Land Tenure Reform Research Articles

The people’s choice: options for land ownership in South Africa’s land reform

This paper analyses land tenure reform in South Africa from the perspective of land redistribution and restitution projects. It takes the absence of a clearly defined tenure reform in the country as its point of departure to argue that land redistribution and restitution projects serve as a vehicle through which forms of land tenure in post-apartheid South Africa are expressed. There is dissonance between the official position on giving land to large groups under the legal entity of the CPA and the practice and preferences at project sites. The paper suggests that a progressive land tenure reform policy requires a bottom-up approach that takes into consideration various ways in which beneficiaries of land reform could own and use land.

Land tenure and REDD+: The good, the bad and the ugly

A number of international donors, national governments and project proponents have begun to lay the groundwork for REDD+, but tenure insecurity – including the potential risks of land grabbing by outsiders and loss of local user rights to forests and forest land – is one of the main reasons that many indigenous and other local peoples have publicly opposed it. Under what conditions is REDD+ a threat to local rights, and under what conditions does it present an opportunity? This article explores these issues based on available data from a global comparative study on REDD+, led by the Center for International Forestry Research, which is studying national policies and processes in 12 countries and 23 REDD+ projects in 6 countries. The article analyses how tenure concerns are being addressed at both national and project level in emerging REDD+ programs. The findings suggest that in most cases REDD+ has clearly provided some new opportunities for securing local tenure rights, but that piecemeal interventions by project proponents at the local level are insufficient in the absence of broader, national programs for land tenure reform. The potential for substantial changes in the status quo appear unlikely, though Brazil – the only one with such a national land tenure reform program – offers useful insights. Land tenure reform – the recognition of customary rights in particular – and a serious commitment to REDD+ both challenge the deep-rooted economic and political interests of ‘business as usual’.

Institutions and governance of communal rangelands in South Africa

The creation of local institutions with a mandate over land access and control is seen as a prerequisite for successful decentralisation of land tenure and effective local resource management in sub-Saharan Africa. However, with land tenure reform in South Africa currently at a state of legislative impasse, real uncertainty now exists over land rights and governance of rangeland in many communal areas. This paper draws on case study material from Eastern Cape province to illustrate how this ongoing uncertainty has resulted in the operation of a range of traditional authority and civil society institutions in different communal areas with varying degrees of legitimate authority over land administration and highly variable performance in managing rangeland resources. Collective management of rangeland resources seems most difficult in environments where land rights are contested because of the coexistence of traditional leaders and civil society institutions. On this basis an approach to tenure reform is advocated, which vests all powers over local land administration in democratically elected and accountable civil society institutions. Some successful examples of this already exist and might serve to guide policy formation, which must be flexible enough to accommodate collective management approaches that emphasise cooperation both within and between communities.

Conceptualising context in institutional reforms of land and natural resource management: the case of Vietnam

Research and policy debates over natural resource management in developing countries have largely focused on identifying the set of institutions that best supports resource sustainability and poverty alleviation. We argue that beyond finding the right institutional fit for a social-ecological system, it is equally important to understand how context affects the design and outcomes of institutional reforms. We propose a refined conceptualisation of context, based on a revision of the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. We defend a systematic analysis of context, distinguishing between contextual factors affecting the fitness to local socio-ecological conditions and contextual factors that mobilise power such as political-economic interests and prevailing discourses. We illustrate our argument with empirical research on land-tenure reforms that have been implemented since the 1980s in northern Vietnam. The proposed analytical framework and conceptualisation of context allows a more pervasive understanding of contextual factors, enabling the incorporation of the forms of power that give meaning and legitimacy to institutional change.

Land tenure insecurity, vulnerability to climate-induced disaster and opportunities for redress in southern Africa

Land tenure is an important variable impacting on vulnerability to climate-related disaster. Land tenure insecurity is widespread in southern Africa and manifests itself in a number of ways that accentuate vulnerability to climate change impacts. Insecure tenure is seen to heighten vulnerability against growing demand for land for residential purposes and working space in urban areas while in the rural areas insecure tenure militates against diversified livelihoods and hinders investment in appropriate technologies and uptake of sound environmental management practices. Using the focused synthesis method, this article (1) maps the intersections between land tenure insecurity and vulnerability to climate-induced disaster in southern Africa; and (2) identifies the opportunities tenure reforms hold for vulnerability reduction in a region predicted to suffer widespread impacts from climate change. The paper contends that land tenure is a critical component of the milieu of factors – economic, social, cultural, institutional, political and even psychological – that are known to shape vulnerability and determine the environment that people live in. The study finds that land tenure reforms can help to reduce vulnerability and enhance community resilience to climate change. In this regard, the article outlines how tenure reforms can help build diverse household livelihoods, improve environmental management, particularly in the rural areas, and encourage investment in robust housing and safe neighbourhoods among the urban poor – all of which are integral to the region’s response to climate change.

Critical agrarianism

AbstractThis paper develops the concept of ‘critical agrarianism’ to describe and advance the pursuit of land-based work as a means of realizing social justice and environmental sustainability. Encouraging new agrarianism to more carefully scrutinize its agenda, critical agrarianism celebrates the promise of a close working relationship with the natural world while insisting that a return to the land—per se—is insufficient. In the practice of linking people and land, past and present, critical agrarianism continually questions and reshapes the very category of agrarian, toward a more equitable and enduring prosperity. I revisit both canonical agrarian writing and its critics, pulling out ‘back-pocket tools’ that can keep critical agrarians on track in building our alternative futures. I then offer several case studies of critical agrarianism in practice, encouraging a move beyond idealized models of agrarian ties, toward an empirical account of who has actually been doing the work to put food on the table. Noting the historical gap between working the landscape and having a property or citizenship right, I call for an agrarianism in which practices—not land title—are the basis of material and social community. Furthermore, I suggest that agrarianism must extend its web outward rather than inward, forging connections to the work of land tenure reform, education, community development, immigrant advocacy and trade policy. To be a critical agrarian is not to preserve fixed social-natural ties, but rather to practice a powerfully open and dialogical engagement with the world and one another.

Nonindustrial Family Forest Landowners' Stated Willingness-to-Participate in Forest Cooperatives in Southern China

Forest landowner cooperatives have emerged as a formal institution capable of fostering professional forest management. There are many reasons to motivate participation in forest cooperatives. For instance, cooperatives could ease nonindustrial family forest landowners (NIFFLs) access to financial assistance and enhance market entrance opportunities. In China, various forms of forest cooperatives supported by government agencies are developing rapidly in an effort to facilitate forest management at a large scale. However, the development of forest cooperatives is still in its early stages. An understanding of NIFFLs' attitudes towards the development of cooperatives is instrumental for crafting policies and organizational structures that motivate landowners' participation. Three hundred and ten NIFFLs from Fujian and Jiangxi provinces in Southern China were interviewed to elicit their attitudes and willingness-to-participate in forest cooperatives. Logistic regression was used to evaluate landowner, household, forest resource, and institutional factors associated with NIFFLs' stated decision to participate in a forest cooperative. Results show that NIFFLs' stated willingness-to-participate in forest cooperatives was associated with demographic characteristics like education, forest-related income, size of forestland, and attitudes toward land tenure reform and cooperatives. This paper outlines suggestions on how to further develop forest cooperatives in Southern China.

Aboriginal Land Tenure Reforms In Canada: A Discussion of “Beyond the Indian Act”

In the words of Hernando De Soto, the co-chair with Madeline Albright of the UN Committee for Legal Empowerment of the Poor, "You don't have to travel to Zambia or Peru to see dead capital. All you need to do is visit a reserve in Canada. First Nation people own assets, but not with the same instruments as other Canadians. They're frozen into an Indian Act of the 1870s so they can't easily trade their valuable resources."

China–Africa development cooperation in the rural sector: an exploration of land tenure and investments linkages for sustainable resource use

China-Africa development cooperation in the rural sector has received an increased attention by researchers and policy-makers given the advantages and disadvantages of China’s contribution to the local economy. However, there is a lack of more reliable and nuanced findings to provide greater insights into the major issues concerning rural development and resource use. This paper aims to position land tenure and foreign investments linkages as a new research angle for understanding the role of land in sustainable resource use and investments. The paper provides a brief overview of China-Africa cooperation in rural development especially concerning agriculture to illustrate the neglect of critical land and resource use issues in policy and practice. The paper briefly discusses the ongoing land tenure reforms in Africa and the policy gaps to be filled through further research. It also discusses how China’s own development model, especially concerning land tenure reform, shares similar trajectories with Africa, which has important implications for the effectiveness of Chinese investments in African land. The paper concludes that there is an urgent need for lesson learning among Chinese and African policy-makers and investors towards tailoring development cooperation to more appropriate land tenure systems for sustainable resource use to the mutual benefit of Chinese and African stakeholders.

Domestic and foreign consequences of China's land tenure reform on collective forests

SUMMARY Some of the long-term consequences of China's collective forests tenure reform were projected with the Global Forest Products Model (GFPM). The reform had a positive effect on the wood supply and demand balance. By 2020 the reform led to a 14 to 36 percent decrease of China's imports of industrial roundwood. Concurrently, the rest of the world produced less, but several other countries especially in Europe, imported more. Despite the positive short-term effect of the reform on supply, China's industrial roundwood deficit was still increasing, but at a slower rate, after the reform was complete, due to the high demand induced by China's fast growing economy. Furthermore, while the tenure reform on collective forests mitigated China's timber shortage, it also decreased China's forest stock, with adverse effects for biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Nevertheless, globally, this negative effect was compensated by a more than equal increase of forest stock in the rest of the world.

A Fabrick of Moderate Bulk: Tenure Reform, Jurisdictional Bounds and Parcel Renewal on First Nations’ Lands

Land tenure reform on First Nations’ Reserves is linked with surveys. Entry by a First Nation into the existing First Nations Lands Management regime requires that the external boundary of each Reserve be described; 45% of 192 descriptions have required a survey. First Nations entering the conceptual First Nations Property Ownership regime will require such a description; in addition, parcel fabric within each Reserve will be measured and renewed. Fabric quality is assessed with a Parcel Fabric Index (PFI) equation that compares improvements on the ground to formal parcels. The PFI allows comparison across Reserves and with off-Reserve communities. The median PFI of 0.72 calculated for a sample of 118 Reserves was lower than for non-Reserve communities; PFI for each Reserve correlates negatively with remoteness and positively with community well-being. Pilots at five Reserves reveals that parcel fabric renewal is primarily a social—not a measuring—exercise; that low costs per parcel can be achieved owing to economies of scale; and that long time-frames are necessarily a function of community structure, consultation and acceptance.

Democratization and Land Reform Accomplishment in the Philippines

Does democratization lead to land reform accomplishment? In the literature, there is no consensus. Three possibilities exist: democracy causes increased land redistributions, is merely correlated with it, or is not associated with the transfer of physical assets at all. To choose between possibilities, I conduct a detailed qualitative analysis of land-tenure patterns and reform initiatives from colonial times to the present. I also compile a dataset from original and secondary sources in order to report Philippine land-redistribution accomplishment. I have descriptive statistics of accomplishment from 1960 to the present and more comprehensive data from 1972 to 2003. The descriptive statistics that I collected show a pattern that is consistent with a positive relationship between democracy and land redistribution. I then turn my attention to the mechanism. Is it plausible that elections explain reform? Do peasants insist upon land transfers? I find evidence to suggest that this is, in fact, the case. My first set of results tests whether land transfers are correlated with agricultural population. Due to data limitations, this analysis is conducted in cross section. Consistent with the idea that a democratic government would be responsive to the interests of the public, results show that the government redistributed a greater share of the targeted land in provinces in which a greater share of the population worked in agriculture. My second set of results exploits the availability of time-series cross-sectional data for leaseholds. My analysis shows that as agriculture becomes more important to the regional economy — and to regional voters — the government responds by increasing the rate at which leaseholds are created above the rate that might be expected from the rate seen the previous year.

Changing Land Tenure and Informal Land Markets in the Oil Palm Frontier Regions of Papua New Guinea: the challenge for land reform

This paper reports on the authors’ ongoing research with agricultural extension services, customary landowners and migrant farmers to develop a template for a Land Usage Agreement (LUA) that seeks to reconcile customary landowners’ and migrants’ differing interpretations of the moral basis of land rights. The LUA shows a way forward for land reform that builds on customary tenure while strengthening the temporary use rights of migrants to enable them to generate viable and relatively secure livelihoods. The paper concludes that land tenure reform should draw on what is already happening on the ground, rather than impose external models that do not accord with local cultural mores about the inalienability of customary land and its enduring social and cultural significance for customary landowning groups.

Influence of forest land tenure regimes on forest condition in Uluguru mountains, Tanzania

The paper scrutinizes the current wave of forest land tenure reforms since the inception of the new forest policy in 1998. It explores which type of forestland tenure regime had more positive influence on forest condition in the Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania. The assessment was done with reference to vegetation types of montane and miombo woodlands. The study showed that for the montane vegetation, state regime (Uluguru Nature Reserve) had higher stocking (volume 1,233m3/ha; basal area 78m2/ha; density 777 stems/ha) and tree species diversity (H’ 3.48) compared to communal regime (Chief Kingalu Sacred Forest) which had low stocking(volume 798m3/ha; basal area 49m2/ha; density 1,020 stems/ha) and tree species diversity (H’ 3.21). For the miombo vegetation, corporate/private regime (Tangeni Roman Catholic Church Forest Reserve) had higher stocking (volume 122m3/ha; basal area 27m2/ha and density 2,573 stems/ha) and tree species diversity (H’ 2.60) compared to communal regime (Misumba Village Land Forest Reserve) which had low stocking (volume 23m3/ha; basal area 10.8m2/ha and density 4,200 stems/ha) and tree species diversity (H’ 3.53). The study concludes that state regime represented by Uluguru Nature Reserve showed improved forest condition compared to communal tenure regime (Chief Kingalu Sacred Forest) for the montane vegetation type while private regime (Tangeni Roman Catholic Church Forest Reserve) was more effective in conservation than communal regime (Misumba Village Land Forest Reserve). The study recommends that sustainable management of forests could not be addressed by tenure reforms in the forestry sector alone, but requires 'cross-sectoral', 'inter-disciplinary' and 'participatory' approach along with secure tenure. Moreover, it is essential that an in-depth forest inventory is conducted at predetermined intervals to quantify stocking of tree, shrub species and forest disturbances to understand the level of resource extraction for each tenure regime. Key words : Tenure regimes, reforms, forest condition, Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania.

The myth of encroachment

Scholars of pastoralism often refer to changes of pastoral land tenure as ‘encroachment.’ The New Zealand case of pastoral land tenure reform suggests that this is incorrect for several reasons. First it takes the point of view of the pastoralist, which introduces unnecessary bias. Second, it assumes that all changes in land tenure are situations in which the state, or another powerful agent, takes land away from the less powerful pastoralists. Third, it assumes a single immutable power relation between the state (or other external actor initiating land tenure reform) and the pastoralist in which the state is more powerful and is only too happy to exercise its power whilst expropriating the pastoralists of the land they use. The term ‘encroachment’ implies that there is just one pattern of land tenure change. I suggest that land tenure reform is a more apt, less biased, descriptor.

After 80 years absence, Wuthathi people plan for the return and management of ancestral homelands on Cape York Peninsula

SummaryThe Wuthathi people from the Shelburne Bay area on the north‐east coast of Cape York Peninsula have been displaced from their ancestral homelands since the late 1930s. Despite not having a permanent presence, Wuthathi have continued to access their ancestral country and connection remains unbroken. Through both Native Title and the Queensland Government’s land tenure reform process, much of the Wuthathi homelands will be returned as either Aboriginal freehold land or as Aboriginal‐owned national park. Wuthathi have Native Title over their sea estate that includes the exclusive use of a number of islands. The completion of Native Title and tenure reform will allow Indigenous management to return to the landscape from which it has been absent for nearly 100 years. In preparation for their return to country, the Wuthathi developed an integrated culture and conservation programme over 8 years ago that addressed cultural and natural conservation imperatives. Wuthathi are now moving into the implementation phase where Native Title has been determined. This study presents outcomes of a workshop, held in October 2010, that identified a range of barriers preventing sound ecological and cultural land management. For example, while funding for multiple land and sea cultural and natural resource management projects is secured, operational funding, management infrastructure and resources are lacking. With Wuthathi people dispersed across many hundreds of kilometres and no permanent infrastructure on country, planning and executing current management projects are severely limited.

Markets, government policy, and China's timber supply

China's domestic demand and exports of wood products are rising rapidly compared to domestic supply. The determinants of timber supply in China were investigated with panel data from 25 provinces from 1999 to 2009. The results indicated that China’s timber supply had responded to both market forces, reflected by timber prices largely determined by world demand and supply, and to government policies expressed by production quotas and the tenure reform on collective forestland. The price elasticity of China’s timber supply was estimated at 0.31±0.12. The inelastic response of production to the quota (0.20±0.02) suggested that government had a limited, though significant, control of timber supply. Other things being equal, the land tenure reform increased timber supply by 18±8 percent, where and when it had been implemented.

Ethnographic Empathy and the Social Context of Rights: “Rescuing” Maasai Girls from Early Marriage

Esther is one of many young Maasai girls in Kenya "rescued" from early marriage. Her story is conventionally portrayed (trans)nationally and locally as a struggle between conservative pastoral patriarchs and the individual right of young girls to an education. I offer an ethnographic contextualization of the underlying factors giving rise to practices of early marriage, among the Maasai in Enkop, highlighting the contemporary predicaments of pastoralism in the face of population growth, climactic instability, and land-tenure reform and the insecurities and challenges around formal education. Through the intimate portrayal of Esther's case, early marriage is situated not as a relic of tradition and malicious patriarchy but, rather, as a contemporary adaptation to livelihood insecurity. I illustrate how prevailing concepts of "tradition," "culture," "victimhood," and "collective rights" in human rights theory obscure important structural factors that give rise to early marriage and deflect attention from effective policy initiatives.

Land Reform and Rural Poverty in South Africa

The paper discusses the state of the land tenure reform in South Africa with particular attention to the former homelands. Contemporary literature is superimposed on the existing statistics on agri...

Indigenous Land Tenure Reforms in the Conservation of Common Property Resources in the High Forest Regions of South-Eastern Nigeria

Study examined the structure of local institutions and their response patterns in evolving mechanisms to deal with the problems of resource degradation in common lands and property resource use and decline, as well as the efficiency levels of resource use patterns under various land tenure regimes. Analysis of field data generated through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods and questionnaire survey showed rapidly declining commons in terms of size and volume of harvestable forest products. A significant level of sub-optimality in the efficiency levels to which common property resources were utilized were also evident with no apparent distinction in resource use habits of communities governed by general and specific rights to land. This makes urgent the need for reforms in land acquisition and use practices for resource sustainability at the grassroots. Traditional institutions were found to be responsive and slowly evolving mechanisms to cop with resource degradation problems. Facilitating this process through policies designed to empower grassroots institutions and structures is an important development objective for consideration.