Forest Law Research Articles

TACIT EVASION OR A MISPLACED POLICY GAZE: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF THE DEFORESTATION AND CHARCOAL CONUNDRUM IN MALAWI

ABSTRACT Although banned in many countries, charcoal production remains a key driver of deforestation in Africa, yet a livelihood source for many, with evidence showing the practice has risen to unprecedented levels. While rural poverty is often framed as the driver, the rise in charcoal consumption among a burgeoning urban population suggests a multiplicity of drivers. Using in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders in Malawi, this paper examined the underlying drivers of the charcoal conundrum. Although poverty is indeed a driver, our findings suggest the charcoal conundrum is rooted in complex sociopolitical dynamics and class relations at multiple scales. Charcoal production, a highly stigmatized economic activity at the rural scale, is the key source of fuel for a burgeoning urban population lacking affordable alternative energy sources. Our findings further reveal what we theorize as “hierarchical corruption,” featuring an elite class of “big charcoal dealers” who pay bribes to freely transact charcoal while rural people continue to be disproportionately targeted with draconian forest laws. These dynamics suggest a tacit evasion of the real drivers of deforestation and a misplaced policy gaze in forest governance. Contemporary forest policy must look “beyond forest” to address both production and consumption side drivers of deforestation, particularly poverty, and the lack of clean energy alternatives.

Normative Approach in Forestry Law Enforcement in Papua Province: Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples’ Participation

This study uses a normative-juridical approach to examine the enforcement of forestry crime laws in Papua Province. The research focuses on implementing Article 76 of Papua Perdasus No. 21 of 2008, which outlines legal enforcement mechanisms in the forestry sector. The regional government is responsible for preparing forestry police officers in Papua and involving customary law communities in forest protection efforts. These communities can act as Swakarsa forest police, participating in forest security within their customary areas. Additionally, the study highlights the role of Ministerial Regulation No. P.56/Menhut-II/2014, which governs the formation of the Forestry Police Partner Community (MMP). The MMP consists of local community groups collaborating with the Forestry Police to safeguard forest areas. Their duties include assisting in forest patrols, securing forest protection infrastructure, disseminating information on forestry, and reporting any threats or security disturbances. The MMP also plays a role in arresting suspects caught in the act and securing evidence for immediate handover to the forestry police or Civil Servant Investigators. This collaborative approach strengthens forest law enforcement by integrating local community participation in safeguarding forests.

Land conflicts from overlapping claims in Brazil’s rural environmental registry

Satellite-based land use monitoring and farm-level traceability offer opportunities for targeted zero-deforestation interventions on private lands. Brazil's Rural Environmental Registry (Cadastro Ambiental Rural, or "CAR"), a land cadaster based on self-declaration of property boundaries, was created to monitor compliance with national forest laws. It has become an important enabling measure for sustainable supply chain initiatives like the Amazon Soy Moratorium. However, CAR enrollment is increasingly used to bolster illegal land claims, putting it at the heart of land grabbing dynamics. Self-declaration of properties in the CAR offers a unique situation to study land conflicts and their impact on land use decisions on a large scale. We quantified competing land claims among 846,420 registrations in the Brazilian Legal Amazon and applied a series of generalized linear mixed-effects models. We determined that CAR overlaps are more prevalent on larger registrations, in more densely settled areas, and in areas with less secure land tenure. We tested how landholders respond to land conflicts, finding significantly more deforestation and declared legal forest reserve on lands with multiple claims. CAR overlap results in an overestimation of forest reserves by up to 9.7 million hectares when considering double-counted and deforested areas of reserves, highlighting an overlooked form of Forest Code noncompliance. While the CAR continues to be used as evidence of land tenure, we conclude that the formalization of land claims through self-declarations is inadequate to decrease conflicts. CAR overlap information provides objective evidence of land conflict that authorities can leverage with field inspection to ensure peaceful occupation before issuing land titles.

British Forest Laws in India: Disruption of Ecological Balance, Livelihoods, Traditions and Customs

British Forest Laws in India: Disruption of Ecological Balance, Livelihoods, Traditions and Customs

Forest moralities, kindred knowledge and Sacha Runakuna: Kawsak Sacha as law

ABSTRACT Rights of Nature or Pacha Mama (RoN), as recognised in the Constitution of Ecuador, are developed through an intercultural dialogue with Indigenous Peoples, encompassing various forms and senses of justice and nature conceptions. RoN has been embraced within their struggle and should support their legal instruments, such as the Kawsak Sacha or Living Forest declaration. This declaration serves as a legal and political tool for achieving self-determination and autonomy, with the Kichwa People of Sarayaku as legal and political actors, designating their territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon as ‘a living and conscious being, the subject of rights.’ In this article, I explore the interplay and sometimes conflicting relationship between RoN and Kawsak Sacha or Living Forest law, in which the Living Forest itself is the source of the law. Through co-theorization, ethnography, and scholar-activism, I delve into the legal foundations of Kawsak Sacha law, its collective intercultural and intercosmic translation into written textual form, and its enforcement grounded in forest moralities, kindred knowledge, and Sacha Runakuna – the Living Forest entities that shape the legal landscape within the territory of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku.

A gravity model analysis of trade regulations on wood products exports: Evidence from Cameroon, Ghana, and the republic of Congo

The study assesses the impact of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) and the Lacey Act Amendment (LAA) on the export quantities of wood products from Cameroon, Ghana and the Republic of Congo using the panel gravity Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) technique. The results indicate that FLEGT VPA had a negative and significant impact on industrial roundwood export quantity from all three countries. Similarly, its effects on the export of sawnwood and wood-based panels are also negative, except for Cameroon. On the other hand, the impact of LAA appears to be mixed. These results are validated by applying an alternative Driscoll-Kraay robust standard error estimation method.

‘The Wild West of England’: Enclosure, Stag-Hunting, and the Creation of New Popular Perceptions of Exmoor in the Nineteenth Century

ABSTRACT Recent research emphasises parallels between agrarian enclosure campaigns in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain and Ireland, and neo-colonial discourses. Both used the ‘wasteful’ under-exploitation of land by indigenous populations as moral justifications for its appropriation for capitalist agriculture. Focusing on reclamation campaigns on Exmoor, a former royal forest in south-west England, sold by the Crown in 1818, this article shows how these discourses were displaced by emergent defences of undeveloped ‘wildness’, advanced in sustained media campaign by advocates of stag hunting. Although they pitted ‘wildness’ against ‘civilised’ agriculture, the article argues that this was an alternative discourse of modernity. 1

Factors enhancing and restricting the success of SRA compliance on the FLEGT/VPA initiative in Ghana. Insights from Juaso forest district in Ghana

This study examines the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between Ghana and the European Union (EU) within the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade Initiative (FLEGT). The VPA aims to enhance forest governance, reduce deforestation, combat illegal practices, and improve livelihoods of forest fringe communities. The research focuses on the implementation of social responsibility agreements (SRAs) under the VPA framework and identifies factors contributing to their success or presenting challenges. Data collection involved mixed methods, including literature review and a survey of individuals involved in SRAs. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses, including exploratory factor analysis, were conducted. Principal component analysis revealed that accountability, monitoring of implementation and progress of SRAs, and documentation of SRA agreements were key factors contributing to the success of negotiated SRAs, explaining about 68.36 % of success variance. Challenges and constraints were categorized into two main factors: weak community capacity to negotiate SRAs and weak community capacity to enforce compliance, explaining about 71.4 % of challenge variance. The study found that the exclusion of the local SRA committee (LSRAC) from certain decision-making processes affected trust and transparency in calculating SRA benefits. Elite capture of benefits was identified as an issue, as the LSRAC did not conduct sufficient consultations with community members before negotiations. The findings emphasize the importance of including local communities in all forest management activities and call for increased awareness of SRAs, particularly for the LSRAC. The study highlights the need for proper representation of community interests during negotiations and their inclusion in forest management plans.

The Constitutional Court and Forest Tenure Conflicts in Indonesia

With regard to access to land and forest resources, forestry legislation maintains an imbalance between the state, corporations, and local communities. Since the colonial era, forestry regulation has facilitated restrictions on the ability of local communities to benefit from land and forest resources, while also concentrating power in the hands of the state. To uphold state ownership, forestry law criminalizes customary practices, putting local communities at risk. In this sense, conflicts between local communities, corporations, and government agencies arise because of structural issues in the legal framework of laws and regulations that undermine the land rights of local communities. The establishment of the Constitutional Court in Indonesia in 2003 has enabled local communities and NGOs to challenge the Forestry Law. They use the Constitutional Court to support the resolution of forestry tenure conflicts. This article examines the extent to which the Constitutional Court can contribute to the resolution of forest tenure conflicts through judicial review of forest laws. This article discusses twelve Constitutional Court decisions regarding judicial review of the Forestry Law and the Law on Forest Destruction Prevention and Eradication. We found that the Constitutional Court has made a positive contribution to addressing the deficiency of forest legislation regarding local and customary land rights. The implementation of Constitutional Court’s ruling is not, however, a matter of self-implementation. The ruling of the Constitutional Court will only have significance if it is continuously promoted by various stakeholders in support of forest tenure reform to facilitate the resolution of forest tenure conflicts.

Supporting business functions influencing the formalization of charcoal business in Tanzania

Charcoal business, production, and sustainability are all under the control of government regulations. In Tanzania, the entire charcoal value chain employs approximately two million people. As a result, there are unreliable records for registered actors, and it is difficult to accurately quantify the annual amount of charcoal production and revenue collected by the Tanzanian government. Supporting functions are legally provided activities and services to support charcoal actors to formalize their business, including participation in the formulation of forest laws, market infrastructure development, training, access to information, and financial services. Supporting business functions available for charcoal actors such as producers, wholesalers, and retailers to facilitate the formalization of the charcoal business in Tanzania. This study was conducted to determine the supporting functions that are important to charcoal actors in Tanzania to formalize their activities. A total of 107 charcoal actors were administered a semi-structured questionnaire using the multiple sampling technique, which involved 31 wholesalers and 42 retailers trading in two of the largest markets, one in Dar es Salaam and the other in Zanzibar. Both markets depend on charcoal production in Handeni district, located in Tanga Region. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that formalizing the charcoal sector in Tanzania necessitates public-private partnerships (22.9%), financial services and legal environments (21.9%), and market infrastructures (15.6%). We concluded that the charcoal business needs the collaboration of the government with non-government organizations to share resources such as forest staff, vehicles, and incentives to motivate the participation of actors in the training of the legal procedure of charcoal business management, the formulation of registered charcoal groups or associations, and the establishment of charcoal selling centres. Moreover, the development of forest laws should be participatory to involve charcoal business stakeholders to have a reasonable cost of issuing licenses and other permits.

Exploring the Brussels Effect

The European Union (EU) wields significant influence over global markets through a phenomenon known as the Brussels Effect. This strategy involves aligning EU standards with regulations, effectively positioning the EU as a key driver of environmental and climate trade standards. Within the realm of trade in forest products, the EU has implemented instruments such as the Timber Regulation (EUTR), which was succeeded by Deforestation Free (EUDR) in 2023, and the EU Forest Law, Governance, and Trade Action Plan (FLEGT). These regulations have exerted considerable pressure on Brazil to embrace best practices for timber extraction, primarily by adhering to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other private initiatives. The implications of EU influence in this context give rise to both positive and negative consequences, underscoring its significance in shaping global forest policies.

Determinants of forest law compliances among inhabitants of local communities surrounding tropical wildlife and forest reserve in Ghana

Globally, there has been a continuous increase in forest degradation despite the existence of forest laws, treaties, and international conventions. This situation calls for the need to identify factors associated with individual forest law compliance behaviour. In this study, utilitarian value, legitimacy of forest laws, social norms as well demographic factors as determinants of compliance with forest laws have been examined. The study was conducted among 252 participants in communities within the statutory catchment of the Owabi reserve which has in it a forest reserve, Ramsar site and reservoir. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 25, AMOS Graphics and Stata 14 were used to perform descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and fractional regression analysis with the data collected for the study. The study found below average level of compliance with forest law as shown by a forest law compliance index (FCI) of less than 0.5. The findings also show a positive effect of social norms (β = 0.091, p = 0.03) and education (β = 0.092, p = 0.02) on forest law compliance whereas being indigene (residential status) negatively affect forest law compliance (β = −0.101, p = 0.016) at 5%. The findings led to the conclusion that promoting compliance with forest laws requires enhancing and strengthening positive social norms regarding community interaction with forests as well as education and awareness creation. We, therefore, recommend public education and awareness creation on forest laws by relevant forest management agencies and the adoption of lateral, collaborative and co-management approaches in forest law enforcement to benefit from the positive effect of social norms and education on forest law compliance.

External Europeanization through timber trade agreements: Tracing causality in environmental governance reform

The business models of tropical timber production have long been configured around illegal practices that cause environmental degradation and hinder socioeconomic progress in the Global South. However, the global corporations trading timber often point to regulatory governance weaknesses in the jurisdictions where they source timber as hindering efforts to address illegalities in their supply chains. In an innovative response, the European Union (EU) combines mandatory due diligence for timber imports – the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) – with EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership trade Agreements (VPAs) that offer finance, technology transfer, and capacity building to support domestic regulation in timber exporting countries. Through process tracing, we assess the extent to which the EU's efforts have been effective in reforming domestic environmental governance to reduce illegal logging in Cameroon and Ghana. This allows for understanding the potential of external Europeanization, a theoretical approach explaining how and why countries (and the businesses they regulate) outside of the EU might adapt their domestic governance institutions and processes to EU rules and norms. As the EU considers similar approaches to regulate forest-related illegalities and deforestation in global agricultural supply chains, it is important to take stock of past and on-going policy efforts. We find that the causal mechanisms embedded in FLEGT have lost their transformative potential due to unfinished domestic reforms, the technocracy of supply chain traceability systems, and market leakage. Our findings suggest the VPA deliberations underpinning supply-side efforts have not shifted the power balance but rather distracted from the reality that there will be winners and losers as the countries shift toward a more transparent and accountable political economy.

Policy evolution and enlightenment of Japan’s forest healthcare industry

Japan’s forest healthcare industry has developed rather early in the world, and has gone through three stages: formation of conditions, active exploration stage and vigorous development stage. The writer , as from a country which started forest healthcare industry only ten years ago, and faces many problems, especially in the government’s policies, tries to explore Japan’s policies in different stages through interviews with the experts and reading the documents, and tries to find the Enlightenment of Japan’s forest healthcare industry to China. The author finds, Japanese government has adopted a series of policies and regulations to support the development of the forest healthcare industry, such as forest laws and forest park system, promotion of the concept of forest bathing, construction of forest therapy bases and the professionalization of talents, and forest tourism The Japanese government’s policies has several inspirations for China: firstly, strengthening research on forest efficacy, establishing and popularizing the concept of forest healthcare, and promoting the professional talent training and qualification certificate system, promoting the standardization of China’s forest healthcare industry development, and assisting in the implementation of the national strategy of healthy China and ecological civilization construction.

Forests in flux: a critical examination of the historical evolution of forest laws and policies in British and post-British India

Forests in flux: a critical examination of the historical evolution of forest laws and policies in British and post-British India

STATUS OF FOREST GOVERNANCE IN BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY ON BHAWAL NATIONAL PARK

The present study assessed the status of forest governance of Bhawal National Park (BNP) in Bangladesh. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to identify and analyze data. The study identified that the BNP authority adhered to well-defined and coherent forest policies and laws of forest governance, having highest score (i.e., about 4.27) in five-points rating scale. However, the enforcement of forest laws and regulations by the jurisdictional authorityis hindered due to insufficient resources, including budgetaryconstraints, shortage of forest officials and staff, inadequate toolsand technology, and delayed implementation resulting less effective influence on the forest governance. The involvement of stakeholders in decision-making processesand access to information is limited. Additionally, there is not always a high enough level of transparency and accountability, sometimes leading to misconduct and corruption among forest officials, secured the lowest score of forest governance (i.e., 1.15). Overall, the composite score is nearly 1.90 represents less significant influence of forest governance for BNP resulting in one-third of the park is completely under encroachment. The findings of this study are crucial for policymakers to determine the priority areas within the various components and pillars of forest governance.

Forest Law Harmony: Bridging the Gap between Forest Area Utilization Agreements (PPKH) and Land Ownership Certificates (Sertifikat Tanah) in Land Ownership with Penal Mediation Approaches

This article explores conflicts from overlapping forest lands allocated through Indonesia's Forest Area Utilization Agreements (PPKH) with occupied customary lands lacking legal ownership certificates. Companies and forest communities often clash over ancestral tenure rights. Mediation balances economic growth, social justice, and environmental sustainability. The paper examines efforts to bridge regulatory gaps between PPKH licensing and Land Ownership Certificates (Sertifikat Tanah) through penal mediation in Indonesian Borneo. Comparative case studies analyze mediation techniques, shaping legal certainty, sustainable land use, governance, and benefit-sharing outcomes. Mediated agreements resulted in formal permit adjustments and land titles for 20,000 hectares, providing legal security. Settlements enhanced social equity through shared employment, profits, and infrastructure. Success factors include participatory mapping, company financing for bureaucratic procedures, leveraging customary institutions, and embedding multi-stakeholder oversight. Partial shortcomings highlight the need for further policy and power structure reforms to fully realize mediation potential in balancing nationwide forest land conflicts.

Contested firewood collection in Burkina Faso: Governance, perceptions, and practices

This qualitative study explores how forest governance is perceived and embodied in everyday firewood practices in two rural villages in Burkina Faso. The study specifically looks into women’s and forest guard’s perceptions of firewood collection, access to wood, and the state regulations in place. Such exploration is helpful for showing how women who rely on firewood for their livelihoods respond to and perceive regulations, the synthesizing efforts, and the environmental impacts of firewood collection. To situate the interrelations of forest institutions, perceptions, and practices, the study draws on a critical institutional and feminist political ecology approach. Such an approach sheds light on how firewood governance in Burkina Faso excludes women from deciding over a resource they rely on for everyday life. Moreover, the approach helped illuminate how management by control, monitoring, and sensitizing efforts have a questionable impact on deforestation in forest commons.The study departs from that firewood practices as shaped by institutional complexity and historical, cultural, and taken-for-granted ways of doing, and this impacts how forest governance plays out on the ground. By exploring the discursive and the actual practices, the study contributes insights into the discrepancies between forest law enforcement and women’s perceptions of firewood collection. Such analysis advances understanding of how forest governance in Burkina Faso is embodied and internalized in how people relate to and use firewood and the complex and varying ways firewood practices are formed. The findings suggest that women should be included in forest management, receive technical training in forest practices, and that attention should be directed toward decreasing firewood dependence.

Implementation of FLEGT Licensing Scheme in Deforestation Law Enforcement: Improvements and Handling in Indonesia

This study aims to determine the implementation of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade (FLEGT) licensing scheme in Indonesia, focusing on its improvements and handling in relation to deforestation law enforcement. The research method used is qualitative, with an empirical juridical, statutory, and contextual approach. The results of this study indicate that aspects of environmental law enforcement in Indonesia have not yet come to light. The responsible authorities and powers exhibit a tendency to supersede established regulations of environmental law enforcement regarding procedural requirements, remedies, and sanctions. Consequently, reforestation schemes and forestry restoration permits, which are intended to counteract the effects of deforestation, have proven to be ineffective. This ineffectiveness can be attributed to the ongoing industrial forestry activities carried out by companies and entrepreneurs, which lack the requisite procedures for ensuring accountability in environmental restoration.

Harnessing the full potential of a global forest-based bioeconomy through non-timber products: Beyond logs, biotechnology, and high-income countries

An increasing number of countries are developing and implementing novel approaches to transition to a forest-based bioeconomy. These innovations present opportunities for rethinking and repositioning the forest sector in many countries, making them more relevant to key contemporary global challenges, including sustainably managing forests for biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation, and climate change mitigation. This requires expanded scholarship and refocused interventions and policies, moving beyond current associations of bioeconomies with timber, biotechnology, and high-income countries. Harnessing the economic potentials of widely harvested, sustainably sourced, and appropriately processed non-timber products is key to full realization of a forest-based bioeconomy. In this commentary, we draw on recent scholarship to illustrate this potential across a range of countries, products, and experiences. We present evidence that forest products other than wood contribute significantly to local and national economies and contend that obstacles impeding the transition to inclusive forest-based bioeconomies can be overcome. To support development and implementation of a globally oriented functional forest-based bioeconomy, that can be pursued in different ways at the national level, research is needed to support: non-timber product integration into nominal and functional forest law and bioeconomic policies; implementation pathways that vary with priorities, e.g. integrating indigenous knowledge or focused on poverty alleviation; national-level short-listing of priority species; realizing opportunities for non-timber product, process, and functional upgrading; and implementation of standardized data collection procedures at subnational, national, and international levels.