development? Gnych, S. Lawry, S. McLain, R. Monterroso, I. Adhikary, A. community forestry investment tenure systems sustainable development With communities in many parts of the world achieving stronger, legally recognized, collective rights over their forests and other natural resources, important questions arise regarding how communities can overcome perceived barriers to investment and deliver sustainable development. Normative economic theory posits conceptual and practical barriers to investment in commons-based enterprises. This paper considers evidence and draws on lessons from four countries—Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, where communities have been granted rights to forests, and Namibia, where communities have significant new rights to wildlife—to better understand the pathways emerging to deliver investment in the commons. We find that investment in community-owned resources is taking place and describe a process of "investment readiness." During a first stage, rights devolution triggers inward investment and development of community user groups and sustainable resource management plans subject to government review and approval. In a second stage, social enterprises, commonly referred to as Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs), are spawned or licensed by the community user groups. Stronger local social capital and the effective performance of local enterprises attract new forms of private investment in a third phase. Improved community capacity enables diversification and investment into new sectors, linking to value chains that adhere to global market and environmental standards. Progress from one stage to the next is in part conditional on increases in the level of assurance stakeholders have that the obligations of each party will be met. We also find that community rights have fostered investment that recognizes the social character of commons ownership, to deliver environmental and social returns, as well as profits. CFEs help drive social innovation in rural regions by solving social, economic and resource governance problems that neither the state nor the market has proved capable of addressing. CFE-based solutions remain experimental and fragile, however, and longer-term success of community-based forest enterprise depends on states and markets adopting innovations of their own that are supportive and not corrosive of community-based resource governance and development. 2020-02 2021-03-08T08:42:22Z 2021-03-08T08:42:22Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/112617 en Open Access Elsevier Gnych, S., Lawry, S., McLain, R., Monterroso, I., Adhikary, A. 2020. Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?. Forest Policy and Economics, 111 : 102088. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.102088
spellingShingle community forestry
investment
tenure systems
sustainable development
Gnych, S.
Lawry, S.
McLain, R.
Monterroso, I.
Adhikary, A.
Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?
title Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?
title_full Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?
title_fullStr Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?
title_full_unstemmed Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?
title_short Is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development?
title_sort is community tenure facilitating investment in the commons for inclusive and sustainable development
topic community forestry
investment
tenure systems
sustainable development
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/112617
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