Participatory Land Use Research Articles

A Pilot Model of Community-based Forest Management in Xuan Nha Nature Reserve, Son La Province, Vietnam

This study evaluated the implementation of a pilot model for promoting community-based conservation through a contracting program in Xuan Nha Nature Reserve, located in Son La province, northern Vietnam, from 2014 to 2022. To assess the effectiveness of the program, in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 officials and 100 individuals residing in three villages. The findings revealed that the program successfully facilitated community-based conservation by involving local communities in participatory land use planning and forest protection at the village level. The study identified four main factors that contributed to the successful implementation of the program: (1) clearly defined objectives, (2) the establishment of a stable rule system, (3) garnering support from local people, and (4) promoting associated activities. Given these positive outcomes, this model can be applied and scaled-up throughout Vietnam, particularly in areas where local communities coexist within protected areas.

Policy and practice: Stakeholders’ satisfaction with conventional and participatory land use planning in Ghana

Land use planning remains an integral tool for guiding the growth and development of human settlements due to competing interests and claims of individuals over land. Two major land use planning approaches are adopted - conventional and participatory - with inconclusive findings on the best approach to employ towards promoting orderly development and growth. This study thus contributes to this debate by exploring how conventional and participatory land use planning approaches affect the preparation and outcome of land use plans in Ghana, using Abuakwa Newtown in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipality and Krapa No.1 of in the Ejisu Municipality as case study areas. Through a comparative case research design, quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed to gather and analyse data from 397 property owners and other relevant stakeholders. The aim was to explore the similarities and differences between the two approaches and stakeholders’ perception and satisfaction with both processes. The findings largely revealed differences in the land use plan preparation process – plan initiation, preparation and approval - in the two communities. It was revealed that only plan implementation activities had similar outcomes in both communities. The ordered logistic regression model deemed significant at p ≤ 0.05, revealed a negative relationship of satisfaction between tenure security, plan initiation and preparation in Abuakwa Newtown, but a positive relationship in Krapa No.1. The research recommends that planning authorities adopt participatory land use planning and improve upon communication in the processes for active participation and involvement.

Tara bandu: On the hybridization of a sign

Tara bandu is a traditional ceremony in Timor-Leste that enshrines a customary law with official recognition since independence, which generally applies to the spatial scale of the smallest administrative division of the territory (suco) and several years of timespan, rooting in tradition (lisan), concerning natural resources management and also relations among people. There is evidence related to the concepts of adat (tradition in Indonesia) and pemali (taboo) in Southeast Asia and Austranesia, suggesting that precursors of tara bandu should exist before the Portuguese arrival in the early XVI century. Yet, there was a subsequent diachronic process of hybridization of static iconic devices and other traditional Timorese practices with the vocalized Portuguese colonial bandos, evolving to a choreographic complex ritual with several semiotic dimensions: the sacrificial animist performance addressed to the ancestor’s spirits and a supernatural environment (lulik), dances and others including Catholic rites, then focusing on written documents endorsing commitments. Contemporaneously, tara bandu is a salient event anchoring communities in defining participatory land use plans including agreements on property boundaries, rules of engagement and also interdictions and sanctions. Tara bandu is mentioned nowadays as an example and case-study of bottom-up strategies for environmental peacebuilding processes.

APPLICATION OF PARTICIPATORY LAND USE PLANNING TOOL IN SOME COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AREAS OF JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Participatory land use planning was conducted with the aim to develop community natural resources maps in some selected community development areas (CDA) for sustainable land use planning and problem prioritization for intervention in Jigawa State. Mapping of the community natural resources was conducted in six selected communities in two local government areas: Auyo LGA (Auyokayi, Ayan and Gamafoi), Dutse LGA (Dagwaje, Gandun Fawa and Kwadiya). The six CDAs were sketched, delineated and mapped participatorily, thereafter, problems of each of the CDAs were listed and ranked. The results obtained indicated that, land use types identified were rain-fed/upland, Fadama/ lowland, Sand-dunes areas and others. Farmlands are the major land use types in the study area, major prioritized problems by the farmers were poor irrigation facilities, low soil fertility, poor access roads and, inadequate water for domestic use.

Dynamics of Land Use and Land Cover Change in the South Talihya Watershed North Kivu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

The anthropization of forest ecosystems has become a major environmental problem with negative impacts on biodiversity around the world. Responding to such a problem requires monitoring land use. Thus, this study aims to analyze the Spatio-temporal dynamics of land use (LULC) to implement effective management strategies for forest ecosystems in the South Talihya watershed in eastern DR Congo. For this, a diachronic study of Landsat TM+ satellite images from 1987 and 2001 and Sentinel-2 from 2020 was used. The results revealed that natural formations have regressed in favor of croplands and fallow mosaics in the Talihya South watershed. The forests which occupied 183.68 km2 in 1987, decreased to 140.94 km2 in 2001 and 108.2 km2 in 2020. Bare lands and buildings represented 87.54 km2 in 2020 against 115.33 km2 in 2001 and 58 .63 km2 in 1987. The current state of land use indicates that Crop lands, fallows, and pastures occupy a high surface area compared to forests and bare lands and buildings. These Crop lands, fallows, and pastures occupied 317.88 km2 in 1987, 303.74 km2 in 2001, and 373.34 km2 in 2020. The observed changes result from overexploitation of resources characterized by the expansion of agricultural lands and tree logging. The annual deforestation rate calculated from forested areas of Talihya South watershed between dates t0 (1987) and t1 (2020) was 1.60%. In view of these results, participatory land use planning is a way to ensure sustainable management of the existing residual forests in this watershed.

Smoothing down arbitrariness in planning: From SWOT to participatory decision making

SWOT analyses are frequently employed in land use planning, the literature proposes improved versions for reducing decision-making arbitrariness, however some drawbacks remain. The purpose of this paper is to design the methodological steps of participatory land use planning through a three-fold SWOT, yielding a strategy that is both feasible and in line with the residents’ vision. First, residents are interviewed with open-ended questions permitting them to freely express their ideas. Institutional players are involved next, through a modified Nominal Group Technique. Prioritization of factors is reached through an automatic algorithm that synthesizes the opinions of residents and institutional players, while avoiding the compensation between low scores for some criteria and high scores for others, so that the community’s view is not overpowered. The prioritization is also based on the interconnection between factors, to ensure feasibility of the strategy indicated. The results of our illustrative application show that this method can lead to community-based entrepreneurial land use. Unexpectedly, in the small area considered, institutional players place greater consideration on the development perspective of local businesses, compared to residents, who display a greater environmental consciousness and commitment to biodiversity conservation.

Anthropogenic induced land use/cover change dynamics of Budongo-Bugoma landscape in the Albertine region, Uganda

Understanding spatio-temporal land use land cover change is vital in responding to the dynamic and complex global environmental change that is having diverse effects on integrity of most landscapes. A study was conducted in the Budongo - Bugoma landscape to assess spatio-temporal patterns of land use land cover change using supervised image classification of Landsat imagery for 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020 and a prediction of LULC situation in 2040 done in Dinamica-EGO modelling platform. Between 1990–2020, there was a declining trend for grassland, bushland, and tropical high forest by −19.5%, −4.7%, and −2.7% respectively while subsistence farmland, commercial farmland, built-up areas experienced an overall rate of change of 19.0%, 5.0%, 3.5% respectively. This led to intensified landscape fragmentation and increased landscape homogeneity to mostly farmlands. The declining LULC classes were majorly converting to the increasing LULC classes with conversion hotspot areas detected in privately-owned lands occurring mainly in rural areas, sugarcane growing areas, refugee settlement areas, and oil/gas project sites. In 2040, it is predicted that approximately 50% of the landscape will be covered by human managed LULC classes including subsistence farmland, commercial farmland, and built-up area compared to approximately 40% in 2020. Agricultural activities and increased population density were the most significant drivers of the established land use land cover changes. This study has shown accelerated loss of key land cover biomes; grasslands, bushlands, and tropical high forests mediated by anthropogenic factors and leading to reduced landscape heterogeneity thus potential to significantly affect ecosystem services supply in this region. Promotion of agroecology, non-consumptive projects, and participatory land use planning are recommended to secure sustainable land use management. Establishment of the implication of LULCC on ecosystem services potential and ultimately human well-being is also recommended.

Understanding community awareness, knowledge and perceived importance of Land-Use Plans and Village Land Forest Reserves in the context of REDD+ in Tanzania

Knowing the community level of awareness and knowledge of village participatory land use plans (VPLUPs) and village land forest reserves (VLFRs) and their perceived importance thereof, can form a way of improving the plans and forests governance in the context of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a global initiative to climate change measure. Thus, this study assessed community awareness, knowledge and perceived importance of VPLUPs and VLFRs in a REDD+ initiative in Tanzania. A mixed-method research design was adopted to collect data through participatory-community mapping (4 cases), focus group discussions (12 cases), key informant interviews (12 cases), direct observation and household interviews (328 cases). Results revealed that respondents were significantly aware of VPLUPs and VLFRs and were well-informed about VLFRs. However, they were ill-informed about the specified procedures of conducting VPLUPs. The community attached high value to VPLUPs and VLFRs. The residence period and household size of respondents emerged as the most important factors that significantly drive community awareness of VPLUPs and VLFRs respectively. The study recommends the use of the strategy (participatory approach) employed by the project proponents to implement VPLUPs and VLFRs.

Participatory Land Use Planning Policy Implementation in Tanzania: Assessment of Zones Sufficiency in Ulanga District

Participatory Land Use Planning Policy Implementation in Tanzania: Assessment of Zones Sufficiency in Ulanga District

English

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of plantation agriculture on land use, land cover change in the Nguti sub division and to investigate resident’s perception about the effects of land use, land cover change on local climatic variability. Satellite maps from Landsat multispectral images were processed using Arc GIS 8 to assess land cover change overtime. Structured questionnaires, focused group discussions and interviews were used to gather relevant data on resident’s perception on the impacts of land use, land cover changes on climate variability. The statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 19 was used to analyze respondent’s perception on the impacts of land use land cover change on local climatic variability. Results indicate a slow change in dense forest of -2% between 2006 and 2012 when no large scale agricultural practice existed, as opposed to a rapid change of -14% between 2012 and 2015 when such practice existed, indicating a massive loss of forest cover. Plantations increase slightly between 2006 and 2012 (51 ha) but witnessed a massive increase (210ha) between 2012 and 2015. Residents of Nguti sub division attest that there has been variability in the climatic condition in the area experience in the form of increase temperature, reduction in rainfall and changes in seasonality. Authors recommended a need for a participatory land use planning to delimit and allocate land into various land uses and to avoid future land use conflicts.   Key words: Dense forest, palm plantation, settlements, respondents, variability, livelihood change.

Lessons learned from participatory land use planning with high-resolution remote sensing images in Tanzania: Practitioners' and participants’ perspectives

Participatory mapping (PM) solutions have become common in many sectors of society to enhance engagement of the local communities in planning processes. Especially in data scarce regions, like Africa, PM that captures local knowledge in spatially explicit form is an important tool for integrating previously non-existent spatial knowledge in to collaborative planning. Despite the increasing usage of PM solutions, there still lies a gap in our knowledge of the influence and enabling factors of PM adoption in real-world decision-making processes. We studied practitioners’ and participants’ perceptions on benefits and limitations of PM that uses high-resolution remote sensing imagery to engage with participants in six use cases in Tanzania. We conducted interviews and one group discussion with practitioners, and feedback surveys among PM participants. According to the experiences of the practitioners and participants, PM methods based on high-resolution remote sensing images have increased practitioners’ work quality and professional competence, and enhanced participants’ active participation and spatial understanding for informed decision-making. Technical challenges and lack of skilled experts and institutional support were commonly identified limitations. Based on the users’ perceptions we identified previously recognized enabling factors such as supportive policy environment but also context specific factors; removal of disincentives and wider awareness raising. Moreover, advocacy among policymakers on the benefits of participatory decision-making and geospatial technologies is needed to build their ownership of the new governance practices.

Participatory Land Use Planning Policy Implementation in Ulanga District, Tanzania: Assessment of Zones Sufficiency

Land use plans have been considered as a solution to land use problems and hence enhance ecological, economic and social sustainability of land use. Appropriateness of land use plans and hence its potential for adherence may rely on sufficiency of zones allocated for different land uses. This study was designed to empirically identify land use implementation problems and suggest solutions relevant to the land users, the government, planners and other stakeholders. Specifically, the study assesses: (1) The extent to which the land use zones cover all zones needed by the stakeholders and; (2) Reasons for levels of sufficiency of the allocated land use zones. Data were collected through household survey of 120 respondents from two villages, key informants, focus group discussions and field observation survey while secondary data were collected through review of guidelines for land use planning, village land use plans, district land use framework, books and journals. Information used to assess sufficiency of land use zones used in Village Land Use Plans (VLUP) from household survey and village records were descriptively analysed. The implementation of village land use plans was not done as expected. Land use zones were insufficient in terms of the allocated size and needs within the zones for current and future situation. Overall the insufficiency of the land use zones was reported by 90% of the respondents. For individual land use zones the insufficiency was reported by the following percentages of the respondents: 95.0% for residential zone, 89.2% for agriculture zone, 96.7 for grazing zone, 25.2 for forest zone, 0% for wildlife management area, 0% for wildlife corridor and 0% for wetland. The reasons for insufficiency of the land use zones were increasing population, overstocking, and lack of infrastructure necessary within specific zones. Other factors included inadequate consideration for uncertainties in population projection standard, unclear zoning regulation and discrepancy in population data. Based on the findings and conclusions, this study makes the following recommendations. First, the National Land Use Planning Commission should devise mechanisms to ensure that all the six steps of land use planning are completed towards implementable land use plans. Secondly, the national land use planning commission should review zoning standards to sufficiently allocate the land use zones. The population projections used for future allocation of land had influence on the sufficiency of the zones where the rate of population increase is assumed to be fixed throughout the ten years implementation period without consideration of uncertainties. It is worth incorporating GIS to establish trend of land use and forecast future land use to sufficiently allocate land during the 10 years lifespan of the VLUP. Thirdly, the national land use planning commission need to validate spatial data and population data at village level to avoid discrepancies which affect implementation of the village land use plans.

Non-carbon benefits as incentives for participation in REDD + and the role of village participatory land use plans in supporting this: insights from Kilosa District, Tanzania

This study assessed community perceptions on Non-Carbon Benefits (NCBs) as incentives for participation in Reduced Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and the role of Village Participatory Land-Use Plans (VPLUPs) in supporting this in Kilosa district of Tanzania. A mixed-method research design was used in the data collection. Results indicated that the majority (95%) of the respondents thought that VPLUPs had facilitated REDD+ implementation. The results also demonstrated that the REDD+ initiative remains an important source of NCBs. While the respondents believed NCBs were available and important to them, its future availability was somewhat of a concern. The respondents further indicated that the best way to improve VPLUPs (and consequently enhance the REDD+ related activities) and maintain the flow of NCBs, was to improve the knowledge of VPLUPs. NCBs should be considered in the planning, design and implementation of REDD+, especially considering that carbon markets remain questionable and unreliable.

Women's marginalization in participatory forest management: Impacts of responsibilization in Tanzania

This paper analyses the consequences of responsibilization for women in natural resource management in Southern Tanzania. Participatory forest management (PFM) and Participatory Land Use Planning in Southern Tanzania provide a case study to interrogate how responsibilization impacts on the existing social order in a given community. As the study findings show, participatory initiatives have not fully reached rural women who are still under-represented and insufficiently equipped to participate in public decision-making, which maintains women's marginalization.In Tanzania there has been progress in community rights for forest management. Following the Forest Policy (1998) and Forest Act (2002), Tanzanian villages can establish Village Land Forest Reserves and manage and utilize natural resources for the benefit of the community. The success of decentralized forest governance depends on the interplay between power, authority and social relations. This is determined by the capacity of communities to participate and by the government's responsiveness to the people's voice.Based on our case study, women do not have equal opportunities to raise their voice like men, and women are marginalized in the decisions made about forest management and in the distribution of benefits from the natural resources with which their communities are endowed. This has policy implications in the sense that processes and structures of decentralized forest governance seem unable to address the needs of women.

Exploring patterns of forest governance quality: Insights from forest frontier communities in Zambia’s Miombo ecoregion

Good forest governance is a prerequisite for sustainable forest management and the successful implementation of initiatives that aim to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. The necessity for good governance is high in Zambia’s Miombo ecoregion, which is characterised by persistent deforestation that also threatens forest-dependent livelihoods. Zambia has adopted policies and initiatives to improve forest governance. We use the Governance of Forests Initiatives (GFI) indicator framework from the World Resource Institute in 24 communities in the Miombo ecoregion to examine Zambia’s status in this respect. The Wilcoxon rank test is applied to compare the de facto governance performance between different arrangements with differing tenures and restrictions to forest access and use. We employ factor analysis to test the applicability of the GFI framework based on community perceptions and cluster analysis to examine whether patterns of community clusters reflect the governance structure of the provincial local government administration. Comparative results show low mean scores for governance indicators, which do not differ significantly between arrangements. This indicates a weak de facto forest governance performance across arrangements, specifically characterised by an inadequate enforcement of rules and restrictions on use, insufficient institutional financial, human and technical capacities and unsatisfactory participatory land use planning and forest policy-making processes. We recommend support for financial and technical institutional capacities combined with coordination mechanisms to permit the satisfactory enforcement of forest rules. Frequent monitoring, apprehension and graduated sanctions are proposed as part of the rule enforcement procedures. Stringent de jure requirements coupled with capacity building for participatory land use planning and public policy participation also need to be adopted. This would also contribute towards achieving targets for Zambia’s climate change response strategy, national development plan 2017–2021 and REDD + preparedness phase. The factor analysis largely confirms the GFI framework’s suitability for governance analysis on the ground since factors generally mirror GFI indicators. However, because de facto governance processes sometimes do not precisely reflect thematic areas of the framework, we warn against the use of single indicators to exclusively represent a thematic area. Similarly, specific attention has to be paid to customary rules and institutions when applying the GFI framework because compared to the framework, the respective aspects are more clearly differentiated on the ground. Cluster analysis reveals a high variability of governance processes within and across provinces. Decentralization measures should take into account clusters that may in some cases follow administrative levels or in other cases go beyond the established administrative boundaries. Specifically, initiatives to integrate customary structures into the decentralized governance structure should take these regional differences into account.

An assessment of stakeholders’ participation in land use planning process of Luapula Province Planning Authority

The legal framework of Zambia has laws that support participatory land use planning process but there are no guidelines on how it should be done. Thus, the research aims at assessing if the Luapula Province Planning Authority (LPPA) has a land use planning process that incorporates effective stakeholders’ participation.The research is based on secondary data, especially the land use planning process in the Urban and Regional Planning (URP) Act No. 3 of 2015 of the Laws of Zambia and the participatory land use planning process of Kilimanjaro Region.The data analysed show that there is lack of effective stakeholders’ participation in the LPPA land use planning process; the LPPA land use planning process does not have the provision to capacity build stakeholders during the land use planning process; lack of participatory land use planning guidelines; the institutional framework under customary authority is not part of the land use planning process and the LPPA land use planning process is a top-down approach.The conclusions state that the legal and institutional frameworks in existence are inadequate for effective stakeholders’ participation in land use planning process of LPPA. In addition, the stakeholders are not incorporated in the LPPA land use planning process in terms of decision making but incorporated as reactants to the decisions made by the public authorities.The recommendations are that a National Land Use Planning Commission composed of representatives from stakeholder groups needs to be established. In addition, some sections of the URP Act No. 3 of 2015 of the Laws of Zambia need amendment inorder to have continuous feedback between the land use plan makers (planning firm(s) and planning authority) and the stakeholders. Furthermore, Village Councils must be given power to make decision by establishing them as Village Planning Authorities.

Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis

Since the collapse of the housing market in 2008, demand for housing has consistently outpaced supply in many US communities. The failure to construct sufficient housing - especially affordable housing - in desirable communities and neighborhoods comes with significant social, economic, and environmental costs. This book examines how local participatory land use institutions amplify the power of entrenched interests and privileged homeowners. The book draws on sweeping data to examine the dominance of land use politics by 'neighborhood defenders' - individuals who oppose new housing projects far more strongly than their broader communities and who are likely to be privileged on a variety of dimensions. Neighborhood defenders participate disproportionately and take advantage of land use regulations to restrict the construction of multifamily housing. The result is diminished housing stock and higher housing costs, with participatory institutions perversely reproducing inequality.

Economic returns to households participating in different models of commercial tree plantations in Lao PDR

Four tree plantation models implemented in Lao PDR and a hypothetical model were compared in terms of the projected economic benefits and those realised by participating rural households, and households' attitudes to further plantation expansion. Models comprised two forms of land-sharing plantation concessions, and contract and independent tree growing. Benefits and costs over the plantation cycle were used to calculate net present values. Tree plantations contributed most to household livelihoods when companies engaged in a participatory land use planning process, where opportunities for household labour were greatest, and where plantation models allowed for intercropping by households. In contrast, where contracts were not honoured, crops cannot be grown jointly, or labour opportunities are limited, returns were not competitive with traditional swidden agriculture. Households were generally open to expansion of more beneficial models. These results suggest a set of principles for developing locally appropriate and beneficial tree plantation systems in Lao PDR.

Applying a Multi-Criteria Project Portfolio Tool in Selecting Energy Peat Production Areas

This study demonstrates the characteristics of the new generic project portfolio selection tool YODA (“Your Own Decision Aid”). YODA does not include a mathematical aggregation model. Instead, the decision maker’s preferences are defined by the interactive articulation of acceptance thresholds of project-level decision criteria. Transparency and ease of adopting the method in participatory planning are sought using the method’s simple preference input. The characteristics of the YODA tool are introduced by presenting how it has been applied in participatory land use planning in northern Finland in selecting a combination of peat production sites to attain the goals defined at municipal level. In this process, each stakeholder first constructed a project portfolio that best met his or her preferences. In doing this, acceptance thresholds for project-level decision criteria were defined. In total, eight decision criteria were related to economic value, biodiversity, social impacts, and ecosystem services. Subsequently, the portfolios of different stakeholders were combined in line with the principles of robust portfolio modelling. Core projects were accepted by all stakeholders, while exterior projects were not accepted, and borderline projects by some of the stakeholders. Although the land use planning situation at hand was highly sensitive, because it was related to various aspects of sustainability, the use of YODA provided useful results. The first meeting with stakeholders identified 52 out of 99 sites that none of the stakeholders would use for energy peat production, due to their characteristics, whereas, in the second meeting, a smaller stakeholder group found 18 core projects and 26 borderline projects which could be potential areas for energy peat production. We conclude that YODA—as a generic project portfolio tool—can be used in various planning situations.

Assessment of Intervention Strategies for Addressing Agricultural Production Shocks in Tanzania: The Case of Rufiji, Mbarali and Sumbawanga Districts

This study sought to gain in-depth understanding into smallholder farmers’ perceptions of intervention strategies for addressing agricultural production shocks in Tanzania. It involved identification of local policy and intervention strategies that can be used to address agricultural production shocks and build resilience among smallholder farmers in Tanzania. The study employed mixed research methodology, using primary data collected from six villages in Sumbawanga, Mbarali and Rufiji districts in Tanzania. Overall findings reveal that smallholder farmers have good knowledge of possible strategies for addressing agricultural production shocks. The farmers recommended local policy and intervention strategies for supporting them such as facilitation of access to credit and subsidies, reinforcing and strengthening informal social networks, supporting income diversification activities and introduction of crop insurance system. Other intervention strategies include introduction of participatory village land use plans, promoting information access and training to smallholder farmers and enhancing access to small-scale irrigation technologies. Based on these findings, the study recommends that policy makers and researchers should concentrate on understanding farmers’ perceptions in view of using local knowledge in the design and implementation of intervention strategies. The strength of farmers’ perceptions is that it is the outcome of farmers’ actual experience, and it is based on understanding of the local context. .The paper concludes that unless the strategies are fully implemented, agricultural production shocks will continue to affect smallholder farmers in rural Tanzania.