Land Tenure Governance Research Articles

Land tenure legislation and soil security concerns in Cameroon

This chapter explores the interface between land tenure rights and soil security and screens through the Cameroonian land tenure legislation in order to identify relevant provisions that guarantee soil security. The chapter builds on key tenure right theories and environmental law principles that underpin soil security within the framework of land tenure governance, arguing that the Cameroonian land tenure legislations does not comprehensively address soil security concerns. In consequence of such a timid response to soil security concerns, soil is lamely protected within the framework of land governance in Cameroon. A key recommendation for this legislative gap is that to guarantee soil security, there is urgent need to embark on land tenure legislative reforms in order to clearly establish the responsibility of all land rights holders to protect soils.

Exploring PPPs in Support of Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration: A Case Study from Côte d’Ivoire

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) may facilitate the implementation of fit-for-purpose land administration (FFPLA); however, the approach can be compromised when funding for land registration is insufficient or donor projects end. This paper aims to introduce a new form of PPP to the literature on FFPLA, further extending the discourse and options available on PPPs for FFPLA. A background review finds that whilst PPPs have had long standing application in land administration, there is room to explore approaches that seek increased involvement of non-conventional land sector actors. A case study methodology is applied to analyse recent developments of FFPLA in Côte d’Ivoire that includes a partnership between the government and a consortium of private sector companies. Results describe the novelty, challenges, opportunities, and success factors for the approach, when compared to existing forms of PPPs. It is found that the innovative partnership approach may create novel avenues for financing FFPLA in developing countries and for more active forms of participation of the private sector in improved land tenure governance. The model potentially creates sustainable buy-in from private sector corporations, who whilst not conventionally closely undertaking land administration efforts, rely intrinsically on it to achieve corporate social responsibility objectives.

The effect of land tenure governance on technical efficiency: evidence from three provinces in eastern China

ABSTRACTThis study aims to identify the mechanisms through which land tenure governance affects the technical efficiency of grain production in an integrated framework and to examine the impacts of the public governance, village self-governance, and relational governance of land tenure on the technical efficiency of contracted land and rented-in land. Farm-level survey data collected from Liaoning, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu provinces covering the years of 2014 and 2015 is used for the empirical analysis. The findings indicate that (i) public governance associated with land certification significantly increases the technical efficiency of grain production; (ii) village self-governance and administrative land reallocations can serve as substitutes for the land rental market in optimizing the distribution of land resources and improving technical efficiency; and (iii) compared to multi-year transfer contracts, both annual and open-ended transfer contracts have negative impacts on technical efficiency.

Community forestry and its mitigation potential in the Anthropocene: The importance of land tenure governance and the threat of privatization

This paper highlights the key role of community forestry in enhancing the sustainability of forest ecosystems and their provision of environmental goods and services, while also analyzing the tensions facing land tenure governance in the Anthropocene. While rural communities and indigenous peoples make a significant contribution to the preservation of the Earth System along the mitigation pathway proposed by Steffen et al. (2007), their access rights to community and ancestral forestland are contested. Climate change, technological innovation, rising commodity prices and neoliberal deregulation have paved the way for an acceleration of the processes of land-grabbing and accumulation by dispossession (Harvey, 2003, 2004). The struggle of three Argentine wichí indigenous communities in the Salta province of Argentina illuminates the situation of many peasant and indigenous peoples in Latin America, confronting powerful transnational businesses that dispute access to their land and possession of natural resources. Fragile institutions fail to enforce communities' rights that have been recognized by international and national regulations, thus perpetuating inequities and exclusion.

Land tenure and landscape change: a comparison of public-private lands in the southern High Plains

Long-term drought in the southern Great Plains increases the vulnerability of coupled human-environment systems at a variety of scales. Developing better understandings of the dynamics at regional scales will become increasingly important as long-established land-use regimes break down in the face of climate change, resource depletion, and evolving governance. To demonstrate differential vulnerability during drought periods, this study hypothesized that observed increases in woody vegetation in grasslands would vary across land-tenure regimes. We argue that differences in State Trust Land governance, in part, lead to differential land management practices that contribute to landscape change. The study area encompasses adjacent counties, Cimarron County in Oklahoma and Union County in New Mexico, with similar climate variability and agricultural economies. We analyzed National Land Cover Database (NLCD) land-cover maps from 1992 and 2011 to assess changes in landscape composition and structure between 1992 and 2011. During both years under consideration, each county in the study region, across various land-tenure regimes, was dominated by herbaceous vegetation. However, there were changes in both composition and structure across the whole study area, in particular losses of herbaceous vegetation and increases in woody vegetation. The greatest gains in woody vegetation occurred in State Trust Lands of Cimarron County. Overall, the data suggest a fragmentation of herbaceous vegetation and a coalescing of shrubland patches. Research about the influence of land tenure on land management decisions, specifically the role of State Trust Land leases in overgrazing, informs the broader context of drought management in the southern Great Plains. Recommendations include continued research to highlight the specific mechanisms of land-tenure governance that drive landscape change.

Describing policies against desertification such as land tenure governance

A partir d’une etude de cas dans l’ouest du Burkina Faso, nous montrons que les politiques d’adaptation ou d’attenuation de la degradation des ressources naturelles soulevent des enjeux de gouvernance. Une approche empirique et comprehensive a partir du concept de gouvernance fonciere permet de decrire les effets sociopolitiques de celles-ci, ainsi que les facteurs sociopolitiques de la degradation. Cette approche permet d’evaluer les politiques en suivant leur histoire longue ainsi que leurs processus de mise en œuvre, afin d’en decrire la transversalite, les logiques des acteurs et des institutions, et de mettre en lumiere leurs discontinuites.

Questions on the Neutrality of Participative Cartography and Role Play Tools into a Land Tenure Governance Experience in Senegal

Les processus de decentralisation engages dans un grand nombre de pays africains permettent le transfert d’importantes competences depuis l’Etat vers les collectivites locales, et notamment, pour ce qui concerne le Senegal, en matiere de gestion des ressources naturelles et du foncier. De tels contextes politiques et institutionnels privilegient une participation elargie des populations aux decisions. Des outils participatifs tels que developpes par les Methodes d’Apprentissage Rapide et de Planification (MARP) se presentent comme des supports privilegies d’aide a la concertation et aux negociations locales entre des acteurs aux interets et aux statuts differents. Loin d’etre neutres dans leur usage, ces outils ont cependant partie liee avec une certaine neutralite en raison du caractere immanent de cette derniere et de la garantie de scientificite qu’elle produit. Dans le meme temps, ils participent, en tant que supports de representation, d’informations et de communication, au glissement des signes conventionnels vers des nouvelles variables concretes jugees utilisables par les acteurs dans leurs negociations. Cet article propose un regard exterieur sur une experience realisee au Senegal a partir d’outils participatifs, tels les jeux de role et l’apprentissage a la cartographie, dans un contexte de gestion fonciere. L’analyse veut questionner ces outils qui tentent de reproduire une certaine forme de realite. Les demarches experimentales ouvrent la voie a des questions ethiques, methodologiques et scientifiques. Autour de ces questions, cet article contribue a evaluer le potentiel operationnel de ces methodes et veut en meme temps rendre compte de la facon dont celles-ci limitent notre capacite a prendre en consideration la realite des rapports sociaux dans des approches de gouvernance participative. Par ce regard critique sur un cadre experimental se donnent a voir des formes d’objectivation des pratiques des acteurs et des chercheurs ; ces derniers etant de plus en plus confrontes a des situations de recherche-action. L’analyse permet de mieux evaluer l’efficacite et la portee des outils utilises dans une demarche d’accompagnement des populations dans les contextes de gestion fonciere et de gouvernance locale des territoires. Les auteurs sont, respectivement, participant et observateur, associe a l’analyse et responsable du projet. Actuellement membres de la Chaire Internationale de Recherche sur la gouvernance des territoires (CIRGT) dans une collaboration du Cirad avec l’Universite Laval a Quebec, les deux premiers auteurs ont ete associes au troisieme, promoteur du projet a l’etude, pour partager une reflexion sur les enjeux que souleve l’utilisation de certains outils participatifs tels les jeux de role et la cartographie.

Land Rights in Rural China: Facts, Fictions and Issues

China's rural economic reforms radically altered land tenure in rural China. With the granting of land use rights and residual income rights to farming households between 1979 and 1983, agriculture shifted from a collective-based to a familybased system. Land was not privatized, however. Ownership remained "collective", with local officials, typically at the village level, exercising a major influence over the allocation of land and the way households could use land. The initial land allocations to families were typically based on household size, household labour supply, or both. The central government's policy was that these allocations were supposed to be for 15 years. In some villages, land use contracts have been respected; in other villages, however, local leaders have periodically redistributed land among households and have intervened throughout the reform period to determine how farmers are able to use the land. The initial reforms triggered an unprecedented acceleration of agricultural growth in China. From 1979 to 1984, the gross value of agricultural output increased in real terms at an annual rate of 7.6 per cent, and grain production rose by 4.9 per cent annually.' Empirical studies attribute a significant part of this increase to enhanced incentives, as farmers were able to keep the output and