Formal Land Research Articles

A neo-institutional analysis of alternative land registration systems in Tanzania: The cases of Babati and Iringa districts

Despite the availability of new technical tools and organizational adaptations to improve the efficiency and quality of land registration processes, few insights exist on how effective such reforms are. This article takes a closer look at such alternatives by carefully examining how they differ from existing processes and by assessing to which extent these truly enhance land tenure security. The investigation relies on a neo-institutional analysis of land administration processes. This analytical choice zooms in to institutional practices, behavior and effects. We chose to examine empirically non-state-led land formalization processes in the Babati and Iringa districts in Tanzania. The observed and aggregated findings on perceptions, beliefs and values indicate that institutional changes have indeed occurred, but that these changes with new technologies have not significantly led to a fundamental decrease in transaction costs and improvement in tenure security. Instead, costs have not persisted in monetary value but in terms of uncertainty due unrealized benefits of formalization. Most tenants with so-called Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO) have less benefited from accessing loans, formalization has not freed rural people from land disputes and still people have immense trust in customary practices. Explanatory factors reside around low value of produced CCROs, bank’s mistrust of CCROs because they not linked to national land management systems. Also, approaches of formalization apart from being replacement in nature, they are donor dependent and are in conflict with customary perceptions of security of land tenure systems. These outcomes suggest that the reforms have indeed only established new institutional forms but that these are not sustained nor integrated in customary procedures. Land tenure security is therefore not sufficiently improving. These findings call for a more detailed evaluation of the assumed benefits of the technological and organizational set-ups and of the assumed causal relation between land registration and tenure security.

Spatial Justice and Inner-City Development in Secondary Cities of Ghana: Implications for New Urban Agenda in the Global South

The process of urban change does not only occur on the outskirts of the city but also in the inner cities in the form of infilling and alterations to existing housing. An observed trend in most cities of the Global South is the concentration and development within the city centres. Using the Wa Municipality as case study, this study seeks to examine the dynamics of inner-city developments. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey and key informant interviews using questionnaires and interview guides, respectively. The findings indicate that inner-city congestion goes through a series of informal processes that lead to alterations of formal urban land plans without statutory approvals. The nature of expansion varies among buildings but largely takes the form of re-engineering of existing houses to create sanitary areas through self-help initiatives that have the potential of creating social and spatial injustices through encroachment in public spaces within the inner cities. A greater extent of this encroachment is led by the emerging upper- and middle-class households in this neighbourhood and subsequently create problems in the use of public spaces as the urban poor are deprived. As the New Urban Agenda has signified a profound opportunity for the planning profession, the results therefore suggest that there is the need for concerted efforts by city planners to prioritise inner cities in their quest to manage urban development.

Pioneers of the plantation economy: militarism, dispossession and the limits of growth in the Wa State of Myanmar

The characteristic mobility of highland populations in Southeast Asia relied to a large extent on their particular adaption to an ecological environment: swidden cultivation of tubers on mountain slopes. This ecology corresponded to cosmologies in which potency was limitless, or at least had no fixed and delimited precinct (as did the rice paddies and Buddhist realms in the valleys). Military state building, modern transport, and new crops and agricultural technologies have effectively ended swidden cultivation. In this article, I follow the pioneers of the plantation economy in the Wa State of Myanmar, who dispossess local populations of their land and employ them as plantation labour. The limits of growth and potency they encounter are (a) in the natural environment and (b) in the resistance of local populations. Yet, even though there are such limits, the potency to which these pioneers aspire is still limitless. It is however channelled through a new economy of life, epitomised in the plantation, nourished in excessive feasting, and maintained by the kinship dynamics of capture and care.

Grassroots and Global Governance: Can Global–Local Linkages Foster Food System Resilience for Small Northern Canadian Communities?

Communities in Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) are at the forefront of the global climate emergency. Yet, they are not passive victims; local-level programs are being implemented across the region to maintain livelihoods and promote adaptation. At the same time, there is a recent call within global governance literature to pay attention to how global policy is implemented and affecting people on the ground. Thinking about these two processes, we ask the question: (how) can global governance assist northern Indigenous communities in Canada in reaching their goals of adapting their food systems to climate change? To answer this question, we argue for a “community needs” approach when engaging in global governance literature and practice, which puts community priorities and decision-making first. As part of a collaborative research partnership, we highlight the experiences of Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation, located in Kakisa, NWT, Canada. We include their successes of engaging in global network building and the systemic roadblock of lack of formal land tenure. Moreover, we analyze potential opportunities for this community to engage with global governance instruments and continue connecting to global networks that further their goals related to climate change adaptation and food sovereignty.

Decentralization as a Strategy to Scale Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration: An Indian Perspective on Institutional Challenges

Many countries grapple with the intractable problem of formalizing tenure security. The concept of ‘fit-for-purpose land administration’ (FFPLA) offers a way forward by advocating a shift towards a more flexible, pragmatic and inclusive approach for land rights recording. Inherently, the process and outcome of implementing FFPLA will have significant socio-political ramifications but these have not received much attention in the literature; additionally, few papers have considered this in the context of decentralization, an endorsed strategy for implementing FFPLA. This paper contributes to this gap by critically analyzing three land formalization initiatives in India which have employed flexible recording approaches and where decentralization is used to scale implementation. The cases show how quickly decentralization can kickstart implementation at scale via collaborations with local governing bodies and partnerships with non-state actors. An institutionalist approach highlights ensuing political contests between new and traditional land actors that inhibit political authority, and the challenges of coordinating a network of public and private actors without clear formal collaborative governance structures to ensure democratic outcomes. In doing so, we contribute to governance knowledge around FFPLA implementation so that it is ‘fit-for-people’ and better able to support policies and processes to secure land rights at scale.

Building on “Traditional” Land Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in Rural Ghana: Adaptive or Anachronistic?

Despite the ongoing land administration reforms being implemented across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Ghana, as a viable pathway to achieve tenure security and greater efficiency in land administration, the subject of land dispute resolution has received relatively less attention. Whereas customary tenure institutions play a central role in land administration (controlling ~80% of all land in Ghana), they remain at the fringes of the formal land dispute adjudicatory process. Recognising the pivotal role of traditional institutions as development agents and potential vehicles for promoting good land governance, recent discourses on land tenure have geared toward mainstreaming traditional land dispute institutions into the architecture of the formal judicial process via alternative dispute resolution pathways. Yet, little is known, at least empirically, as to the operations of traditional dispute resolution institutions in the contemporary context. This study therefore explores the importance of traditional dispute resolution institutions in the management of land-related disputes in southcentral and western Ghana, drawing on data collated from 380 farming households operating 746 plots. The results show that contrary to the conventional thinking that traditional institutions are anachronistic and not fit for purpose, they remain strong and a preferred forum for land dispute resolution (proving resilient and adaptable), given the changing socio-economic and tenurial conditions. Yet, these forums have differing implications for different actors within the customary spheres accessing them. The results highlight practical ways for incorporating traditional dispute resolution in the overall land governance setup in Ghana and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. This has implications for redesigning context-specific and appropriate land-use policy interventions that address local land dispute resolution.

Distributive and contextual equity in landholder participation in biodiversity offsets: a case study of biodiversity offsets in New South Wales, Australia

ABSTRACT While the challenges represented by biodiversity offsets in terms of biodiversity outcomes have been scrutinised in the scientific literature, less attention has been paid to the equity challenges they represent, particularly with regard to landholders’ individual ability to participate in biodiversity offsets. We address this knowledge gap by providing insights into the factors that enable some landholders and prevent others to participate in the biodiversity offset scheme operating in New South Wales (NSW, Australia). To do so, we build on the literature on Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), which addresses a range of equity challenges related to PES, albeit with a specific focus on developing countries. Our results show that experience, access to resources and information, support through formal and informal networks and land size explain why some landholders manage to participate in the biodiversity offset scheme in NSW, while others do not. In the discussion, we focus on identifying the support non-participating landholders would need in order to participate in the scheme and we provide recommendations to improve the equity in landholders’ access to biodiversity offsets in New South Wales. We also discuss the specificity of equity dimensions in a developed country context.

Rural Land Market, Livelihood and Welfare among Households in Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria

With rapid population growth and resulting increased land fragmentation, landholding becomes smaller, negatively impacting on the living standard of rural households. Thus, the need to understand the potentials of land markets to improve rural households’ access to land through the adjustment of households’ landholding for livelihood activities, and its consequent effect on their welfare. This paper examined the relationship between rural land market, livelihood and welfare among households in Oyo state, Southwest Nigeria. Using a structured questionnaire, a survey was conducted on a sample of 200 respondents, who were selected through multistage sampling procedure. Descriptive statistics, Land Market Index (LMI), Tobit model and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the primary data. Results show that majority (74.0%) of households were involved in crop farming with mean income of ₦53 833.33 (±26 784.560), which was relatively higher than livestock ₦31 567.08 (±20 897.47). The mean total monthly expenditure was ₦26 548.50 (±8945.5692). Identified land transaction methods include purchase (76.3%), lease (19.8%), and rent (3.9%). On the average, 97.0% of land held by households were acquired through market (LMI=0.97). Sex and household status had significant positive effects on the extent of households’ participation in land market at p<0.01. Also, LMI, crop farming and livestock farming had significant positive effect on households’ welfare. Obtaining land through market for livelihood activities promotes households’ welfare. Rural land market and livelihood activities have significant positive effects on the welfare of farmers. There is need for Government to facilitate formal land markets in rural areas.

Can ceding planning controls for major projects support metropolitan housing supply and diversity? The case of Sydney, Australia

Local land use planning policies and decision-making processes are often perceived as a barrier to new housing production, particularly higher density housing in established areas. In the context of wider debates about the impact of local regulatory planning on housing supply and diversity, this paper examines the outcomes of a policy experiment that was introduced in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), which is home to the Sydney metropolitan region, in 2005. The Major Projects reform enabled developers of large projects, including residential and mixed use projects to bypass local planning controls and to have their project approved by the Minister for Planning on a discretionary basis, in many instances, negating the need for formal land rezoning. Based on a detailed analysis of development applications that were determined under the Major Projects reform, we examine whether ceding local land use regulations enabled housing approvals above what would be permitted under local land use policy and whether approved dwellings supported key metropolitan housing and spatial development goals, including increased housing supply and diversity through urban consolidation. We find that the reform did result in housing approvals, particularly for higher density infill development, that would likely not have been permitted by local governments. However, by 2016, not all approved projects had commenced. Overall the results highlight the limitations of ceding power to the market to achieve housing supply and affordability goals.

Process of informal land transaction: A case study in the peri-urban area of Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa attracts many people creating need for land. But, formal land delivery is hopelessly inefficient. As a result, many people opt for buying urban fringe land informally. The aim of this article is to understand informal land transformation process in Kolfe Keranyo, a sub city of Addis Ababa. Observation, interviews, focus group discussions and a questionnaire survey were used to obtain the empirical data. This study has also benefited from various secondary sources. As the results of the study shows, the process of informal land transformation passes through different stages. These include identifying a land for sale, negotiating on land size, bargaining on land price, demarcating the land to be sold, and finally, documenting land right transfer though traditional letter of agreement (contract of sale). Land brokers, local residents, gatekeepers, local laborers, friends/relatives and local officials serve as sources of information about availability of land for sale. Elders, leaders of traditional social institutions, community leaders, neighbors, and relatives/friends play important role in regulating informal land transformation. Informal land delivery is a response to inefficient formal land delivery. It is, thus, important to create efficient formal land delivery system to suit the requirements of all for whom it is intended and make state rules and regulations appropriate to the situations they are meant to mediate. It is also necessary to give a space for informal actors in urban management and incorporate positive innovations in policy formulation.

On the Innovative Design of Urban Squares Based on the Background of Digital Technology

Urban square is an important place for modern people’s lives, but there exists a common phenomenon of pursuing formal beauty and wide land occupation while ignoring the participation and experience of the users, and lack of innovation. Based on the concept of humanized design, this paper explores the two-way interactive relationship between urban square and the user “people” under the background of digital technology, and fully perceive the mental needs and behavioral pattern of users, by analyzing different groups and types of their activities so as to contribute to a better innovative design of urban squares.

A global review of the impact of forest property rights interventions on poverty

Secure property rights are widely understood as critical for socio-economic development and sustainable land management in forested areas. Policies and programs, ranging from devolution of specific resource rights to formal land titling, have therefore been implemented to strengthen forest tenure and property rights in countries around the world. Despite the prevalence and importance of these efforts, however, systematic understanding of their effects on poverty remains lacking. We address this gap by systematically reviewing evidence on the impact of forest property rights interventions on poverty worldwide. We drew from a systematic map of evidence on forest-poverty links (Cheng et al., 2019) and used a population-intervention-comparator-outcome (PICO) framework to identify relevant studies. Our final dataset included 61 articles published from 2002 to 2016 comprising 91 case studies across 24 countries. Of these, only 11 articles (22 cases) used quasi-experimental methods to control for confounders. We find that almost all studied interventions (n = 88; 97%) focused on rights to access a forest area or withdraw resources from it. Relatively few studied interventions supported the more extensive property rights of exclusion (32%) and alienation (10%). Overall, reported impacts on both income/consumption and capital/assets dimensions of poverty were generally positive or mixed. Results from more robust quasi-experimental assessments showed greater variation, with case studies as likely to report negative as positive impacts on both poverty dimensions. We find tentative support for the economic theory that more secure property rights yield positive welfare effects. However, the paucity of evidence from more robust impact assessments constrains our ability to draw generalizable conclusions about the poverty impacts of different kinds of forest property rights interventions.

Akimiski Island, Nunavut, Canada: The Use of Cree Oral History and Sea-Level Retrodiction to Resolve Aboriginal Title

On 1 April 1999, Akimiski Island of the western James Bay region of northern Ontario, Canada, was included in the newly formed territory of Nunavut, Canada—an Inuit-dominated territory—even though the Inuit had never asserted Aboriginal title to the island. By contrast, the Omushkegowuk Cree of the western James Bay region have asserted Aboriginal title to Akimiski Island. The Government of Canada by their action (or inaction) has reversed the onus of responsibility for proof of Aboriginal title from the Inuit to the Cree. In other words, the Government of Canada did not follow their own guidelines and the common-law test for proof of Aboriginal title. In this paper, we documented and employed Cree oral history as well as a sea-level retrodiction (based on state-of-the-art numerical modeling of past sea-level changes in James Bay), which incorporated a modified ICE-6G ice history and a 3-D model of Earth structure, to establish that criterion 2 of the test for Aboriginal title has now been fully met. In other words, Cree traditional use and occupancy of Akimiski Island was considered sufficiently factual at the time of assertion of sovereignty by European nations. As all the criteria of the common-law test for proof of Aboriginal title in Canada, with respect to Akimiski Island, have now been addressed, the Cree have sufficient basis to initiate the process of a formal land claim.

Farmland investments in Tanzania: The impact of protected domestic markets and patronage relations

Abstract Since the global land rush began in 2008, an abundance of studies have either documented the international and domestic drivers of the phenomenon or assessed the local impact of new land acquisition dynamics. However, beyond acquisition processes, the effect of farmland investments on economic growth in developing countries remains highly uncertain. In particular, the implementation gap remains substantial. Meanwhile, little is known about how global processes and national politics shape the socio-economic impact of such projects once they are operational, or why some investors are more successful than others in operationalizing their investment. This article explores these issues through a case study analysis of a large-scale land deal involving Kagera Sugar, a Tanzanian firm operating within a protected national market. Focusing on the company’s contract farming scheme and the politicization of land formalization, I argue that Kagera Sugar’s impact on the agrarian political economy reflects its ability to cultivate patronage relations at the national and local level. My findings support the argument that, from a socio-economic perspective, farmland investments tend to consolidate existing local processes of differentiation. Furthermore, the article sheds new light on the role played by patronage relations in shaping production models, practices, and outcomes at the local level. Finally, I underscore the importance of viewing operationalization through a political lens, insofar as political patronage plays a key role in ensuring operational profitability.

The Suitability of Institutional Arrangement and Policy Assessment Indicator in Malaysia’s Land Administration System

A quality assessment framework that assesses the performance of institutional arrangement of land administration is essentially needed considering the framework is where the legal process and property rights are ensured. Land Governance Assessment Framework (LGAF) by World Bank is developed as a diagnostic instrument to assess country’s land administration system at national or sub-national level. This study explored the appropriateness of this assessment framework by interviewing experts from Department of Land and Mines, Department of Surveying and Mapping in Penang Land and Mines Office, and Department of Town Planning and Consumer Association of Penang to determine the suitability based on twelve indicators of institutional arrangement and policy highlighted in LGAF. The result shows that, out of twelve indicators, only eleven indicators are highly suitable to be evaluate by Malaysia’s land administration system. Through this study, a formal land administration system can be supported and guided via the scheduled evaluations based on the indicators which will be a beneficial for land authorities.

Identifying New Approaches for U.S. Drug Policy using Ownership, Location, and Internalization Factors

Abstract Dunning’s Eclectic Paradigm is used to assess the effectiveness and impact of U.S. drug prohibition policy on economic growth and political stability in Latin American countries as well as the decision making of Latin American Transnational Criminal Enterprises (TCE) in the cocaine-coca market. Results showed U.S. drug prohibition policy reduces the on-site supply but does not significantly reduce the transportation of cocaine and coca. U.S. drug prohibition policy also generated political instability for the region, and revealed policy externalities that facilitated TCE expansion. Tougher U.S. drug prohibition policy advances TCE by amplifying the impact that unemployment and local wages have on increases in cocaine-coca production, and by limiting the impact of control of corruption and economic freedom on coca eradication. Our results signal that a site-specific approach accompanied with policies that improve the farmers’ economic freedom, such as land formalization rights, and policies that lower unemployment rate facilitate effective U.S. drug prohibition policy.

‘We have been awake for years’: conflicting ecologies in an indigenous land management scheme in Indonesia

AbstractAs access to and control of land is increasingly contested, indigenous land management schemes promise to secure formal land rights. This article is concerned with one such scheme, Dayak, Wake Up (Dayak Misik) in Indonesia. The implementation of the scheme, orchestrated by a Dayak farmers’ organization, was rejected by the semi‐nomadic Punan Murung as they did not share the same notions and conceptions of land and resources, which are intertwined with struggles over access and control. Framed with the concept of conflicting ecologies, thereby combining material political ecology with phenomenological and relational approaches, this article elaborates on different conceptions, relations, and terms of engagement with nature by the Punan Murung and representatives of the Dayak farmers’ organization, which are strongly interlinked with power relations. I show that the ecology of ethnically framed territorialization by the organization is hegemonic and subordinates the Punan Murung's alternative place‐based ecology.

Gatekeeping Access: Shea Land Formalization and the Distribution of Market-Based Conservation Benefits in Ghana’s CREMA

Community Resource Management Areas (CREMAs) in Ghana combine conservation and development objectives and were introduced in the year 2000. In some cases, they have connected collectors of shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) nuts with certified organic world markets, which can be understood as a ‘market-based’ approach to conservation. This paper examines how the benefits of this approach are distributed and argues that shea land formalization is crucial to this process. It makes this argument by drawing on interviews within two communities bordering Mole National Park. One community accepted to engage with, and benefitted from this approach, while the other did not. The paper analyzes narratives from different actors involved regarding why and how the market-based approach was accepted or rejected. It shows that, contrary to the neoliberal principles that underlie market-based conservation, a utility maximization rationale did not predominantly influence the (non-)engagement with this conservation approach. Instead, it was the history of land relations between communities and the state that influenced the decisions of the communities. We highlight the role of traditional authorities and NGOs brokering this process and unpack who in the communities profited and who was left out from benefits from this market-based conservation initiative.

Impact of Land Act of 1995 on Customary, State and Church Lands

The article sets out to examine the concept of customary or traditional land within the context of Zambia’s dual land system that is categorized as: customary/traditional land. In turn, the traditional land is controlled, allocated, and regulated through the Chiefs. Then there is formal land that is owned and controlled by the State through the Commissioner of Lands who works in consultation with the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government and its District Councils. The article will thus examine the history of dual land system in Zambia; and will further evaluate the Land Act of 1995, whose purpose was to propose a wave of new land system reforms. The latter was intended to establish a more efficient system of land tenure conversion in Zambia. The article also examines the administration of conversion process of traditional/customary and State land. The article sets out on the premise that without effective tenure conversion policies in administering land, sustainable development in both traditional or customary and State areas will be hampered. To this effect, the issue of boundaries in customary or traditional communities will be discussed as a way of building territorial integrity and land management in customary land, through cadastral surveys that is apparent with the rise in population and demand for market-based activities in rural areas. The article will argue that without clearly defined systems of administration and demarcation of boundaries, between customary/traditional and State/formal lands in Zambia, this process will be prone to more land conflicts hindering socio-economic progress. Hence, the aim of the article is to investigate how the United Church of Zambia’s land has been administered and managed, considering the fact that most of its land is based both in customary/traditional areas that are controlled by the Chiefs and formal or State lands that are largely controlled by the government institutions. The methodology that will be used in or der to examine how the United Church of Zambia manages and administer its land will be qualitative methodology. The article will conclude that there is need for the United Church of Zambia to develop a land management policy that will assist the Church to manage and administer its lands that is both located in the traditional and government areas. Above all, the Church needs to ensure that leasehold conversion that is both customary and traditional authorities through the local Chiefs and the government through its Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, Commissioner of Lands, together with the Ministry of Local Government are legitimately acquired.

Factors impacting on effective implementation of land title registration – a perspective from Ghana

Many governments across Sub Saharan Africa are in the process of introducing or improving land registration and formal titling systems. One of the stated aims is to achieve modern land information management in order to facilitate the development of the land market. It is often assumed that, because formal systems and institutions have enjoyed some positive outcomes in terms of realising wealth in developed countries, they will succeed equally well in developing economies. However, findings from empirical studies across several developing countries show that the performance of formal land registration systems has been mixed. Relying on empirical data from two major cities in Ghana, this paper examines the operations of land registration system with particular reference to its land information management aspects. The analysis shows that a divergence in the implementation of principles of the legal framework and organisational challenges are major contributory factors to deficiencies in the land information regime of the land registration system. Hence, there is a need for effective implementation of well-crafted and functional legal frameworks for land registration, to ensure that the principles and operations of land registration are locally relevant and sensitive. To address the inadequate organisational capacity there is a need to improve the capacity of the human resource base of the officials of the formal land administration sector. The procedure for land registration must also be streamlined in order to eliminate unnecessary requirements and thereby reduce the transaction time, costs of registration and frustration of clients.