Discussion Forum 9: Rights, Access and Values: Trees in Shifting Economic and Political contexts – New insights from sub-Saharan Africa

This session will initiate a discussion on the dynamics of securing rights to trees by harnessing the values of trees through changing access to technologies, markets and finance in Sub-Saharan Africa. The goals are to improve our current knowledge of tree tenure dynamics and increase recognition of the value of trees on farms to different users. It assumes that improved recognition of the values of, and rights to trees in land use decision-making and related policies and programs may provide an innovative pathway to sustain forested landscapes without recourse to costly restoration activities. Sub-optimal tenure rules may jeopardize this. The session will feature a facilitated panel discussion with four cases from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Uganda.