Women’s Land Rights in the Transition to Individualized Ownership: Implications for Tree‐Resource Management in Western Ghana

Abstract

This study explores the impact of evolutionary changes in land-tenure institutions on womens land rights and the efficiency of tree-resource management in western Ghana where cocoa is the dominant crop. Under matrilineal traditions land is transferred from a dead man to his brother or nephew (sisters son) in accordance with the decision of the extended family or matrilineal clan. Recently husbands have increasingly been transferring land to their wives and children as a gift during their own lifetime. The author’s hypothesis is that the incidence of gifts increases in areas where matrilineal inheritance is practiced in order to strengthen individual land rights. Using household-level data on land acquisition and field data on cocoa-tree planting and yields from 60 Akan villages the authors test that hypothesis. Their findings suggest that gift transactions usually in return for labor on a husband’s cocoa plot are the most important mode of land acquisition for women. Legal reform as illustrated by the Intestate Succession Law of 1985 also provide women with the means of obtaining access to their husband’s land.