Indigenous Forest Management

Variants of Indigenous forest management reflect distinct historical and political-economic contexts. Indigenous forest management was largely unrecorded in the colonial period and, in the present, can range from industrial to ecosystem-based forest management, autonomous management and rentier practices. Evidence of Indigenous forest management has assumed political importance in those nation states that require historical evidence of past land use and occupancy as the basis for negotiation of Indigenous titled lands. The forms of tenure that include communal titled lands, recognized or unrecognized claimed customary lands or time-limited licences influence the variations of Indigenous Forestry. The relative power held by constituency groups influence governance although the increasingly normative influence of guidelines like Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) may lead to improvements across the board in all forms of forestry. Indigenous participation in voluntary, independent third party certification schemes and the invocation of the Public Trust and Indigenous Trust doctrines by some Indigenous Peoples may also lead to improved governance of Indigenous territories and resources by national and Indigenous governments.