REDD+ and Forest Carbon Rights in Vanuatu - background legal analysis

Vanuatu is the only country in Melanesia which already has a statutory framework for forest carbon rights, although this only applies to leased land: the Forestry Rights Registration and Timber Harvest Guarantee Act 2000. The legislation creates a separate property right, which allows the carbon to be decoupled from the land. The grant of forestry rights under the Act is dependent on the prior creation of a lease over the land. Consequently, it does not provide a framework for customary land ‘owners’ to exercise their forest carbon rights on un-leased customary land.