Presentation short abstract

Mining for transition minerals (TM) threatens to replace forests and displace forest-connected communities. This paper examines the role of land rights in mitigating these threats, considering which land tenure types best protect communities and forests in areas where TM mining is taking place.

Presentation long abstract

Forests have long been highly contested spaces where the rights and needs of forest-connected communities exist in tension with different users and uses. These tensions are now mounting as the world pursues a transition to a more sustainable future through rapidly expanding decarbonisation agendas, including mining for transition minerals, renewable energy development and carbon sequestration. Somewhat counterintuitively, these activities often replace forests and displace forest-connected communities in the name of sustainability.

Recent research has explored the socio-environmental impacts of decarbonisation agendas for forest-connected communities, including land degradation, water and air pollution, loss of livelihood and displacement. Our research asks whether land rights help mitigate these impacts. Drawing on preliminary findings from mix methods research in Mexico, we consider whether land rights help balance trade-offs between the rights and needs of forest-connected communities and Mexico’s decarbonisation agenda. Specifically, we ask which type of land tenure best protect forest-connected communities and forests in areas where critical minerals mining and exploration is taking place. In cases where forests are being subsumed by critical mineral development, we consider whether different types of land tenure shape people’s agency to push for more just outcomes for themselves and forests.

This research is being carried out by the Observatory for Forests and Just Transitions, an international and transdisciplinary research group, which has been established to research the role land rights play in a just transition to a decarbonised future through large-scale geospatial and socioeconomic analyses and in-depth qualitative case studies in Mexico, Brazil and Ghana.