Individual Landowners Research Articles

‘Visitors have become owners’: internationalization of land and its implication for rural women

ABSTRACT Internationalisation of land, a product of capitalism, affects economically vulnerable rural women and their families in diverse ways. By emphasising individual landownership, it creates more avenues for men’s domination in landownership. Scholarly works on land administration and its effect on women abound; however, little is known as to whether internationalisation of land empowers women and reduces poverty among rural women. This study applied an ethnographic approach exploring narratives and experiences of rural women in areas of Amuru District in northern Uganda. The study employed a qualitative design, using semi-structured interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and passive observation. This paper argues that customary landownership gives and protects the right of women to access and use land, thus enabling them to perform gender roles in the community. The study revealed that, by giving unequal rights to community members, individual landownership affects women more than men, thus placing vulnerable women at the lowest end of the scale.

Using LiDAR to assess transitions in riparian vegetation structure along a rural‐to‐urban land use gradient in western North America

AbstractRiparian forests are essential for stream ecological processes in arid and semiarid regions, however, they are often highly altered by the rapid expansion of urban areas. To maintain riparian ecosystems services, it is important to better understand the effects of urbanization on riparian forests. We quantified the three‐dimensional (3D) structure and woody species composition of a riparian corridor in Utah, USA, to evaluate patterns of vegetation along stream reaches that flow through distinct hydrologic domains (with gaining and losing reaches) and through a rapid rural‐to‐urban gradient. By using LiDAR imaging and field observations, we explore the extent to which the riparian vegetation structure follows patterns of topography linked to energy and water subsidies and patterns of human influence along the stream. Whereas natural reaches of Red Butte Creek were characterized by native vegetation and typical riparian species (e.g., Betula occidentalis), urbanized reaches had higher numbers of introduced plants (e.g., Acer platanoides) and more upland species (e.g., Quercus gambelii). Urban reaches were also characterized by exceptionally high trees (>18 m) in older residential neighbourhoods. In the natural area, canopy height was negatively correlated with height above the river (HAR). Additionally, we found higher cover and taller canopies on north‐facing aspects. These results show that LiDAR data, in combination with ground observations, can reveal strong influences of hydrology as well as land use in different canopy layers of riparian forests. We suggest that the decision making of individual landowners shapes vegetation beyond natural hydrological patterns, with implications for riparian forest management and restoration.

Customary Land-Tenure and the Poor: A Study of Jharkhand and Meghalaya

For most people living in rural India having access and control over land is crucial for their livelihood, more so in the case of tribals. This article analyses the nature of the customary land-tenure system in some districts of Jharkhand and Meghalaya and their impact on livelihood patterns, food security and poverty. Based on both secondary and primary data, the article seeks to examine the nature of the customary land-tenure systems in selected scheduled areas; specifically identifying the status of locals versus non-locals in managing land resources and analysing the extent to which women have been able to secure land rights under customary laws. The article concludes that though there are both positive and negative aspects to community and individual ownership of agricultural land, but on the whole the prevailing system does not helping in bettering the conditions of disadvantaged communities.

The integrated socio-perceptual approach: Using ecological mental maps and future imaginaries to understand land use decisions

Rural places are important centers of environmental and social transformation. Landholders are not only affected by socio-environmental changes, but they are influencing futures related to climate change, food security, freshwater, biodiversity, and social and economic development. Much environmental land use work understands individual landholders as rational actors, portrayed through the economic lens of “producer.” These approaches generally focus on present capacities and limitations as the principal factors contributing to land use, and the individual farm as the reference unit for decisions. Our research takes steps to expand conceptualizations of rural landholders as active and knowledgeable in envisioning, managing, and shaping environmental futures. We design and test a new approach using ecological mental maps and future imaginaries to understand land use practices through a case study in the cocoa-producing and Atlantic Forest region of Southern Bahia, Brazil. The integrated socio-perceptual (ISP) approach combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies to honor the depth of landholders’ experiences and perspectives and to allow broader regional relationships and insights to emerge. We demonstrate that the ISP approach—through 49 surveys—has the capacity to capture variation and identify patterns in ecological mental maps and future imaginaries in a population, approximate the relevant spatial scales underlying these factors, and identify relationships between these and land uses. In this context, the types of narratives landholders hold about the region’s future are associated with current forest land use on their properties. We discuss potential applications of the ISP approach for land use study and practice.

Remote sensing-based framework to predict and assess the interannual variability of maize yields in Pakistan using Landsat imagery

Predicting crop yields and their spatio-temporal variability under a changing climate is a challenging but essential undertaking for crop management and policymaking purposes. The availability of information on risks associated with effects of climatic variability on agricultural activity outcomes is critical for stakeholders ranging from individual landowners to national economists alike. This research was conducted as a pilot study to (1) develop satellite remote sensing based estimates of maize acreage in a typical Maize growing region in Pakistan, (2) to develop a statistical-empirical model for prediction of maize yields, and finally, (3) to assess the influence of temperature on inter-annual variability in maize yields across a decade. A total of eight machine learning algorithms were tested for identifying maize growing operations in the Faisalabad district of Pakistan using Landsat 8 imagery. Classification models were evaluated via 200 randomly selected ground-verified points across the study region. Results of the maize mapping exercise were used to estimate interannual maize yields using Landsat-derived multi-temporal normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) data as predictors. Predictors for the yield forecasting model were selected via principal component screening and were fed into a least absolute shrinkage and selection (LASSO) regression model. The yield model thus developed was applied to 10 years of past data (2006-2017) and validated against data recorded by government sources. Finally, predictions spanning the ten years were tested for effects of temperature variability to find evidence of influence of ambient temperature on maize yields. Results indicate that support vector machine classifiers work the best in this landscape (accuracies >90%) and reveal that maize cropping area may be underestimated in government sources by as much as 14%. The LASSO regression models also showed very good fits (validation R2 = 0.95) and were fairly accurate in tracking interannual variations in maize yields (R2 = 0.78.) Results also indicate that the maximum temperature has significant negative influence (R2 = 0.76, P < 0.0001) on maize yields in Faisalabad district. Methods presented in this study should be of use to policymakers for better formulating export-import policies and decisions governing food security issues in the larger region.

Research trends: Forest investments as a financial asset class

This paper serves as an introduction to a Special Issue (SI) of the Journal of Forest Policy and Economics dedicated to forest investment and finance. The Special Issue stemmed from an International Forest Business Conference (IFBC2018) held in Poland on 6–8 June 2018. It includes papers based on speeches at that conference, as well as others on similar topics not presented at the conference. Topics addressed in this Special Issue include timberland investments, forest finance, intensively managed plantations, risk, uncertainty and decision-making, business structures and investment strategy, timber prices and forecasts, forestry contractors, and taxes. Details papers on these subjects follow in this Special Issue.Our finance research overview here provides a historical background and summary of forest investments and finance, focusing on forest equity investments made by institutional investors and in forestry real estate investment trusts, not including public lands or individual small private forest landowners. Forest assets as an investment class have expanded due to analytical advances, ownership changes, globalized markets, and sustainable forestry factors. Key components affecting forestry investments are expected asset returns, portfolio diversification, inflation hedge, and liquidity and natural risks.Topics detailed in this Special Issue include timberland investments, forest finance, intensively managed plantations, risk, uncertainty and decision-making, business structures and investment strategy, timber prices and forecasts, forestry contractors, and taxes. Finally, we identify knowledge gaps regarding forest investments for future research.

Enabling conditions for the implementation and conservation outcomes of a private nature reserve

Abstract Expanding conservation efforts to private land is paramount to halt biodiversity loss and achieve global conservation targets. Individual landowners can play disproportionately important roles by establishing private parks and managing them with biodiversity‐focused objectives. However, several constraints hinder the expansion of such initiatives, and little is known about their extent, characteristics and keys for success. Here, we provide insights on the conditions that favoured the establishment and conservation outcomes of a private reserve in central Spain whose management has been fully conservation‐oriented for the past two decades. We report on the actions implemented to accomplish four key targets that aimed at protecting and enhancing wildlife populations, and on the landholder's motivations to devote his personal resources to pursue this goal. After acquiring the land, the landowner has made efforts to restore native wildlife populations after decades of poaching and intensive cattle raising. Key actions included re‐establishing degraded vegetation and fostering keystone rabbit populations to sustain carnivore populations. Water bodies are maintained to provide drinking points and foster aquatic animal populations; nest boxes target birds and bats. Many actions resulted from advice from multiple stakeholders, including public administration officers, academics, local residents and NGOs. The estate's formal conservation status has made it a partner in major conservation projects, including repeated releases of captively bred Iberian lynx. The landowner's determination for long‐term conservation was formalised through a legal protected‐area status. The condition that drove the creation of the reserve was the landowner's intrinsic motivation, which resulted from conservation ethic, personal identity and the desire to share and educate about the multiple values of nature. Additionally, several external conditions, such as accessibility and appropriate reserve size (biophysical conditions), the lack of need for economic activities (economic), a positive and pro‐active relationship with multiple stakeholders (social‐cultural), the protected‐area status and the capacity to make decisions independently (governance‐related), have helped sustain the project. The landholder suggests that public policy should reduce the bureaucratic burden to intrinsically motivated landowners and provide them technical advice, trust and financial incentives to expand conservation on private land.

Big data–model integration and AI for vector‐borne disease prediction

AbstractPredicting the drivers of incursion and expansion of vector‐borne diseases as part of early‐warning strategies (EWS) is a major challenge for geographically extensive diseases where spread is mediated by spatial heterogeneity in climate and other environmental drivers. Geospatial data on these environmental drivers are increasingly available affording opportunities for application to a predictive disease ecology paradigm provided the data can be synthesized and harmonized with fine‐scale, highly resolved data on vector and host responses to their environment. Here, we apply a multi‐scale big data–model integration approach using human‐guided machine learning to objectively evaluate the importance of a large suite of spatially distributed environmental variables (&gt;400) to develop EWS for vesicular stomatitis (VS), a common viral vector‐borne vesicular disease affecting livestock throughout the Americas. Two temporally and phylogenetically distinct events were used to develop disease occurrence–environment relationships in incursion (2004) and expansion years (2005), and then to test those relationships (2014, 2015) at two scales: (1) local and (2) landscape to regional. Our results show that VS occurrence at a local scale of individual landowners was related to conditions that can be monitored (rainfall, temperatures, streamflow) or modified (vegetation). On‐site green vegetation during the month of occurrence and higher rainfall four months prior combined with either cool daytime (expansion) or nighttime (incursion) temperatures one month prior were indicators of VS occurrence. Distance to running water (incursion) and host density based on neighboring ranches (expansion) with infected animals were also important in individual years. At landscape‐to‐regional scales, conditions that favor specific VSV biological vectors were indicated, either black flies in incursion years or biting midges in expansion years. Changes in viral genetic lineage were less important to patterns in VS occurrence than factors affecting the host–vector–environment interactions. In combination with our onset map based on latitude, elevation, and long‐term annual precipitation, this year‐ and scale‐specific information can be used to develop strategies to minimize effects of future VS events. This big data approach coupled with expert knowledge and machine learning can be applied to other emerging diseases for improvement in understanding, prediction, and management of vector‐borne diseases.

Deforestation dynamics in Brazil's Amazonian settlements: Effects of land-tenure concentration

Brazil's Amazon deforestation is a major global and national environmental concern, and the ability to model and project both its course and the effect of different policy options depends on understanding how this process occurs at present and how it might change in the future. The present paper addresses one key factor in Amazon deforestation: land-tenure concentration in settlements. Brazil's policies for establishing and regulating settlement projects represent critical government decisions shaping the landscape in the 5 × 106 km2 Legal Amazonia region. We used remote-sensing data and information provided by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) to evaluate the effect of land-tenure concentration in a settlement project (Projeto de Assentamento) located in a frontier area where cattle-ranching is expanding. We identified the actors and their deforestation patterns in the Matupi settlement in the southern part of Brazil's state of Amazonas. We spatially identified actors who concentrated “lots” (the parcels of land distributed to individual settlers) in 2011 and assessed whether the concentration was done by individual landholders or by “families” (where members merged their lots and the clearing was done together). Deforestation rates (1995–2011) were estimated for each type of actor and the trajectory of deforestation in the settlement (cumulative deforestation to 1994 and annual deforestation 1995–2016) was also analyzed. Concentrators occupied 28% (9653 ha) of the settlement and 29% of the lots (152 lots) analyzed; the numbers of lots concentrated ranged from two to ten. Concentrators of two lots and non-concentrators were the predominant actor types in the settlement. The mean annual clearing per landholding for concentrators of two lots (families: 4.1 ± 2.8 ha (mean ± SD); individuals: 5.1 ± 4.6 ha) was greater than for non-concentrators (1.7 ± 1.2 ha), despite their having similar patterns of small clearings. Concentrators of three or more lots had mean annual clearing per landholding between 6.2 ± 12.2 ha and 23.9 ± 38.7 ha and, the pattern of patches cleared per year >34 ha in area was predominant. The deforestation rate per lot was higher among concentrators as compared to non-concentrators, showing that lot concentration speeds deforestation. Analysis of deforestation patterns helps to better understand the process of lot concentration by spatially identifying the predominant patterns of each type of actor. The approach used in our study could assist authorities in identifying and monitoring land-tenure concentration in settlements. Agrarian-reform policymakers need to monitor this process, since it speeds deforestation in Amazonian settlement projects, as well as undermining the social objectives of the agrarian-reform program.

The Yeoman Myth: A Troubling Foundation of the Beginning Farmer Movement

Aging farmer demographics and declining agricultural trends provoke policy makers, farmer advocacy groups, and food system scholars to ask, “Who will do the work of farming in the future?” One response to this concern has been the rise of a “beginning farmer” narrative, where the goal of creating new farmers emerges as a key aspirational food systems reform mechanism. In this vision, young and beginning farmers will seize the transitioning lands from retiring farmers and bring with them an alternative system that is ecologically minded, open to new innovations, and socially oriented. Given the flurry of governmental, nonprofit, and private sector activity spurred by this vision, this article asks, what are the ideological drivers of the beginning farmer construct, and what are the consequences for the goals associated with a just food system transition? Invoking the concept of mythology, this article examines the character of the American beginning farmer narrative. The narrative is shown to appeal to a particular land use vision, one based on ideals of individual land ownership, single proprietor farming, neoliberal logics of change, and whiteness. In a sense, the beginning farmer movement embraces a yeoman mythology, a powerful force underwriting the American dream. The consequence of this embrace has problematic outcomes for the transformative potential of a politically engaged beginning farmer constituency. Embracing alternative imaginaries and mythologies may be a first step in forging a new farmer movement that provides equity across socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Property rights on First Nations reserve land

AbstractThis paper examines the economic effects of existing private property rights on First Nations reserves. We focus on three regimes of land tenure: lawful possession, designated land and permits. These land regimes have been used to create individual landholdings and grant secure and transferable rights of use of reserve land. Using confidential census microdata and rich administrative data, we find evidence of a positive relationship between the use of these tenure regimes and homeownership rates, housing conditions and band's public spending. We also observe a positive relationship with average income. However, this last result is driven by the inflow of a non‐Indigenous population not by improvements in Indigenous households’ income or on‐reserve employment. Our findings thus suggest that while reforms to individual property rights on reserve have some positive effects, their scope remains limited and they are unlikely to constitute a transformative tool to alleviate poverty on reserve.

RESOURCE STRUGGLE, RESULTANT REALITIES AND THE FUTURE OF MARAGOLI LAND USE

Land has remained one of the most basic and valuable economic resource right from the pre-colonial to the post independent Kenyan society. The success or failure of every society is always pegged on how prudent the society manages the resources within its reach in the midst of changes, challenges and opportunities that time and space avails every single moment. Being part of the Kenyan society, the Maragoli community has never been left out of the land question that has troubled Kenya over time. The pre-colonial Maragoli society had a land tenure system which was characterized by communal control of land together with its resources and practiced individual land ownership. Though land was communally owned at the general level, it was individually owned and tilled at the family level. The basis of land administration was the customary law executed by the elders who had the overall powers over the production resource. Through colonial policies such as alienation of the Africans’ land, confiscation of livestock, introduction of taxes and the cash economy; all these mechanisms brought about disequilibrium in the Maragoli pre-colonial land use. With this in mind therefore, this paper examined the nature and realities in resource struggle and the future of such struggles especially in regard to land use in the post-independence Kenya, using the case of the Maragoli. Through the articulation theory, this paper demonstrates that the interaction between the pre-colonial Maragoli land use practices and the colonial land policies greatly impacted on the Maragoli socio-economic and political structures. Due to the cash crop economy, the traditional Maragoli communal attitudes towards land as a resource are fading out resulting into individual emphasis on land use. This individual emphasis on land use is the major cause of uneconomical subdivision of land, insecurity and increased poverty. It is from the above perspective that the paper analyses the post-independence Maragoli land situation, some of the key causes of uneconomical subdivision of land and the possible solutions.

Anticipating changes in wildlife habitat induced by private forest owners' adaptation to climate change and carbon policy.

Conserving forests to provide ecosystem services and biodiversity will be a key environmental challenge as society strives to adapt to climate change. The ecosystem services and biodiversity that forests provide will be influenced by the behaviors of numerous individual private landowners as they alter their use of forests in response to climate change and any future carbon pricing policies that emerge. We evaluated the impact of forest landowners’ likely adaptation behaviors on potential habitat for 35 terrestrial, forest-dependent vertebrates across three U.S. Pacific states. In particular, we couple a previously estimated empirical-economic model of forest management with spatially explicit species’ range and habitat associations to quantify the effects of adaptation to climate change and carbon pricing on potential habitat for our focal species (amphibians, birds and mammals) drawn from state agency lists of species of conservation concern. We show that both climate change and carbon pricing policies would likely encourage adaptation away from currently prevalent coniferous forest types, such as Douglas-fir, largely through harvest and planting decisions. This would reduce potential habitat for a majority of the focal species we studied across all three vertebrate taxa. The total anticipated habitat loss for amphibians, birds and mammals considered species of state concern would exceed total habitat gained, and the net loss in habitat per decade would accelerate over time. Carbon payments to forest landowners likely would lead to unintended localized habitat losses especially in Douglas-fir dominant forest types, and encourage more hardwoods on private forest lands. Our study highlights potential tradeoffs that could arise from pricing one ecosystem service (e.g., carbon) while leaving others (e.g., wildlife habitat) unpriced. Our study demonstrates the importance of anticipating potential changes in ecosystem services and biodiversity resulting from forest landowners’ climate adaptation behavior and accounting for a broader set of environmental benefits and costs when designing policies to address climate change.

The Role Of Islamic Courts In Land Reforms In Pakistan

A vast majority of Muslim scholars opine that land reforms including the fixation of ceiling on individual land-holdings can be carried out without offending any Islamic teachings. Moreover, article 253 of the Constitution empowers the Parliament to prescribe the maximum limits as to property or any class thereof which may be owned, held, possessed or controlled by any person. Likewise, such reforms are considered essential as for as requirements of distributive justice is concerned and to further the desired Islamic goals of social justice, eradication of social evils and to ensure economic well-being of the poor attached to earth. To achieve these desired goals, land reforms laws were introduced in the country. However, the beneficiaries of feudalism and landlordism challenged these laws in the Islamic Courts to protect their vested interests. These judicial forums were split in their findings regarding the fate of these laws. This article analyses the findings of these forums to suggest that weather those who uphold these laws have stronger reasons.

Minnesota landowners’ trust in their department of natural resources, salient values similarity and wildlife value orientations

Due to extensive land conversion over the last century, much of the native prairie pothole ecosystem has been converted to agricultural or other human uses. The prairie pothole ecosystem is found in the northern plains of Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana. Because most of the land in this region is privately owned and used for agricultural production, most impacts to wildlife habitat are the result of decisions by individual landowners. Landowner trust in natural resource management agencies is important for agencies to effectively accomplish their mission. We measured the nature (competence and fairness) and level of trust that western Minnesota landowners have in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MnDNR) and landowners’ wildlife value orientations (WVO). Landowners rated MnDNR slightly higher in competence than fairness; however, these two dimensions were strongly correlated. We developed a MnDNR trust scale (six items) and a three-cluster model dividing landowners along the MnDNR trust scale, which we named Negative (28%), Neutral (43%), and Positive (29%). We provide evidence supporting the salient values similarity (SVS) model that states people have trust in agencies holding similar values; landowners reporting greater importance for wildlife consideration when making land-use decisions also reported greater trust in the MnDNR. In addition, mutualist landowners had the highest trust in the MnDNR and utilitarian landowners the lowest level of trust, which is opposite of the trust relationship reported for the general public with state wildlife agencies. Based on the SVS model, our results suggest that mutualist landowners perceive greater congruence with MnDNR goals related to wildlife habitat compared to utilitarian landowners.

Taking as giving, appropriation as access: transfers of land development rights and China’s recent experiments

Economic development at both the domestic and global levels is associated with increasing tensions which are inextricably linked to the meaning and allocation of property rights, which has a great impact on appropriation of resources and may lead to different paths of development. ‘Taking’ – the appropriation of private land for public needs – is a typical example that exhibits those tensions, posing a challenge to the conventional conception of property as individualistic and exclusive rights of possession, use and disposition and to the associated neoliberal model of development. Should the individual landowner be left to bear the cost of a regulatory intervention which endures to the wider benefit of the whole community? How can the tensions between private ownership and public regulation be mitigated? If we take the liberal concept of property, then private property seems to be in constant conflict with public interests and wider social concerns. Meanwhile, community, situating between the state and the individuals, and community’s relationship to development rights have not provoked enough discussion. The paper explores the different ways land development rights might be seen both in Western, essentially common law, systems and in China, especially now and in view of two case studies. An empirical example in Wugang, China, reveals the importance of integrating the ‘community lens’ proposed by Roger Cotterrell into studies of the transfer of land development rights. Reading through the community lens, taking could be giving and appropriation could also be access. This approach provides a new perspective to re-evaluate the relationship between legal appropriation and development.

Identifying social media user demographics and topic diversity with computational social science: a case study of a major international policy forum

When the world’s countries agreed on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, they recognized that equity and inclusion should be at the center of implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 15, which calls for protecting, restoring, and promoting the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, has spurred commitments to restore 350 million hectares of land by 2030. These commitments, primarily made in a top-down manner at the international scale, must be implemented by actively engaging individual landholders and local communities. Ensuring that diverse and marginalized audiences are engaged in the land restoration movement is critical to equitably distributing the economic benefits of restoration. This publication uses social network analysis and machine learning to understand how important the voices of Africans, women, and young people are in governing restoration in Africa. We analyze location- and machine learning-identified demographics from Twitter data collected during the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF), which is the world’s largest platform for promoting sustainable land use practices. Our results suggest that convening the GLF in Nairobi, Kenya elevated the voices of African leaders in comparison to the previous GLF in Bonn, Germany. We also found significant demographic differences in topic-level engagement between different ages, races, and genders. The primary contributions of this paper are a novel methodology for quantifying demographic differences in social media engagement and the application of social media and social network analysis to provide critical insights into the inclusivity of a large political conference aimed at engaging youth and African voices.

Land consolidation and creation of water user organizations for sustainable use and restoration of irrigation

The article presents the results of system analysis of the problems in irrigated agriculture and irrigation restoration in Ukraine. The results of classification of water and land use conditions within the irrigation systems are given in this paper. The methodological approaches to the development of integrated plans for consolidation of water and land resources have been elaborated. Based on the surveys and questionnaires in the studied regions, 5 groups of land fragmentation problems were identified, which are outlined in this study and illustrated on some examples with using maps. The following types of conditions of water use were distinguished: lease of land plots by one large farm or agroholding within the area of one or more water distribution channels of large irrigation systems; the using of lands of intra-farm irrigation systems, which typically belong to the territories of individual village councils and are served by several water intake structures, and a large number of medium and small tenants; the using by several tenants of an area serviced by one water intake structure or one pumping station; fragmentation of land use and land ownership conditions within a single field; the presence of land plots with different leases terms within the individual fields, used by one agricultural enterprise. According to the types of land use conditions, three options for integrated land consolidation plans for irrigation systems were proposed. In order to develop integrated land consolidation plans and to restore irrigation, a complex analysis of land use maps and maps of the projected irrigation area will be needed. Therfore, it is necessary to establish a dialogue with stakeholders, namely with all farms, farmers and individual landowners on drawing up the most economically and environmentally optimal land consolidation plan within irrigation restoration areas. When drawing up such a plan, it is necessary to carry out an expert evaluation of the different scenarios of irrigation restoration, taking into account the composition of crops, probable techniques and methods of irrigation. Once the consolidation plan has been agreed, it is important to have a permanent land users association in place to attract and invest in irrigation restoration and to operate the irrigation infrastructure after the restoration. The issues of creating Water User's associations (WUA) in the irrigation areas was considered; the role of associations and land consolidation in restoring the on-farm irrigation network was determined. The list of functions of Water User’s associations has been provided, the main one of which is the exploitation of on-farm irrigation systems and water distribution between water users.

On the governing of ‘gray’ trading spaces in Accra: multiple powers and ambiguous ‘worlding’ practices

Recent studies on ‘urban informality’ stress the role of the state in the production and governing of ‘gray spaces’. This paper contributes to this body of research by emphasising the multiple actors involved in the governance of informal land uses and their ambiguous positions on how these spaces should best be understood and approached. Based on an in-depth case study of ‘gray’ trading spaces in central Accra, I show that individual landowners in the vicinity of trading spots play a crucial role in the governing of roadside trading, together with state actors and traders. Furthermore, traders and state actors are both engaged in ambiguous ‘worlding practices’ that, on the one hand, envision Accra as becoming a city where street trade is eradicated, while, on the other hand, street trade is considered to be an opportunity for urban (economic) development. These varied perspectives imply that neither traders nor state bodies are uniform actors and that these groups are not necessarily positioned against each other.

Evaluating wildland fire liability standards – does regulation incentivise good management?

Fire spread on forested landscapes depends on vegetation conditions across the landscape that affect the fire arrival probability and forest stand value. Landowners can control some forest characteristics that facilitate fire spread, and when a single landowner controls the entire landscape, a rational landowner accounts for spatial interactions when making management decisions. With multiple landowners, management activity by one may impact outcomes for the others. Various liability regulations have been proposed, and some enacted, to make landowners account for these impacts by changing the incentives they face. In this paper, the effects of two different types of liability regulations are examined – strict liability and negligence standards. We incorporate spatial information into a model of land manager decision-making about the timing and spatial location of timber harvest and fuel treatment. The problem is formulated as a dynamic game and solved via multi-agent approximate dynamic programming. We found that, in some cases, liability regulation can increase expected land values for individual land ownerships and for the landscape as a whole. But in other cases, it may create perverse incentives that reduce expected land value. We also showed that regulations may increase risk for individual landowners by increasing the variability of potential outcomes.