The ASEAN Guidelines on the Recognition of Customary Tenure in Forested Landscapes provide an important framework for improving tenure security for Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) across Southeast Asia. In the Mekong region, where over 70 million people depend on forests for their livelihoods and contribute to biodiversity protection and forest stewardship, however, the majority of these communities lack secure rights over their lands.
The Guidelines promote secure tenure rights, gender equity, and participatory governance. Together with the annexed handbook ASEAN Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Handbook – these tools were endorsed by ASEAN Member States in 2022 and 2023 respectively – marking a significant shift towards rights-based land and forest reform. These two guidelines aim to bridge the gap between policy and practice, supporting mechanisms such as forest tenure recognition through titling and contracts and co-management, offering insight into tools to navigate the complexities of land governance on the ground. By promoting inclusive and rights-based forest governance at the ASEAN level, these tools can – if implemented meaningfully in practice – contribute to more resilient local and national economies and landscapes.
To build on the momentum and encourage uptake and implementation, the ASEAN Guidelines and the FPIC Handbook were launched through two national events earlier this year in Cambodia and Vietnam. These events brought government representatives, civil society and development partners and local community members together to discuss and reaffirm commitment and endorse the Guidelines and the FPIC Handbook.
The FPIC Handbook offers detailed, step-by-step guidance to ensure that IPLCs are meaningfully consulted throughout the process of any tenure initiative or programme, can give or withhold consent and ultimately decide how their land is utilised – making it an essential companion to the Guidelines and a powerful tool for meaningful and sustainable forest governance.
Dazzle Labapis, Programme Officer for NTFP-EP shares:
“The country dialogues aimed to present and jointly review the ASEAN CT Guidelines and Regional FPIC Handbook together with key reform actors in Cambodia and Vietnam. After the country dialogues, the participants were able to collectively take stock, review and reflect on existing experiences, policies and practices relevant and related to customary tenure recognition and safeguards in their country vis-à-vis the Guidelines and handbook. More importantly, it was an interactive and engaging process where they have Identified opportunities for joint work, collaboration, and develop recommendations on how they can localize and adopt the ASEAN CT Guidelines and Regional FPIC Handbook into their existing national and sub-national level policies and practices.”
Natalie Campbell, Regional Customary Tenure adviser observes:
“The ASEAN CT Guidelines and FPIC Handbook provide ASEAN Member States, therefore national government members and practitioners, with tools and guidance to ensure that customary tenure systems in forests are not only acknowledged but meaningfully integrated into forest and land governance. In the Mekong region, where land-based investments are expanding and climate-related shocks are intensifying, these tools are particularly timely to ensure communities are central to decisions that impact their territories and livelihoods. While the Guidelines and Handbook are non-binding, their value depends on how they are implemented, not only through high-level policy commitments but through real changes in practice on the ground. Now the real work begins to embed these principles in governance structures, existing operation procedures and processes, land and forest administration, and the design and implementation of projects – for recognition of customary forest tenure to go beyond paper to practice.”
