SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Keywords: forests, colonialism, illegal timber trade, FLEGT, climate change, REDD+, sustainable forest management, forest-based communities, justice. In tropical forest countries a colonial legacy of injustice for many forest peoples, especially indigenous peoples, is the foundation that contemporary forest related law and policy interventions often have to contend with. Attempts to create law and policy that advance forest peoples rights whilst also protecting ecosystem functions including carbon sequestration capacity, promoting sustainable and legal forest activities and trade, without perpetuating any legacy of injustice have proven a challenge at all levels of governance. This chapter examines a range of these initiatives and considers how effective they have been at not only realising their objective but also in correcting colonial injustices that many forest dependent peoples continue to live with. It concludes that despite attempts to incorporate corrective measures there remains some distance to go before historic injustices are no longer perpetuated by contemporary forest law and policy reforms.