Land Ownership Patterns Research Articles

Transforming Agricultural Land into Residential Areas: A Socio-Economic Study in Tamiang Subdistrict, Mandailing Natal Regency

The conversion of agricultural land into residential areas has become increasingly prevalent due to rapid population growth and the rising demand for housing development. This process presents various challenges, particularly for communities that rely on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood. This study aims to examine the socio-economic impacts of agricultural land conversion into residential areas in Tamiang Village, Kotanopan Subdistrict, Mandailing Natal Regency, North Sumatra Province. Using a qualitative method with data collected through observation, interviews, and literature review, the study found that land conversion in Tamiang Village has reduced the amount of agricultural land, altered land ownership patterns, and shifted livelihoods from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors. Factors such as population growth, economic motivations, inheritance considerations, and the strategic location of the land are the main drivers of this conversion. The findings of this study provide insights into the socio-economic dynamics in rural areas and offer considerations for formulating policies that balance residential development with agricultural sustainability.

Amish Land Ownership within Wisconsin

ABSTRACT Rapid growth of Amish settlement within Wisconsin over the past 60 years has brought 200,000 acres of land under Amish ownership. This paper studies patterns of Amish landownership within 27 settlements, representing 71 percent of Wisconsin’s Amish church districts, and illustrates differing average land ownership per household and degrees of land dispersal and concentration among the settlements. Average household land ownership ranged from 27.7 to 86.6 acres among the studied Old Order Amish settlements. Most Amish owned lands are dispersed among lands that remain under “English” ownership. Older and larger settlements display greater concentrations of Amish owned lands, whether measured by maximum acreage per survey section within the settlement, average owned acreage per section, and presence or absence of non-contiguous sections of Amish owned lands. Amish church affiliation, origins of Amish within the settlements, and types of occupational engagement also appear related to these differences. Keywords: agriculture, Amish, landownership, Old Orders, Wisconsin

The necessity of pragmatic muddling. Ten Swedish early adopter cities navigating climate adaptation policy-implementation in the urban built environment

While climate adaptation planning and implementation is gradually increasing across the globe, there is a documented gap between what is done and what needs to be done. Researchers have documented climate adaptation efforts at the strategic policy-making level and in urban planning practices, but less is known about how cities navigate the intricacies of climate adaptation policy-progression in the existing built environment. Contributing to the analytical unpacking of how to reduce policy implementation gaps, this paper targets ten Swedish early adopter cities seeking to proactively and pragmatically progress with their climate adaptation efforts from policy-formation to implementation in the urban built environment. Qualitative analyses of interviews and policy-documents illustrate that the cities, despite their early adopter status, struggle with stepwise policy-progression and get stuck when approaching implementation. Ensuring appropriate climate adaptation in the existing urban built environment becomes problematic due to current legal distribution of responsibilities, diverse land-ownership patterns and path-dependent structures and configurations within cities that are dense, intricate and tightly developed over of time. We identify three pragmatic action-strategies adopted to create solution space and allowing the cities to proceed: event-driven, target-driven and opportunity-driven climate adaptation, each having their advantages and disadvantages for ensuring urban robustness, as well as different requirements for up-scaling. The analysis enables important lessons of climate adaptation policy-progression, the promise and pitfalls of stepwise adaptation and the necessity of pragmatic muddling that is required to make climate adaptation work in the existing urban built environment.

Legal Issues in Land Acquisition for Agricultural Production in Nigeria

Land is the nations’ most valuable asset, as it provides sustenance. Legally speaking, land tenure in Nigeria is a complicated web of connections between many organizations that establishes land ownership patterns in connection to various land uses. This study examined the legal issues in land acquisition for agricultural production in Nigeria. Secondary data sourced from books, journals, and the internet were used. Normative legal research techniques were adopted to discuss legal issues in land acquisition, while qualitative content analysis was used to ascertain the level of agricultural production in Nigeria, as well as the relationship between land acquisition and agricultural production in Nigeria. The study’s findings showed that Nigeria's land tenure system supports land partitioning (land fragmentation), which leads to scattered small-scale farming. Tenure rules stipulated in the Nigerian Land Use Act of 1978 hinder agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Additional relevant factors and challenges influencing Nigeria's agricultural production include land tenure insecurity, and political and bureaucratic bottlenecks in the acquisition of land rights for agricultural uses. To ensure improved agricultural productivity, the government should initiate and implement a new land tenure reform that will address the inherent challenges in the current land tenure system.

On solid ground? Manumitted slaves, land ownership and registration in eighteenth-century Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT In pre-industrial societies subsistence agriculture played a crucial role in ensuring survival, not just for people born free, but also for those born into slavery. Within the legal framework of colonial structures, certain owners granted their enslaved individuals temporary usage rights to parcels of land upon their emancipation, and in rare cases, even bestowed permanent ownership. This article wants to study land ownership patterns of manumitted slaves in eighteenth-century Sri Lanka, when the island’s coastal territories were subject to the influence of the Dutch East India Company. By examining Dutch-language last wills from the period 1702 to 1765 we analyze the patterns of land donations by former owners to their freed slaves. By establishing connections between these donations and the detailed land registers of suburban districts surrounding the cities of Colombo and Galle, our objective is to uncover the shortand long-term implications of land ownership for the manumitted individuals and their families. Furthermore, this article also reflects on the implications of negotiated registration practices of such land ownership with a colonial power for the manumitted slaves. What did the label ‘manumitted’ or ‘free’ slave entail in Sri Lanka’s society, and how did registration in Dutch bureaucracy influence those labelling practices?

Assessing ecological and socio‐political factors in site selection for ocelot reintroduction in Texas

AbstractWildlife reintroduction site selection requires the consideration of not only a species' ecology but also socio‐political factors that may impact conservation efforts. These socio‐political dimensions may be especially important for endangered carnivore reintroductions on private lands in the United States, where landowner support for the reintroduction is a necessity given landowner concerns about ecological and legal impacts of carnivore restoration. We designed an assessment to identify potential sites for reintroduction of the federally endangered ocelot (Leopardus pardalis pardalis) in Texas, a state where over 97% of lands are privately owned. We incorporated International Union for Conservation of Nature recommendations into a geospatial analysis evaluating potential reintroduction sites based on site size, ecological and life history requirements of ocelots, potential natural and anthropogenic threats, and the socio‐political context of each site. We identified the five highest‐ranking sites that had species‐specific suitable landscape structure of woody cover, fine‐scale vegetative cover, minimal natural and anthropogenic threats, and that present land ownership patterns that are logistically feasible for conservation planners to navigate. Our assessment provided information for ocelot conservation planning and established a framework for incorporating private land data into large‐scale assessments of wildlife reintroduction sites on private lands.

Use of ecosystem services and land ownership to prioritize conservation areas on Jeju Island, Republic of Korea

In the face of ecological challenges, sustainable implementation of conservation strategies necessitates a delicate balance between ecosystem services, biodiversity, land ownership, and cost considerations. This study presents a conservation strategy for Jeju Island, Republic of Korea, an area renowned for its unique ecological features. We developed the strategy by evaluating 12 scenarios involving the establishment of protected areas (PAs) and the use of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). The purpose of this evaluation was not to enhance ecosystem services and biodiversity directly but rather to identify strategies that could achieve these goals in a financially feasible way, considering the various cost and land ownership factors. Our findings revealed that conservation prioritization targets are primarily located in the central and eastern regions of Jeju Island, where ecosystem services are concentrated, and levels of biodiversity are high. The expansion of conservation targets from 17% to 30% entailed increased costs, largely due to the increased inclusion of private lands and agricultural areas. The introduction of OECMs provided a means to improve ecological network and representation within conservation networks. We also found that applying penalties to improve the boundary lengths of PAs could lead to more cost-effective conservation strategies. Although expanding conservation targets to 30% led to significant shifts in land ownership patterns and increased conservation costs, the benefits to biodiversity and provision of ecosystem services were substantial. This study provided valuable insights into the determination of conservation planning through the harmonization of biodiversity prot ection, provision of ecosystem services, and consideration of economic costs related to patterns of land use and ownership. The results can aid policymakers and stakeholders in making informed decisions about resource allocation in biodiversity conservation.

Who owns the land? Socio-cultural and economic drivers of unequal agrarian land ownership in climate-vulnerable coastal Bangladesh

In agrarian society, land is a critical resource. Not only does access to arable land increase food security and household income, it also provides resources to cope with any environmental stresses. In most cases, in the low-income developing regions land distribution is very heterogeneous. Based on empirical research in coastal Bangladesh, this article explores patterns in land ownership among the local farmers, discussing how gender, ethnicity, religion, and status relate to farm size, playing a critical role in shaping the heterogeneous distribution of land ownership. Historical patterns of inequality and marginality influence land distribution patterns as the historical ‘Zamindar system’ in the region reinforced elite control. Colonial and post-colonial expansion into climate-vulnerable regions fuelled land expropriation. Cultural constructions of gender create challenges for females owning land. These legacies impact current land ownership patterns. Land distribution informs who is struggling with limited resources and who needs financial subsidies or other forms of support in times of crisis. Even though this paper has a regional focus, it provides critical insights and caution about overlooked assumptions of resource distribution, poverty, and development that can be applied to other parts of the Global South facing similar social, economic and postcolonial legacies.

Perampasan Tanah dan Perlawanan Petani: Dampak Perkebunan Sawit terhadap Kehidupan Masyarakat di Pasaman Barat Tahun 1980-2022

This research examines "Land Grabbing and Farmer Resistance: The Impact of Oil Palm Plantations on People’s Life in West Pasaman during 1980-2022". Forests belonging to indigenous peoples encountered land grabbing and conversion into oil palm plantations. Land grabbing is a common phenomenon in West Pasaman. The purpose of this research are to find out the pattern of land ownership in West Pasaman from 1980-2022, strategy of land grabbing, the resistance of oil palm farmers, Fourthly, and the impact of the widespread land grabbing activities on oil palm plantations in West Pasaman. This research used a multidimensional approach. For this reason, social science theories such as economics, anthropology and sociology were used to explain the subject matter. This method strategy is important to be able to analyze the research topic more comprehensively. The method used was historical method including heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The result of research shows that the expansion of oil palm plantations is putatively more than 70% of land in West Pasaman controlled by large companies, while the rest of 30% is for the people in West Pasaman. Large plantations did land acquisition successfully in various ways such as buying land, cooperation with traditional leaders, and land grabbing. The land grabbing results in various effects: people losing their land, displaced communities, poverty, no place to stand and farmer resistance. In conclusion, the expansion of oil palm plantations has generated various conflicts within community. The main sources of conflict are land grabbing and socio-economic inequality in the community. This then led to the farmer’s resistance against the rulers and entrepreneurs of oil palm plantations.

The Patterns of Ownership and the Registration of Customary Land in Manggarai Regency, Indonesia

This research analyzes ownership patterns and the process of legalizing customary land in Manggarai Regency. The research method used is qualitative with a descriptive approach and uses secondary data. Normative socio-juridical methods are also used to view and analyze the research data that has been collected. Data was collected through observations and interviews with traditional elders and members of traditional communities. The results showed that the legalization of Ulayat land greatly affected the pattern of land ownership in Manggarai and the change of entities from indigenous land to non-indigenous land that was initially jointly controlled or communal into individual rights due to the legalization or registration of land. Legalization of Ulayat land with a public dimension can only be done by measuring, mapping, and recording it in the land register. Meanwhile, Ulayat land with private dimensions can be issued a land certificate for individuals with a release mechanism from the customary leader to be used as state land. This legalization resulted in the depreciation of Ulayat land and the fading of customary bonds in Manggarai. This research provides insight into land legalization's legal and social impacts on Manggarai, highlighting significant changes in ownership structures and the loss of customary values.

ENGAGING COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA: EVALUATING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE EXPROPRIATION OF LAND WITHOUT COMPENSATION BILL

The post-1994 era in the South African public imagination was envisaged to herald widespread and transformative efforts to reverse the gross injustices and human rights violations inflicted over many decades of apartheid and colonialism. One of the key measures initiated by the democratic government to drive this nation building project was the land reform programme. The ‘land question’, which is a popular tagline in South Africa when reference is made to land reform, has come to define the general discourse of socioeconomic disadvantage and change in the post-apartheid and post-colonial period – similarly to other former settler colonies in the African continent and the broader Global South. For South Africa though, this specific issue has been characterised by numerous challenges and failures largely at the level of the state, wherein a significant lack of public engagement, public participation and democratic redistribution was not being done according to ‘the will of the people’. On several occasions, the South African state has gone on a ‘solo crusade’ to implement the land reform programme under complex conditions that are largely unfavoured by ordinary people ‘on the ground’ – especially those who were the primary victims of land dispossession under colonialism and apartheid. As a result, over the past few years, indigenous black communities across the country especially in (semi)urban and township areas have voluntarily ‘occupied’ land at their own will and sometimes ‘illegally’, to take up settlement space and determine their lives on the land of their birth. Beyond the public discourse of ‘land invasions’ and ‘failed land reform projects’, this study was conducted to closely understand the extent to which public engagement and participation has been integral in the systematic mechanism(s) to transform the patterns of land ownership and control in the democratic South Africa. To do this, the site of KwaZakhele, Silvertown, in Port Elizabeth was selected to conduct the study. Methodologically, qualitative semi-structured interviews were utilised to conduct the study and the Marxist Concept of Citizenship was selected as a theoretical framework for the study by the researcher. The study has found that, amongst the general legislative and political shortfalls of public participation breakdown, there are other deep seated structural socioeconomic issues that are at the root of the problem – such as economic inequalities and very low prospects of social mobility – which collectively reproduce the persistent inadequacies of political instability and social unrest in the area. The study recommends an astute combination of ‘bottom-up’ active citizenship and major socioeconomic transformation in the area as a systematic and structural mechanism to empower the community of Silvertown to be the champion of its own liberation struggle for the freedom of its people to own land and democratically participate in their own governance, self-determination, and prosperity.

Land Ownership of Climate Migrants in Dhaka City Slum

An increasing number of Bangladeshis have recently migrated from rural to urban areas due to climate change is a matter of concern. Many people migrated from their place of origin to Dhaka city slums due to the influence of the climate and various economic and social reasons. Climate migrants start living in urban slums for a better and more secure life. They permanently reside and work in Dhaka without owning a house, but gradually, many acquire houses and land. The study provides information on the tenants’ ownership of land in the slums of Dhaka. The purpose of this study is the process and financial challenges of land ownership and building houses in the slums of Dhaka city. This study examines land ownership patterns among climate migrants of the Korail slum in Dhaka city. Using a mixed-methods approach, including purposive sampling, key informant interviews, and in-depth qualitative interviews, the researcher investigated the process and challenges of acquiring land ownership. Results indicate that financial constraints and informal networks play crucial roles in land acquisition. These findings have implications for urban planning policies and climate migration management in rapidly growing cities.

Village plan for disaster mitigation (case study: Reconstruction of Gampong Pande post-earthquake and tsunami disaster)

Gampong Pande on the north coast of Banda Aceh city which was destroyed after the 2004 earthquake and tsunami has been reconstructed with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with a comprehensive approach. One of the important steps taken for future disaster mitigation is to develop a village plan. The village plan was prepared with the aim of rebuilding the village and its inhabitants with a “build back better” approach. The community participation approach is carried out while respecting local culture but trying to introduce ecological aspects as part of disaster mitigation as well as economic resources. Village plans are also prepared based on efforts to minimize changes the existing land ownership patterns to avoid social conflicts, so that massive and careful social and land ownership data collection is carried out. To increase safety efforts during the earthquake and tsunami disaster, proper access is made for all land and houses to the ideal evacuation route. In addition to rebuilding houses to standards that are in accordance with the building code, the village plan is also presenting the development of better environmental infrastructure and facilities as part of efforts to rebuild community livelihoods after the disaster. Environmental quality improvement is also carried out by utilizing local coastal plants for ecological disaster as well as for community economic improvement.

Intermittent mobility as a livelihood strategy for landless rural people in Andhra Pradesh

ABSTRACT This article analyses the multiple causes and temporalities of mobility between the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai’s Madh Island in India. For several decades, the fisheries of Madh Island have been the destination of migrant workers from the rain-shadow region of Rayalaseema. Development practitioners, researchers, and the media have generally addressed migration from Rayalaseema in the context of droughts. Problematizing narratives focused on exceptional weather events, I suggest that for landless lower-caste people, who constitute the majority of migrants, everyday life is characterized by stable instability related to climate, government policy, land ownership patterns, and the vagaries of informal work. Disrupting conventional binaries between forced/voluntary movement and temporary/permanent migration, I develop the notion of intermittent mobility to characterize how migrants creatively combine urban and rural opportunities in their efforts to live with multicausal stable instability and build a better future for their children. Intermittent mobility as a rhythm of life reflects not only migrants’ strategic intentionality but also their position within a field of unequal power relations; while generated by structural vulnerability, mobility can be an important source of intergenerational resilience.

Public Procurement, Land Ownership and Agricultural Price Variation Across States: The Case of Paddy Cultivation in India

The markets for agricultural crops have always been segmented. Although agricultural price policy in India is largely focused on declaring minimum support price (MSP), for select crops at all Indian levels the price for any crop has hardly been unique for the country. In this context, the paper tries to understand how far prices of paddy have been different across states. To what extent such price policies, primarily the public procurement system, are instrumental in the determination of actual price differentials realized by farmers across states. The paper draws its analysis from unit-level data of the 77th round of the National Sample Survey on the situation assessment of farmers (2018–2019). The paper evaluates some of the possible factors such as government procurements of paddy, land ownership patterns, percentage of farmers selling in the regulated markets, among others, in the context of price determination of paddy. The paper also seeks the link between local market price and average price in the regulated markets in different states.

Suburban pastoralists: Pastoral adaptation strategies at the rural-urban interface in Nairobi, Kenya

How does urban expansion interact with pastoral climate change adaptation? This article explores pastoral adaptation strategies at the rural-urban interface. It examines how Maasai pastoralists in peri-urban Nairobi, Kenya, respond to climate hazards in the context of urban expansion, land use change, and land privatisation. Using mixed-method research, the study is informed by a household survey (n = 72), 38 qualitative interviews, and 12 focus group discussions. Drawing on the literature on climate change adaptation, pastoral change, and peri-urban dynamics, we find that while urban expansion provides significant challenges for pastoral livelihoods in the study area, pastoralists also engage new opportunities in the peri-urban context and employ them in their adaptation strategies. We show how adaptation strategies related to mobility, diversification, market exchange, and storage are employed through a variety of efforts including engagement with urban land markets and demand for livestock products, and by capitalising on proximity to transport, trading facilities, water, and commercial fodder. Communal pooling, another adaptation strategy, is less used and perceived to be in decline. We further find that historical land ownership patterns play a significant role in adaptation strategies, as pastoralists who have benefitted from rangeland privatisation are able to convert high peri-urban land values into private rural land access and investments in, e.g. diversification. Poor households are in a more precarious position but draw on informal agreements to access land as part of their adaptation strategies. Our findings highlight how pastoral households at the rural-urban interface may draw actively on peri-urban opportunities in their adaptation strategies as part of their efforts to enhance livelihoods, and in so doing bridge peri-urban and rural space. More broadly, our study highlights the importance of understanding pastoral climate change adaptation in the context of wider changes in livelihoods, land use, and land rights, rather than as isolated actions.Graphical

Land grabbing and the implications for the right to development in Africa

The indispensability ofland for agriculture and the extraction of the natural resources thereon to sustain industrialisation and economic growth processes across the world have orchestrated a significant change in patterns of land ownership and use in Africa where evictions and displacement of local communities from their ancestral lands have become legion as a result of persistent land grabbing. This situation has had a concomitant negative implication for the potential of local communities in Africa to develop socio-economically and culturally, with a corresponding negative impact on their right to development. It is not clear whether the right to development enshrined in the African Charter could be relied upon to achieve Africa's development prospects, particularly with the prevalence of land grabbing across the continent. Taking land as a major contributing factor to socio-economic and cultural development, we argue that land grabbing not only contravenes but also bars prospects of making the right to development a reality for the peoples of Africa. Based on the doctrinal research methodology, we critically review the normative contents of the right to development in conjunction with other relevant provisions under the African Charter. We question whether the right to development affords prospects for socio-economic and cultural advancement in the face of land grabbing in Africa. Concerning the adverse impact of land grabbing, the article concludes that it is crucial for African states to re-think their right to development obligations and the land ownership and land use policy prerogatives relevant to protecting the livelihood sustainability interests of their peoples.

Mapping the frontiers of private property in New South Wales, Australia

AbstractThis article addresses the process and patterns by which private property has been applied on the Australian continent. Alongside both lease‐holdings that are limited by term or perpetual and squatting practices, identifying and documenting private property in both individual cases and in aggregate over a large geography offers a compelling approximation of the appearance and spread of British–Australian settlement. Plots and patterns of private land ownership can be read in relation to other forms of land use and tenure each subject to specific historical legal instruments and definitions. We explore how, in particular, the first‐generation alienation of private property might be constructed, represented, and theorised using a critical approach to GIS tools and practices. What technical considerations are required to identify the extent of a site and map its transfer into private hands? How far can the process of mapping the initial alienation of parcels of Crown land over time expose legacies of colonial practices in present‐day methods and serve as a testbed to generate other layers that capture, for instance, patterns of informal privatisation or interact with other phenomena—most notably that of frontier violence—that likewise occur on land, in time? Such work can be located among those wrestling with problems of mapping colonial land occupation with technologies that share a heritage with the surveying tools that allowed that same acquisition and can enhance a critical approach to GIS in relation to appropriation and dispossession of Aboriginal land.

Landownership within Amish Settlements in Wisconsin: An Exploratory Study

This study examines patterns of landownership within 18 Amish settlements in Wisconsin, including nine of the state’s ten largest settlements, plus nine smaller settlements. Landownership was plotted for 2,048 Amish households, who collectively owned over 115,000 acres. These households were drawn from 105 church districts, representing 58.7 percent of the state’s total. The study utilized three types of data: the recent Amish directory for Wisconsin, plat atlases showing landownership for selected counties, and detailed satellite imagery provided by Google Maps. Average acreage per household ranged from 27.7 to 86.6 acres among the settlements. Differences in acreage owned per household appear related to occupations. Average acreage of Amish-owned land per survey section ranged from 41.6 to 201.2 acres. The maximum acreage of Amish-owned land in each settlement’s survey sections ranged from 120 to 639 acres. Amish landholdings exceeded 160 acres in 30.3 percent of the sections having Amish lands, with the settlements’ proportions ranging from 0 to 55.2 percent. Interspersal of Amish lands among lands owned by non-Amish people is the norm, but differences in the density of Amish holdings, displayed by owned maximum acreage per section and average landholdings per section, are related to founding date and settlement size. Settlements established before the mid-1980s display greater clustering of Amish landownership. Newer settlements display many noncontiguous sections with Amish-owned lands not adjacent on their sides or corners to other sections having Amish lands. This pattern is particularly conspicuous within the Platteville-Darlington and Fennimore settlements.

Wildlife migrations highlight importance of both private lands and protected areas in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Formally protected areas are an important component of wildlife conservation, but face limitations in their effectiveness for migratory species. Improved stewardship of working lands around protected areas is one solution for conservation planning, but private working lands are vulnerable to development. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), ungulates such as elk (Cervus canadensis) use both protected areas and private lands throughout their annual migrations. We studied patterns of landownership, protection, and conservation challenges within the ranges of migratory elk in the GYE. We used GPS data from 1088 elk in 26 herds to define herd-level seasonal ranges, and extracted covariates related to landownership and protection, land use, and human infrastructure and development. All elk herds used land encompassing >1 ownership type. Most elk herds (92.3 % of herds, n = 24) used the highest proportion of private land in the winter (mean = 36.2 % private land). Most elk herds' winter ranges contained the highest building densities (mean = 1.24 buildings/km2), fence densities (mean = 1.02 km fence/km2), and cattle grazing (mean = 1.9 cows/km2), compared to migratory and summer ranges. Out of all ranges, 36.5 % of ranges did not have any zoning regulations, indicating the potential for future development. Our results show that elk in the GYE rely on habitat outside of protected areas, and face landscape-scale conservation challenges such as habitat fragmentation from human development, particularly in winter ranges. Future conservation strategies for wildlife in this system need to encompass coordination across both public and private land to ensure migratory connectivity.