Forestry Rights Registration and Timber Harvest Guarantee Act No. 28

The Act regulates the definition, granting, transfer and registration of forestry rights in Vanuatu, and the harvesting and accreditation of timber plantations. It enables a proprietor of a lease (as registered under the Land Leases Act) to grant a forestry right over the land covered by the lease.

The definition of forestry right includes a carbon sequestration right which is defined as ‘a right conferred by agreement or otherwise to the legal, commercial or other benefit (whether present or future) of carbon sequestration by any existing or future tree or forest on the land'. The Act therefore establishes a separate property right that enables carbon rights to be decoupled from land rights (and thus provides for the allocation of carbon rights). However, while almost all land in Vanuatu is held under customary tenure, only approximately 9% is leased, with a further 90% unleased. Therefore the majority of landholders will not be able to exercise similar rights to forest carbon.

The Act was amended in 2012 (the Forestry Rights Registration and Timber Harvest Guarantee (Amendment) Act No. 8 of 2012) to include reference to sandalwood products.