Press release | 07 Mar, 2008

Efforts to Strengthen Local Rights to Own and Use Forests and Fight Rural Poverty

Stating that the ambitious global effort to radically reduce poverty will fail unless it focuses on the 1.6 billion people who rely on forests for their livelihoods, a coalition of organizations has launched an international initiative advocating for stronger community rights to own and use forests and develop sustainable forest-based economies. The group, including IUCN, aims to assist communities and governments to double the global forest area under community ownership and management by 2015.