Land Tenure Considerations in Sri Lanka’s Proposed National REDD+ Strategy

This analytial report provides an overview of the forest and land use situation in Sri Lanka where forests have declined rapidly over the past several decades and where indigenous people -known as the Veddha-have been largely alienated from forest lands that they traditionally managed.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the tenure considerations related to potential PAMs in order to identify the risks (conflicts, political divisions, involuntary resettlement cases to be dealt with, loss of tenure rights with negative livelihood implications) and benefits (carbon sequestration, better informed and equipped officers better able to perform their duties, more sustainable and productive land use, better recognition of tenure rights in development planning, etc) associated with each one.