Douala ACRN regional workshop strengthens common vision for securing community property rights to lands and resources

Hosted by ‘Le Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement’ (CED), and co-organised by FPP with partners CED, FERN and ClientEarth, the African Community Rights Network (ACRN) regional four-day workshop on securing community rights to forest lands took place from 12-16 September in Douala, Cameroon. The workshop brought together around 50 representatives from civil society organisations (CSOs) and communities from seven countries in the Congo basin, Ghana and Liberia, as well as land tenure expert, Liz Alden Wily. The workshop was funded by the European Union and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

The workshop culminated in position statements to government, and to civil society and communities. The statements expressed the conclusions of participants that the central and urgent issue to be addressed was how community rights to customary lands and resources could be secured as property rights in national laws. The statements also set out the means for securing this formal protection and supporting community governance. This common vision was presented to officials from Cameroon’s government on the final morning of the workshop by Silas Siakor, director of the Liberian ‘Sustainable Development Institute’ (SDI), on behalf of the workshop.

Read the Douala Conference Statements (available in French and English) here:

• Statement to Governments from the African Community Rights Network Douala Conference on Community Rights Cameroon, 13-16 September 2011:http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/rights-land-natural-resources/publication/2011/statement-governments-african-community-rights

• Statement to Communities and Civil Society NGOs from the African Community Rights Network Douala Conference on Community Rights Cameroon, 13-16 September 2011: http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/rights-land-natural-resources/publication/2011/statement-communities-and-civil-society-ngos-a

• Address to the African Community Rights Network conference on community rights, by Silas Siakor (only available in English): http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/rights-land-natural-resources/publication/2011/address-african-community-rights-network-confe

For further information on the FLEGT and REDD international mechanisms discussed at this workshop, see the following links:

FLEGT

Logging Off website: http://www.loggingoff.info

Lessons Learned from FLEGT for REDD summary (FERN): http://www.fern.org/node/4963

Illegal-Logging website: http://www.illegal-logging.info

REDD

Smoke and Mirrors: A critical assessment of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility: http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/forest-carbon-partnership-facility-fcpf/publication/2011/smoke-and-mirrors-critical-assessmen

REDD and Rights in Cameroon: http://www.forestpeoples.org/topics/forest-carbon-partnership-facility/publication/2011/redd-and-rights-cameroon-review-treatment

Securing Community Rights in Climate and Forest Protection Programmes in the Central African Republic: 

http://www.forestpeoples.org/tags/publication/2010/securing-community-rights-climate-and-forest-protection-programmes-central-afr