Formal Tenure Research Articles

Institution and land transfer contract stability: Evidence from Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Liaoning provinces in rural China

Stable transfer contracts are essential for the development of the land market. This analysis investigates the impacts of different institutions and their interactive effects on the stability of land transfer contracts in rural China. Based on a survey dataset of 833 farmers from three provinces, we demonstrate that tenure institutions have a significantly positive effect and that informal social relationships have a significantly negative effect. Additionally, rules that are relevant to village self-governance strengthen the effect of formal tenure institutions and weaken the effect of social relationships. This finding indicates that complementary and substitute interactive effects exist between these two groups of institutions.

Physical Planning Activities in the Newly Created City of Hoima, Uganda: Opportunities and Challenges

Recently some African cities have been scenes of high profile eviction campaigns. These campaigns have elicited heavy criticism from various quarters, domestic and international. Between half and three quarters of all new housing in sub-Saharan African cities is built on land that has been supplied through processes that, in one way or another, do not comply with formal legal requirements related to subdivision, transfer and development control. Such urban development processes are undoubtedly problematic, both for the authorities and for the residents of the areas developed through these processes: unplanned development results in sprawl, hindering the cost-effective extension of infrastructure and services; some developments are built in areas topographically unsuitable for residential use such as steep slopes and flood-prone sites; unrecognized areas do not generate revenue for local councils; residents experience varying degrees of insecurity; access by public transport and emergency services may be difficult or impossible; and the services and utilities available to residents may fall far short of what is desirable. However, in many respects these channels of land supply are highly successful: they continue to make a much larger contribution to urban development than formal channels, accommodating almost all new low-income and many middle-income households; many of the residential areas have regular layouts; there appear to be relatively few conflicts between actors involved in informal land delivery; and many house owners enjoy considerable defacto tenure security. Nevertheless, governments continue to regard informal processes of urban development as undesirable aberrations and persist in attempts to implement formal tenure, subdivision and development control policies and procedures despite their ineffectiveness. Often the laws and policies on which land administration practices are based are colonial imports. The extent to which indigenous tenure systems were understood, recognized and incorporated varied from colony to colony, but it was generally believed that only a formal system based on a European model could provide a framework for urban development and protect the rights of urban property owners (who at that time were mostly expatriates). Embedded in the model were culturally constructed ideas about the desirable form and appearance of cities and assumptions about appropriate roles for the state in regulating urban growth and development. These land administration systems, which were inherited at independence, are governed by formal rules, set out in legislation and administrative procedures. The legislative provisions and the administrative systems that were established to implement them proved quite unable to cope with the rapid urban growth that occurred after independence, but this did not lead policy makers and many analysts to abandon their view that states had both an obligation and the capacity to intervene comprehensively in land management. As a result, research has often focused on documenting and explaining the failures (and, more rarely, successes) of state intervention, thereby privileging formal state law over other socially embedded rules on which actors draw to regulate transactions in land.

Great expectations: Adapting a research agenda to changing scholarship requirements

When leaving initial professional librarian positions to join new organizations, the authors considered several common factors: salaries and benefits, livability of potential cities, and new colleagues. However, thriving early- and mid-career librarians taking the step into different roles must be able to navigate one less commonly discussed aspect of a workplace transition: differing expectations of original research among institutions and according to job classification.When moving from one tenure track position to another, librarians are likely to encounter different formal tenure requirements and support mechanisms at a new institution. Small universities might weigh the successful completion of day-to-day duties more heavily, with less emphasis on research output. Often larger research institutions are the inverse, with a much heavier emphasis on what research is published or presented, and where. Since expectations can be informally relayed and not expressly stated in job postings or during interviews, understanding an employer's idea of what constitutes significant scholarship is often developed over the course of the first year at an organization.This column will discuss the two main characteristics that typically inform expected research output: the type of institution for which the librarian works and the classification of the individual's position. The authors draw on recent experiences assessing different research expectations when changing employers, as well as current research on the topic. Expectations can also change moving from non-research-intensive positions into tenure-track or continuing-status-eligible positions at the same institution, and librarians in these situations often will have to deal with differing expectations around output metrics or impact factors in their research. Successful librarians changing roles will recognize that research expectations are a continuum, and will be able to assess where their current job falls on the library research spectrum. Once readers determine whether their new position requires a low, medium, or high level of scholarship and service, they can then strategize to adapt their existing agenda to meet expectations.Lastly, the column will help early- and mid-career librarians identify and assess the resources and support available to assist them in continuing their research agendas, regardless of positional research and scholarship expectations. Formal mentors, peer researchers in one's professional network, and new colleagues can all help with the stated and informal expectations of research.

Property rights in informal settlements

This article presents a systematic review of the literature and directions for future research on property rights in informal settlements. This research meets the academy's strategic perspectives in the current debates on the theme, with emphasis on Goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda for the sustainable development of the United Nations: “making cities and human settlements safe, resilient and sustainable.” A quantitative approach to various research results was applied by combining several techniques validated by recent literature. A total of 119 articles published in the last 58 years, available on the Scopus and Web of Science databases, were analyzed. The results included (i) studies on property law concentrated on formal tenure structures (ii) tenure systems, which are not the result of a formal lawmaking process but rather from customs, habits, and beliefs of residents of informal settlements. Future research possibilities were identified by applying the “New Institutional Economics” literature and a concept underlying the right to property, namely the perception of security of tenure. Finally, this study may provide insights, with a set of strategies extracted from the textual corpus, especially for developing countries' governments, aiming to strengthen informal settlements' secure property rights, distributive justice, and inclusive urban (re)development.

An assessment of the roles of tenure and inclusion in conflict mediation at Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico

PurposeThis study aims to unify phenomena in academic and grey literature into a theory of marine spatial disappropriation based on geopolitical relationships. It is argued that conflict over marine space arises as a result of top-down sovereign control of marine resources, and that the recognition of marine tenure and greater inclusivity in marine development* decision-making would lessen conflict between users, such as artisanal fishermen and ecotourism businesses.Design/methodology/approachA preliminary literature review was conducted, followed by a research study at Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP) in Baja California Sur, Mexico.FindingsThe results demonstrate that though CPNP's tenure structure is unique and inclusivity is an element of its management, the degree to which it is practiced is not sufficient to eliminate the chance of eventual disappropriation and ensuing conflict.Practical implicationsThe results of this assessment can be used to strengthen the argument in favour of developing stronger requirements for deliberative democratic decision-making in marine delineation, as well as bolder social performance standards in marine development industries.Originality/valueResearch on socio-environmental revolutions are not new, but the authors contest that they are not alone a sufficient condition for achieving reduced conflict long-term. Instead, the originality of this research lies in its exploration of the importance of customary and formal tenure over marine resources, and its suggestion that this on the whole reduces conflict between exclusive and competing interests. One popular alternative, as demonstrated in numerous cases around the globe, can often be the marginalization of small-scale ocean users through the forceful appropriation of ocean resources.

The Downside of High Status: Relating Status Level and Coworker Status to Stress in the Workplace

Informal status is an important aspect of organizational life. The many advantages of having higher status relative to one’s coworkers are well documented. This study extends research on status to hypothesize and show a downside of high status: stress. The study observed naturally occurring status hierarchies within a telecommunications organization in the Western U.S. and found that higher levels of status were positively related to higher levels of stress, after controlling for friendship levels, education, formal job level, tenure, job satisfaction, and perceptions of the organization’s culture. This effect was moderated by status distance, a dispersion measure drawn from the literature on relational demography, that shows how close in status a given individual is to the other individuals on his or her team. Specifically, high-status participants experienced more stress when on teams comprised of high-status others, as compared to low-status others. Implications for both practice and theory are discussed.

Cost of being a slum dweller in Nairobi: Living under dismal conditions but still paying a housing rent premium

Abstract The UN notes that the current global slum population of nearly one billion not only reflects “a rather unacceptable contemporary reality, but one whose numbers are continuously swelling.” Not surprisingly, its latest global development priorities, announced through its Sustainable Development Goals agenda in 2015, emphasize addressing the slum challenge in developing countries as a major goal. Our study focuses on gaining an in-depth understanding of the nature and extent of such slum challenge faced by Nairobi. Specifically, using data from a recent (2012–13) statistically representative survey, we conduct a systematic empirical analysis of the rental housing market conditions faced by households living in slum versus formal areas of Nairobi. Our analysis findings establish relevant benchmarking for key policy relevant measures against which to evaluate the efficacy of new policy initiatives. Taken together, our findings show that the households in Nairobi’s slum areas, compared to their counterparts in formal areas, are currently facing a substantial double jeopardy. On one hand, they face significant disparity gaps – about 24 percentage points in less coverage – across a myriad of housing and living condition indicators. For some basic services like water, toilet and public sewage disposal, the gaps are as high as 40–50 percentage points. On the other hand, we were able to quantify for the first time the extent of rent premium – about 16 percent – that Nairobi’s slum tenants are paying relative to their formal area counterparts, after adjusting for housing quality conditions. While our study’s primary goal was on demonstrating the presence and the extent of the double jeopardy, it also sheds important insights from normative policy perspectives. A novel insight here is that although formal tenure agreements are rare in Nairobi’s slums, the tenants do pay a rent premium of about 18 percent if they possess such agreements.

Perceived land tenure security in rural Xinjiang, China: The role of official land documents and trust

The role of formal tenure institutions in reducing land tenure insecurity has been long debated in the development economics literature. This study examines and compares the key determinants of perceptions of security of tenure over contract land and wasteland, two types of land that are characterized by tenure being formally and informally ascribed. The material is drawn from the Chinese region of Xinjiang, an ethnically heterogeneous region which has more complex tenure systems than elsewhere in China. Empirical estimations based on a survey of 352 households, complemented by interviews with key informants, demonstrate that formal institutions (measured by official land documents) do not significantly contribute to households' perceptions of tenure security on either type of land, and that both interpersonal trust and political trust significantly enhance perceived tenure security on either land type in our research area. The empirical evidence further shows that perceptions of tenure security on both types of land are more sensitive to trust towards village cadres than trust in villagers.

Looking beyond tenure in China's Collective Forest Tenure Reform: insights from Yunnan Province, Southwest China

SUMMARY The Chinese government has carried out ambitious reforms in the country's collective forest sector since 2003. Based on two case studies from Yunnan Province, this paper examines the effects of China's Collective Forest Tenure Reform with regard to villagers' participation in their implementation of the reform, their effects on formal tenure rights and the changes to actual tenure rights on the basis of two case studies from Yunnan. The case studies show that higher levels of participation by villagers can lead to changes in formal and actual tenure rights that bring these rights more into line with national objectives. Thus, decentralization may be a critical precondition for successful forest tenure reform in China and beyond.

Local politics of floodplain tenure in the Amazon

Research on community-based management system has been often grounded on monolithic institutional, social and ecological perspective with focus on the commoners as the only local actor, collective territorial rights as the only local tenure system, and the managed resource unit or ecosystem as the only contested resource driving collective action. However, CBMSs are embedded in local social-ecological systems usually characterized by multiple ruling systems, different local groups, and heterogeneous ecological systems. In this paper I discuss how the floodplain tenure system is negotiated and rearranged between two local groups – community residents and large landholders. This complex and dynamic arrangement comprises three layers of property rights which are combined according to changing ecological and social context. Based on longitudinal empirical data spanning 20 years of research, I describe the history of contemporary human occupation, and the most recent socioeconomic and institutional changes in the region in order to unpack the dynamics of the floodplain tenure in the region. I conclude that assumptions that integration of local management system into a formal legal framework suffices to achieve an efficient co-management system is rather simplistic. Despite major structural changes in the formal tenure framework, power relations between different local users may remain unchanged unless local perceptions and everyday life practices of power relations are changed. Unpacking the multiple ruling systems and everyday life practices that mediate interactions between different local actors is fundamental to understanding how the commons are appropriated at the local level. Therefore, a local contextualization of the social and ecological structure is crucial to reveal potential barriers to the development of an inclusive and sustainable production system.

Inside the Polygon: Emerging Community Tenure Systems and Forest Resource Extraction

Formal tenure systems have generally focused on defining the outside boundary of community tenure systems resulting in a homogeneous polygon that is treated as communal property by the formal legal system. In fact, if one looks inside this polygon, most of these “communal” tenure systems are a complex web of individual and shared rights that deal with the use and allocation of community resources. In this chapter we describe and compare three community tenure systems and delve into the tenure system operating inside the polygon.Many valuable forested areas in developing countries fall under a community tenure system. The traditional approach towards formalizing these areas is to grant a communal land title or concession transferring exclusive use rights to the forest dwellers. The title or concession defines the perimeter of the area (outside polygon) and serves to register the rights to the titled territory in the name of the group. In this way the formal tenure system divides up these territories into a set of polygons in space. The formal document may specify broad limits on deforestation and require some form of land use plan, but in many cases it does not really address the de facto land tenure and resource management structure inside the polygon. The result is a de jure “tenurial shell”5 which should facilitate interactions outside the polygon, but which in many instances actually constrains such interactions.Bromley and Cernea (1989, p. 15) have defined common property regimes (CPR) as:"… corporate group property. The property-owning groups vary in nature, size, and internal structure across a broad spectrum, but they are social units with definite membership and boundaries, with certain common interests, with at least some interaction among members, with some cultural norms, and often their own endogenous authority system."Much of the mainstream literature on CPR focuses on the “critical enabling conditions” for sustaining common property systems.6 While sharing the ultimate goal of sustainability, we approach CPR or community tenure systems, from a somewhat different perspective. By focusing on the land and resource tenure system we seek to understand the current situation with respect to the allocation, use, transfer and control of forest and other resources inside the polygon. In analyzing this de facto tenure system, we also compare it with the external de jure system to identify inconsistencies and possible areas of conflict.Given the dynamic nature of both tenure and resource systems, we are also concerned with identifying and managing the information requirements to support sustainable extractive practices between parties inside and outside the polygon. We contend that as community tenure systems come under increasing pressure, internal as well as external, it will be necessary for these communities to improve their local land administration capabilities and maintain more detailed tenure information if they are to be sustainable across generations. Information that focuses only on forest resources, and not on who holds the use and extractive rights, and the exact nature of those rights, is insufficient for the effective management of working forests. This point becomes clearer in the latter part of the paper when we examine some of the emerging scenarios in our three case studies.

Governing open access: livestock distributions and institutional control in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan

On the edge of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, the distribution of livestock in space and time can with reasonable accuracy be interpreted in terms of the model of the ideal free distribution: The number of livestock supported by desert settlements varies with the level of resources in a settlement; the propensity of herds to migrate seasonally is a density-dependent function of grazing pressure; migratory cycles exploit temporal fluctuations in feed and water quality between regions. Ideal free models are premised on the assumption that resource consumers have unrestricted access to resources. In conventional economic analyses, open or unrestricted access is equivalent to the absence of land tenure. A formal tenure system, involving the state ownership of land and the management of state lands by collective farms, nonetheless operated in the study area, and was referred to by farm managers and by pastoralists when making decisions about herd movement and resource use. The operation of this tenure system was also demonstrated by the restrictions that it imposed on communities with insufficient resource entitlements. In the great majority of cases, however, and in terms of the land use system as a whole, the tenure system facilitated a process of orderly and free distribution of livestock relative to resources. This paper examines the reasons for and functioning of this theoretical oxymoron—a regulated system of open access. The study contributes to a growing body of literature on the non-exclusive nature of pastoral tenure systems in Africa and Asia.

Does land lease tenure insecurity cause decreased productivity and investment in the sugar industry? Evidence from Fiji

Does land lease tenure insecurity cause decreased productivity and investment in the sugar industry? To answer this question, this study examined the impact of weak formal tenure lease arrangements on tenants’ investment and the productivity of sugarcane in Ba province, Fiji. After controlling for potential endogeneity in the choice of lease tenure using instrumental variables (IV), it was shown that tenants under insecure lease tenure (expiring in 0–5 years) achieve significantly lower yields of sugarcane, by 6.5–11 tonnes per hectare, and plant smaller areas of new sugarcane, by 0.14–0.25 hectares on average, than do tenants under secure lease tenure. Insecure lease tenure also negatively affects chemical fertiliser use, although this impact is not statistically significant. An intervention to improve tenure security would likely enhance the production efficiency of and investment in the Fijian sugarcane industry.

Analysing access to the local REDD+ benefits of Sungai Lamandau, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

AbstractThe Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project in Sungai Lamandau was Indonesia's first forest carbon finance initiative officially proposed by a community group upon land they intended to control autonomously. However, the flagging carbon market and government licensing obstructions stalled progress towards possible monetary gains. With a focus on the agency of local farmers, we explore the ‘bundles of powers’ that they mobilised to access the other diverse and, at times, elusive set of benefits within the REDD+ project. In the absence of a formal tenure and ‘carbon rights’ regime, local actors' ability to benefit from the project was dependent on social relationships, REDD+ knowledge and access to local markets and capital. The result was a benefit‐sharing framework of uneven distribution.

Indigenous peoples vs peasant unions: land conflicts and rural movements in plurinational Bolivia

Agrarian reforms do not constitute linear processes: rather, they are based on the interconnection between the crystallization of land governance in formal tenure rules and the way societies organize around a set of identities and power mechanisms. This paper focuses on how the misinterpretation of this two-way relationship, in setting up a new normative framework, can generate unintended consequences in terms of conflict. The recent wave of land conflicts in Bolivia shows how changes in the allocation of strategic resources inspired by the so-called ‘politics of recognition’ triggered processes of political ethnicization and organizational fragmentation, eventually contributing to fuelling new tensions between indigenous groups and peasant unions.

The Value of Secure Tenure: Ethnographic Accounts of How Tenure Security is Understood and Realised by Residents of Low-Income Settlements in Durban, South Africa

Studies of tenure security and insecurity tend to focus on the lack of tenure rights for certain groups in society. This discourse of rights is often legalistic and engenders a logical relationship between tenure security and formal tenure rights. The legal guarantee of tenure security through a title deed, for example, is couched in theories of a liberal rights-based discourse where the award of individual rights and access to mechanisms to uphold those rights are regarded as essential for the empowerment and prosperity of the poor. In South Africa, the dominant discourse in urban tenure security for shack dwellers is one of legal rights encapsulated by a freehold title deed that accompanies the award of a housing subsidy in the process to upgrade informal settlements. This approach to formalising tenure assumes tenure insecurity is experienced by shack dwellers as predominantly a fear of eviction emanating from a lack of legal rights to land and property use and/or ownership. The paper contends this top-down conceptualisation of tenure insecurity misrepresents shack dwellers’ own tenure experiences and reflects an incomplete understanding of tenure security. In 2010, I conducted an ethnographic study to ask 24 shack dwellers in Durban their conceptions of tenure security as an ideal, their experiences of tenure insecurity, and the strategies they have adopted to achieve a sufficient degree of security. The study’s emphasis on hermeneutical definitions of tenure offers a detailed perspective that reveals shortcomings in the conceptualisation of tenure security in contemporary housing and urban land policy. The paper offers a re-conceptualisation of the term.

Environments of Change: An Open Building Approach Towards A Design Solution for an Informal Settlement in Mamelodi, South Africa

Poor living conditions in informal settlements may be attributed mostly, though not exclusively, to the lack of basic services. Informal settlements, which also go by the name of squatter camps, are volatile by nature. Even within relatively fixed settlement boundaries, change in urban fabric continually manifests through altering dwelling configurations. Deemed unstable and unsafe by formal criteria, these environments disclose schizophrenic characteristics: beyond the dirt, grime and smog, exist relatively functional societies capable of survival and self-regulation. Public and private sector investment within informal settlements is restricted as a result of their illegal status. Inhabitants have no incentive to invest their own resources where they have no formal tenure over the land. Due to a rather backward approach to informality in South Africa, innovation in dealing with these settlements has been limited. Despite the fact that the rhetoric has sometimes changed from eradication to upgrading, little has been done with regards to alternative forms of settlement development that has relevance in terms of improving the lives of informal settlement dwellers. With rising anger in poverty-stricken areas and on the peripheries of cities, what is needed is improved service delivery through immediate solutions. This article suggests a service delivery core, an architectural catalyst, rooted to the ‘energy’ of the public realm, stimulating growth of infrastructure networks. This catalyst core aims to instigate the amelioration of the surrounding environment. The concept presented is that of a dynamic service core – universal in principle – while also being contextually-driven by responding to a specific environment and needs of a specific community. A generic architectural solution is thus presented to providing basic services and infrastructure within informal settlements, with focussed consideration for the unique situation of an informal settlement in Mamelodi, Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa. It is important to realise that there is no final product, but rather an organic architecture that adapts in a process of continuous and progressive change.

Clashing Claims: Neopatrimonial Governance, Land Tenure Transformation, and Violence at Enoosupukia, Kenya

This article revisits a case of violent conflict at Enoosupukia, Kenya, in October 1993, that has previously been analyzed as a clear example of top-down, elite manipulation of neopatrimonial domination. Drawing on stories collected during more than eighteen months of fieldwork, I produce an ethnohistorical account of the interrelated processes of formal tenure change and informalization through which neopatrimonial governance of land was established at Enoosupukia. Focusing on the participation in and instrumental use of formal and informal institutions by the current inhabitants of the area, I argue that clients in neopatrimonial political systems are neither mere pawns nor passive victims, but rather active, even if often marginal, participants. Applying this framework to explaining the genesis of violent conflict at Enoosupukia, I show that violence was not produced through top-down incitement, but rather through a convergence of patron and client interests in the context of a significant shift in the networks through which rights in land are claimed, challenged, and protected. The point is not to shift the blame for violence from the elite to the marginalized, but rather to show that manipulation of disorder is multidimensional. Further, while clients may benefit from neopatrimonial connection to instruments of state power through elite patrons, they remain insecure and subject to disconnection. Thus the security of rights depends as much on maintenance of connection as reference to formal law. This paper shows that while neopatrimonial governance may “work,” it is fragile.

New rights for forest-based communities? Understanding processes of forest tenure reform

SUMMARY This article reports on findings from a research project, in more than 30 sites in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, aimed at analyzing cases where changes in formal tenure rights for forest-based communities had recently occurred or were in process. Though by far largest proportion of the world's forests are owned by the state, over a quarter of forests in developing countries are now owned by or assigned to communities. This suggests, at least in some ways, a marked departure from the historic trend towards centralizing. The project, led by the Center for International Forestry Research in coordination with the Rights and Resources Initiative in 2006–2008, sought to identify issues and concerns from the perspective of socially and economically vulnerable groups that were seeking rights reforms. The objectives were to understand reform processes, particularly the extent to which community rights had improved in practice. This article reports on the analysis of three aspects of the r...

Anticipating the Impacts of Land Registration Programmes

Land administration in the developing world currently focuses on land adjudication, land titling and land registration programmes for deriving economic, social and environmental benefits. Land registration programmes have consequently been instituted in much of Latin America, the Caribbean and the transitional states of Eastern Europe. The process by which land registration programmes lead to these benefits is impacted by a range of local factors. Hence, the potential of achieving these benefits requires the design of a process that suits the local socio-economic environment. Preparatory work for the proposed Land Adjudication and Registration Programme (LARP) in Trinidad and Tobago acquired baseline survey data as a precursor to eventual periodic assessment of the impact of the programme. Current land tenure status was assessed in relation to the following socio-economic factors: location, gender, ethnicity and household income. These values would be used to evaluate whether positive land tenure related effects are being achieved by the land registration programme.This paper presents the results of the baseline study that was conducted to theoretically anticipate positive impacts of LARP. Major impact indicator values found in the sample were that (i) only 34% of the sampled households possessed formal tenure, (ii) formal tenure ranged from a low 2% in one sampled area, (iii) only 32% of the low income group sampled possessed formal tenure, and (iv) only 27% of the female headed households sampled possessed formal tenure.