The Property Rights Index (PRIF) can be used worldwide to compare different forest governance systems

The bundle of forest landowners’ rights largely varies from one jurisdiction to another. On a global scale, the diversity of forest management regime and property rights systems is such that finding comprehensive and standardised approaches for governance analysis purposes is a challenging task. Thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-11, Vol.13 (1), p.19437-19437, Article 19437
Main Authors: Rimoli, Richard, Nichiforel, Liviu, Acharya, Aditya, Nollet, Alexandre, Snoussi, Bilal, Ambroise, Lison, Cordonnier, Louis, Mares, Sandra Galván, Zúñiga, José Jonathan Aguirre, Bontemps, Jean-Daniel, Bouriaud, Laura
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/158/1145
631/158/2458
631/158/843
Forest management
Forestry
Forests
Humanities and Social Sciences
Jurisdiction
multidisciplinary
Property rights
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:The bundle of forest landowners’ rights largely varies from one jurisdiction to another. On a global scale, the diversity of forest management regime and property rights systems is such that finding comprehensive and standardised approaches for governance analysis purposes is a challenging task. This paper explores the use of the Property Rights Index for Forestry (PRIF) as an analytical tool based on five rights domains (access, withdrawal, management, exclusion, and alienation) to assess how regulatory frameworks impact the owners’ forest property rights. We show that PRIF is a reliable index for various governance arrangements, considering its ability to score forest owners’ freedom to decide in case studies that range from the Amazon area (Brazil), Misiones province (Argentina) and Quebec (Canada) to community-managed Nepalese and Mexican forests. PRIF scores obtained in these diverse governance arrangements confirm that the governance of forests held by entities other than the state is driven by two factors: the owner’s ability to exclude the public from the use of his/her own resource and the owner’s freedom to decide on the forest management goals. These factors explained 66.44% of the variance in our sample and should be considered as the main potential drivers while implementing any new international or national policy. Despite having a few limitations, the PRIF is a promising governance indicator and has been proven to perform well for various socioeconomic and legal contexts.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-46097-w