Legal implications of REDD+ strategies in east Africa a comparative study on local communities’ participation
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Date
2014
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The work underscores the importance of communities’ participation in REDD+ Strategy as a means towards achieving sustainable forest management and conservation within EAC. This study is guided by the hypothesis that law is inadequate in promoting and protecting rights of local communities in natural resources management in East Africa. The study findings indicate that local communities’ participation is not effectively entrenched in some Constitutions and laws. There are no specific provisions addressing the issues relating to REDD+. The absence limits the protection of local communities’ rights in relation to REDD+ implementation. It hinders adequate protection of the Constitutional and human rights of the local communities to participate in decision making and benefit sharing mechanisms. The forest laws in Tanzania and Uganda do not cater for roles of forests in amelioration of climate change thus limiting provisions that promote local communities’ fundamental rights in climate change related projects. The enforcement of the legal provisions for local communities’ protection has bottlenecks hindering their effectiveness and efficiency. There is inadequate participation of local communities in decision making, legislative processes and inadequate benefit sharing mechanisms. This work proposes for legal reforms to overcome these bottlenecks notably strengthening of the benefit sharing mechanisms, improvement of security of tenure and effective participation of local communities as the cornerstone issues for making REDD+ law and practices most efficient and efficacious.
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF KQC117.L66)
Keywords
Forestry law and legislation, Forest management, Community forests, Citizen participation, Africa
Citation
Longopa, E. (2014) Legal implications of REDD+ strategies in east Africa a comparative study on local communities’ participation, Doctoral dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam.