Caracterización de las variables del clima del aula, propuesta por Moos y Trickett.

needs of forest-dependent indigenous and local communities have also been recognised as major underlying causes of forest decline (UN Econ. And Soc. Coun., 2000). Weak property rights reduce the incentive for sustainably managing the forests and unsecured land tenure is often directly related to deforestation. Local communities and indigenous people have, in many cases, traditional ways of sustainably managing the forests, ensuring that they remain viable for use by future generations. Increasing inequality of land ownership often leads to the breakdown of such common property management schemes. The rapid depletion of species and destruction of habitats occur in many countries where a minority of the population may own or control most of the land. Quick profits from excessive logging can flow to a small group of people, while the forest dependent local communities pay the price.

Clear ownership rights are one of the prerequisites for developing sustainable management

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plans and applying regulations for ensuring the conservation and sustainable management of forests. Forest land often has a smaller value than agricultural land and, in the absence of laws that forbid deforestation; it is, therefore, cleared following privatization. On the other hand, privatization can be a prerequisite for ensuring sufficient investments in order to ensure the sustainable management of the forest.

It is well established that the existence of complete, exclusive, enforced and transferable property rights is a prerequisite for the efficient management of natural resources. Rights must be complete and exclusive to avoid disputes over boundaries and access. They must be enforceable to prevent others from usurping them and they must be transferable (there must be customary or full market in them) to ensure that land is allocated to its best use. The effects of incomplete or no property rights show up most clearly in the lack of incentive to invest in conservation and sustainable land uses. Regardless of the

„paper‟ designation of forest land rights, many forests are de facto open access resources i.e.

resources for which there are no owner. Other forests are common property and are managed by a defined group of households with rules and regulations about access, use and transferability. Provided common property resources are not subject to external forces that lead to the breakdown of the communal rules of self-management, common property is a reliable and reasonably efficient use of forest land. Factors causing common property breakdown include rapid population growth and interference in traditional communal management by central authorities. Traditional, customary and, sometimes, even legally recognized land rights of indigene nous peoples can be hard to establish and are often ignored or violated.

Establishing property rights in the form of communal or private ownership regimes is a prerequisite to efficient land use, but may still not guarantee the desirable level of forest protection. This will be the case where the forest values take the fore of „public goods‟ i.e.

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services and goods the benefits of which accrue to a wide community of stakeholders and for which no mechanism exists to charge them for the benefits. Forest dwellers may then have no incentive to conserve forests for their benefits to downstream fisheries or water users, since they receive no benefit for these services. Institutional change designed to compensate forest users for these services can often be devised (see below), effectively establishing property rights in the unappropriated benefits of forest services.

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Examples of policy failures that may lead to forest decline

Source: (Sunderlin and Resosudarmo, 1999) Direct government investment

in the forest sector or in related sectors

*Road construction

*Hydropower investments Government command and control

regulations

*Conservation area protection

*Obligation to replant harvested areas

*Prohibition to harvest without permit

*Obligation to prepare forest management plans as condition for intervening in forest areas log export bans Fiscal, price or monetary policies *Subsidies affecting forest raw materials or other inputs

*Subsidies affecting competitive uses of lands such as cattle ranching

*Plantation subsidies

*Price controls

*Subsidies affecting forest harvesting or manufacturing

*Price controls

*Forest products taxes

*Foreign exchange policies affecting competitive uses of lands

Provision of services *Delimitation, demarcation and land titling

*Actions to promote exports

*Settlement of frontier areas

49 2.2.4 Lack of good governance

The lack of good governance, rampant corruption and fraud are major underlying causes of forest decline as they surround illegal logging and other related crimes, such as arson and poaching. Politicians and civil servant may misuse the public power entrusted to them by, for instance, sale of logging concessions for personal enrichment, by not enforcing laws and regulations and by partaking in other illegal and corrupt activities. This generally weakens the administrative apparatus, deprives the government of income, generate incentives for „cut and run‟ logging operations and increases investment risks, thereby reducing incentives for sustainable forest management. The consequence in terms of forest biological loss and loss of related goods and services is often dramatic.