Public Land Ownership Research Articles

Blurring distinctions between public and private land ownership

Blurring distinctions between public and private land ownership

Putting the "And" Back in the Culture-Nature Debate: Integrated Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection

I. INTRODUCTION II. CULTURAL & NATURAL HERITAGE: AN OVERVIEW A. Cultural Heritage B. Natural Heritages C. Nature Conservation Strategies Worldwide D. The Links Between Cultural and Natural Heritage E. Characteristics of Sites of Overlapping Cultural & Natural Heritage III. The Present and Future of Integrated Cultural & Natural Heritage Management A. Challenges Posed to Protecting Cultural and Natural Heritage B. Existing Legal/Regulatory Efforts to Protect Cultural and Natural Heritage 1. Developed Countries a. The United States b. The European Union (1) England (a) National Parks (b) Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (c) Conservation Areas (2) Dartmoor National Park (a) The Dartmoor Local Plan (b) Local Plan Aims (c) Local Plan Landscapes c. Canada 2. Developing Countries a. China b. Brazil IV. CONCLUSION A. Why Integrate Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection? B. Bridging Boundaries for Mutual Gain I. INTRODUCTION Formal legal efforts to protect cultural and natural heritage are not a modern phenomenon. In the developed and developing worlds, regional, state, and local governments undertake efforts to protect their cultural heritage and their natural resources. Most cultural and natural resource protection regimes, however, have evolved independently of one another. This is only recently beginning to change. As scholars, regulators, and activists increasingly recognize the links and overlap between areas of cultural and natural heritage, they are beginning to come together to develop new regimes for joint cultural and environmental protection. These early efforts jointly to protect cultural and natural heritage vary significantly in character and success. These variations reflect a still vague and evolving understanding of the interplay between culture and nature, the relationship between public and private land ownership, and significant regional differences in existing legal regimes, economic development, and environmental agendas. Further, there is currently very little comprehensive research examining global efforts to develop heritage protection areas that integrate both cultural and natural resource conservation. There is even less research analyzing how relationships between land ownership and social conceptions of culture and nature impact the development of future cultural and natural heritage programs. The goal of this paper is to contribute to and encourage the development of innovative, interdisciplinary approaches for the protection, preservation, and enhancement of natural and cultural heritage areas. The second section of this paper examines traditional notions and regulatory regimes for cultural and natural heritage protection, and delves into the links between cultural and natural heritage. Section three analyzes existing cultural heritage and environmental/natural protection laws, and provides examples of joint cultural and natural heritage preservation efforts. In particular, section three considers how current and prospective joint cultural and natural heritage protection efforts in developed and developing countries contribute to the social and economic development of communities and regions, and advance the principles of sustainable development by strengthening the historical continuity of a place and its people, and by guiding development in ways consistent with the characteristics of these cultural and natural resources. Additionally, section three examines case studies in the United States, Europe, Canada, Brazil, and China to demonstrate the challenges and critical elements integral to developing innovative and sustainable cultural and natural heritage preservation schemes. …

Kyoto, Constitutional Law and Alberta's Proposals

This article examines Alberta’s Bill 37, a provincial plan to reduce greenhouse gases and climate change, and explores the constitutionality of such legislation. Its main focus revolves around a constitutional analysis of Alberta's proposed legislation and its potential incompatibility with federal initiatives used to meet the Government of Canada's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. In this discussion, the authors conclude that Bill 37 would likely be constitutionally valid under the provincial subject matter of property and civil rights, and possibly local undertakings and ownership of provincial public lands. However, the authors dismiss the argument that Alberta's legal position over any federal initiative would be bolstered by the Crown's ownership of provincial resources. The article then looks to the federal government's Kyoto commitments and analyzes the constitutionality of possible federal initiatives under the federal subject matters of taxation, criminal law, trade and commerce and POGG. With both the Alberta and federal plans analyzed, the authors then discuss the potential incompatibility of the plans through three possible scenarios. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the other cooperative measures, such as equivalency agreements and incorporation by reference, which the federal and provincial governments may use to combat the issue of climate change.

Explaining human settlement patterns in a recreational lake district: Vilas County, Wisconsin, USA.

Lakeshore development in Vilas County, northern Wisconsin (USA) is heterogeneous, ranging from lakes that are surrounded by homes and commercial establishments to lakes that have no buildings on their shorelines. Development in this recreational area has increased, and since the 1960s over half of new homes have been built on the lakeshore. We examined building density around lakes in relationship to 11 variables, including in-lake, shoreline, and social characteristics. Buildings in many parts of northern Wisconsin tend to be concentrated around shorelines; in Vilas County 61% of all medium-sized buildings (our proxy for residential development) on private land were < or =100 m of a lake. The probability of development on a lake was largely related to lake surface area, with larger, more accessible lakes showing a higher probability of development. Building density along shorelines varied with travel cost, lake surface area, presence of wetlands, and extent of public land ownership. Building density was greater on larger, more accessible lakes that were surrounded by forest (as opposed to wetlands) and public lands. Gaining a more precise understanding of human settlement patterns can help direct planning and resource protection efforts to lakes most likely to experience future development.

Sustainable development in Asia, America and Europe with global applications: a new approach to land ownership

Part 1 Theories: introduction theories of Monsoon Asia rice economy and variable mixed economies theory of property rights. Part 2 The Japanese model and a new model: the Japanese model versus the last obstacle a new model for sustainable rural development. Part 3 The Chinese model: the Chinese model and the emergence of the last obstacle overcoming the last obstacle in the Chinese model other rice-based economies under public land ownership. Part 4 Applications of the new model beyond Monsoon Asia: the American model and the crowding out of small farmers application of the new model in the USA implications of the new model to the OECD, EU, CEECs, CIS and rest of the world.

Empire forestry and the origins of environmentalism

When and where did the environmental movement begin? To understand how a public endued with the principles of laissez-faire reversed in such short order a century-old policy of government land disposal, this paper examines how public ownership of land came to be celebrated, with a newly defined professional corps of government foresters such as Dietrich Brandis and Gifford Pinchot feted as popular heroes. Hard-headed environmentalists and legislators found in empire forestry a ready-made model to construct vast areas of the public domain as a utensil for not only environmental but state purposes—industrial, settlement, and budgetary. The empire forestry matrix of government reservations, fire protection, and revenue-enhancing forests solved the tension between romantic preservationist notions and laissez-faire ideals and gave the compromise from which modern environmentalism emerged: it posed environmental problems and solutions as a means to construct the state. This article traces the international trail of modern environmentalism from India, under Lord Dalhousie's forest charter, to the British colonies in Africa and Australasia where it matured, and finally to Canada, the United States and other parts of the globe where environmentalism permanently entered the pantheon of democratic political creeds.

The Israel Land Authority: relic or necessity?

More than 93% of all land in Israel is owned by the state or by public bodies and managed and administered by the Israel Land Authority (ILA). During the last decade, there has been increasing pressure to privatize the holdings suitable for development. The paper considers the central issues raised by the demand to curtail public land ownership in Israel. We first briefly summarize the main arguments for and against this kind of land ownership system. The next sections focus on the background of the existing regime and describe current land market policies of the ILA. The final section examines the claims about the shortage of developable land and discusses the factors and processes, which seem to explain the current demand to privatize the ILA.

Land use planning practice under the public land ownership policy in Tanzania

Land-use planning can be defined as a programme of state intervention in land use and environmental change to mediate conflicts of interests over how land should be used, developed, and coordinate individual activities which if left to proceed otherwise would lead to an environment for living that is characterised by negative externalities, inefficient use of land and services, inequity and unfair distribution of resources. The land-use programme is realised through a planning system, constituted by institutional arrangements, instruments and tools. Being one of the land policy tool by which the government intervenes in land-use change and development, land-use planning practice is, obviously, influenced by the content of the land policy as well as interests extant in a locality to include those of the planners and other land administrators. How does planning practice looks like under a public landownership policy? Through an empirical case of planning in practice, this paper provides an answer to this question.

Evaluation of urban land supply policy in Iran

Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, several urban land laws and regulations, as well as a new urban land development policy, have been initiated in Iran. The implementation of these policies was mainly based on public land ownership as a fundamental principle. This paper evaluates the process of recent urban land development policy and focuses on the effectiveness of the policy in terms of land supply. It includes a discussion on the issue of public land ownership, an investigation of post‐revolutionary urban land policies in Iran, a discussion on the evaluation of urban land development policy in terms of land supply, and finally, presents an argument on the relationship between public land ownership and urban development. The paper argues that alongside the primary advantages of public land ownership, such as urban growth control, preventing land speculation and providing land for various social needs, the land policy has succeeded to some extent in meeting residential land demand in the study period. However, in terms of the effectiveness of the land supply policies, the paper raises some concerns such as the centralized nature of the land development process, land wastage and isolation from the general process of planning.

Eastern Tropical African Centre of Endemism: A Candidate for World Heritage Status

ABSTRACT Together with the Coastal Forests and Eastern Arc rainshadow, the Eastern Arc forests make up a botanical Centre of Endemism in Eastern Tropical Africa (CEETA), which covers a wide range of vegetation formations in four different phytochoria. The factors that gave rise to the concentration of restricted-range taxa in the different vegetation types appear to result from the same long-term geological and climatic processes. The endemic-rich vegetation types occur in three countries: Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya and are managed under a wide range of land tenure arrangements from public land and private ownership, to Forest Reserve, Game Reserve and National Park. Much of the CEETA is recognised as a biodiversity ‘hotspot’ of global importance, but lacks a common management strategy. A possible common framework within which to develop an appropriate strategy is that of the World Heritage Convention. The case of the Australian Wet Tropics World Heritage Site is discussed as a comparative example.

From Stakeholders to Stockholders: A View from Organizational Theory

The public lands exhibit many of the characteristics of a commons--overuse and charges set well below market rates. This mismanagement has been noted and criticized within government for many years, without significant actions to cure the problem. This failure is attributed to both interest group pressures and agency costs, with government officials not accountable to any owner. Privatization through disposition of these lands to stock corporations created for the purpose is explored. Corporations solve interest group problems by holding managers accountable to a single group of owners, shareholders, while dealing with other constituencies through markets and contracting at prices calculated to maximize profits. Similarly, corporations deal with agency costs through a variety of incentives and the market for corporate control. It is shown how privatizing ownership of public lands in this manner serves conservation and recreation goals by providing incentives to unbundle claims on the public lands to allow bidding by all user groups (including conservationists) who value particular aspects of these resources.

Public land ownership and urban land management effectiveness in Metropolitan Kano, Nigeria

Rapid urban population expansion in the developing world has created the need for effective land management in urban areas. Effective urban land management is important because of its implication in social and economic development. Public intervention and control of land markets is generally viewed as one of the best means of ensuring the effective management of land. In Nigeria, land was nationalized in 1978 as a means of improving equity in access to it and its management. Studies of the Kano metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country, indicate that urban land management is characterized by a lack of effectiveness. This paper reviews the factors contributing to the current ineffectiveness in land management in the metropolitan area. In general, the paper notes the need to link recommendations of public ownership of land with requirements necessary for effective management and to contextual issues in the locality where the policy is to be implemented. The paper concludes by recommending that the Kano state government should consider re-evaluating the existing land use control regulations and procedures in the city with a view to introducing a more appropriate and sustainable control system. The paper also recommends that Nigeria should consider liberalizing its land markets as a means of improving land management effectiveness.

A RESIDENTIAL LAND USE MODEL WITH A GENERAL LANDOWNERSHIP: EXISTENCE AND UNIQUENESS OF EQUILIBRIUM

ABSTRACT This paper is focused on equilibrium in a spatial model with two income groups. In Fujita and Tokunaga (1993), we have proposed a basic model of residential land use, called an α‐landownership model, in which a group of city residents was assumed to own the circular area from the CBD to a radius α‐However, the assumption of a circular land area was very restrictive Therefore in this paper a general model of residential land use called the S‐landownership model is presented. This model assumes that a group of city residents jointly owns a part of the city's land, and it includes both the absentee landownership model and the public landownership model as special eases. The existence and uniqueness of the land use equilibrium for this S‐landownership model are demonstrated.

A theory of the optimal amount of public ownership of land

SummaryA major issue in reforming previously planned economies is the creation of assets markets. In this paper, it is argued that the mere characteristics of the assets to be privatized matter. Indeed, private ownership of land diverts resources from more productive activities. This suggests that for a given economy, there exists an optimal rate of public ownership of land. It is the purpose of this paper to provide a theory of such rate. We make use of a two-sectors overlapping generations model economy with land and capital. We find a version of the second welfare theorem: the command optimum can be decentralized using one and only one instrument, i.e. the rate of land publicly held. We call such a rate the optimal rate of public ownership of land.

Assessing betterment under a public premium leasehold system: principles and practice in Canberra

This article sets forth principles for assessing betterment under a public premium leasehold system of land tenure. Canberra, Australia, is employed as a case study. Recovery of the betterment which results as the city grows has been an important objective of public land ownership in Canberra. Up-front premiums and betterment charges replaced land rents in 1970. Betterment charges are applicable when permission to change land use is granted and there is an increase in the value of the lease. Different definitions used over time have failed to measure betterment correctly. A correct definition is derived, and it is argued that a 100% charge should be levied to maintain the government's ownership of development rights. Such a charge would not stifle redevelopment but would remove the subsidy it currently receives.

Preference, structure and economic growth

This paper proposes an economic model to analyze a dynamic interaction among capital accumulation, economic structure and preference in a perfectly competitive economic system. The system consists of three sectors: agriculture, industry and service. A typical consumer's utility is dependent on consumption of agricultural and industrial goods, services, housing and wealth. The territory size is given and public land ownership is assumed. The model in this study is influenced by the structural approach of, for example, Leontief, Sraffa and Pasinetti. The traditional neoclassical growth models, such as the Solow-Swan one-sector model, the Uzawa two-sector model and the Ricardian models of Samuelson and Pasinetti, may be considered, from a structural point of view, as special cases of the model in this study. Conditions for the existence of equilibria and stability are provided. The effects of changes in some parameters on the long-run economic structure are examined.

The demise of public urban land management and the emergence of informal land markets in Tanzania: A case of Dar-es-Salaam city

In consonance with ujamma (socialism) and in recognition of the role land plays in the development process, Tanzania adopted in 1967 a public land ownership policy. Ownership and management of land has henceforth remained in the public domain, at least in theory, despite the economic crisis, especially within the public sector and the subsequent reforms instituted since the mid 1980s. Examining the public land management practices in Dar-es-Salaam, the general contention of this paper is that the deficiencies of the public land management (especially in regard to allocation) have led to the evolution of informal land markets. The data presented in this paper have been collected from four case studies representing different kinds of informal markets. The paper argues for the appreciation and recognition of the latent market forces (which have subjugated bureaucratic land management practices) as entry points for the institution of an effective urban land management system. This is moreover thought necessary in order to ensure the articulation of land policy in a way favourable to prevailing economic revival strategics. Furthermore, the paper cautions on the socio-economic polarisation resulting from the continued laissez-faire and the marginalisation of the public involvement in the booming urban land market operations. It is hoped that this paper will provoke further discussions on the controversial debates going on in Tanzania today on the marketisation of urban land.

Ownership: An Overview1

This paper focuses on the interaction between public and private land ownership as a backdrop to future tenure research. It challenges various myths about land ownership in both sectors and emphasizes the problems in expanding tenure terms of reference to include the socalled “new property.” It concludes with an examination of macro‐sociological forces influencing the changing distribution of public and private ownership in the United States.

Land allocation for housing: A review of practice and possibilities in England

Abstract The typical conception of housing land release in England is of a non‐social, technical exercise which balance the various, often conflicting claims of rural conservation, of global housing needs and of non‐residential land uses. A rural housing needs policy, introduced in 1989, marks a potentially significant breach in the conventional wisdom that planning controls should only be concerned with the physical characteristics of buildings and of land. But the rural needs policy is unsuited to general application in its present form. If the intention is to use town planning to reduce the land cost of social housing, more consideration should be given to new forms of land taxation and public land ownership.

THE OPTIMAL PROVISION OF A CENTRAL PARK IN A CITY*

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I examine the conditions and decision rules pertaining to the efficient provision of a central park in a city (provision that must satisfy the Samuelson condition). An interesting finding is that an additional opportunity cost that results from competition with residential use must be included to determine the efficient size of a central park. An efficient central park is larger in a city with public landownership than in a city with absentee landownership. Profit maximization and population maximization can be used as decision rules to determine the efficient provision of a central park in both an open city with absentee landownership and one with public landownership. The net benefit of a central park in a closed city with absentee landownership is reflected not only in the land rent or profit, but also in the utility level, while that of a closed city with public landownership is fully reflected in the utility level. It is not feasible to determine the efficient size of a central park for a closed city with either absentee or public landownership solely based on observable market information.