An investigation into forest ownership and customary land ... - Fern

‘So who owns the forest’
livelihood. In contrast, forests have always been a central asset of the rural
community and forested lands a critical component of community properties.
On this basis alone, the absence of a declaration of forests as national property
may be explained.
Still, the issues confronting the forestry sector also confront the mining sector.
This affects the way in which licences to mine are awarded and the way in which
landowners’ rights to minerals under their land is conceived.
An abundance of more modern practice as to mineral ownership and related
international jurisprudence exists on such issues and will in due course need
consideration. One would expect to see paradigms that avail the landholder a
rightful share of benefits, as well as compensating the owner more appropriately
for the effects mining have upon their access and use of resources thereby lost
and to the condition of their resources following mining. There is also the more
immediate issue as to how licences are issued to extract gold from streams and
rivers within community properties, and to whom. This is an expressed concern
of rural communities who currently have no formal right to limit access or a
right to charge fees to the many miners who enter their lands and dig for gold.
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