Changes In Tenure Research Articles

Confined and Sustainable? A Critique of Recent Pastoral Policy for Reindeer Herding in Finnmark, Northern Norway

Abstract Recently, an increasing number of development plans and strategies for pastoral communities have failed to ensure the sought sustainability, especially in ecosystems characterised by fluctuating environmental conditions. Many of these strategies are centred on a policy of confining, controlling and settling the nomadic herders. This article illustrates some of the principles and pitfalls of this approach with the case of semi-nomadic reindeer herding in Northern Norway. It juxtaposes the management views advocated by the herders with those expressed and implied by the recent state policies for reindeer herding. The focus is placed on the changes in land tenure and resource access. On the one hand, the state policy is founded on the assumptions of the tragedy-of-the-commons theory and argues for a formalised individual tenure regime as the only arrangement able to prevent/redress the alleged environmental degradation. On the other hand, the herders argue for a complex, and at times paradoxical, tenure and management regime, one that ensures both tenure security and flexibility, an adaptation of customary principles to the present situation. Our conclusion supports increasing evidence from elsewhere that gaps between the policy prescriptions and the pastoral management strategies have often resulted in negative social and environmental consequences. We argue for the need to include the experience and expectations of the herders in the design of legitimate and enduring co-management regimes as the only sustainable alternative.

Social science knowledge and induced institutional innovation: an institutional design perspective

In this paper I advance a model in which institutional innovation is induced by changes in resource endowments, cultural endowments, and technical change. I also introduce the role of advances in social science knowledge as a source of institutional innovation. The sources of institutional innovation are illustrated by changes in land tenure and labor relations in Philippine agriculture, by the transition from command and control to market-based systems of resource management in the United States, and by the development of institutional design principles based on studies of small-scale resource management. In a final section, I elaborate a pattern model that maps the relationships among changes in resource endowments, cultural endowments, technology, and institutions.

Life Course and Housing Tenure Change in Urban China: A Study of Guangzhou

In the West, homeownership has been seen as the ultimate housing career. It is interesting that in ‘socialist’ China, a major objective of the urban housing reform, which began in 1979, is to privatize the housing stock and promote homeownership. The past few years in particular have witnessed rapid increases in the homeownership rate. The present study seeks to conduct a longitudinal analysis of China's road to homeownership, making use of retrospective life history data collected in 2001 in the city of Guangzhou. The event of interest is the transition from renting to owning. Analysis using Cox's proportional hazards models shows that age is associated with increasing homeownership, as is higher education attainment. Change in marital status is a more important factor causing the housing tenure switch than is marital status per se. The subtle relations among households, work units and the state still affect households’ housing access and tenure choice behaviour. People working in non-state work units tend to be associated with lower tenure change risks. On the other hand, membership of the Chinese Communist Party enhances the tenure switch.

BOOK REVIEW: Gebissa, Ezekiel. LEAF OF ALLAH: KHAT AND AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN HARERGE ETHIOPIA, 1875-1991. Oxford: James Currey, 2004.

Reviewed by: Leaf of Allah: Khat and Agricultural Transformation in Harerge Ethiopia, 1875-1991 Tim Carmichael Gebissa, Ezekiel . 2004. Leaf of Allah: Khat and Agricultural Transformation in Harerge Ethiopia, 1875-1991. Oxford: James Currey. 210 pp. $44.95 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). Thriving in climates well-suited to coffee cultivation, qat1 is a psychoactive shrub, grown and consumed primarily throughout eastern and northeastern Africa and southern Arabia. Users typically ingest it by chewing the soft, slightly bitter leaves, though sometimes they brew them like tea, or dry and crush them and mix the powder with cold water. Qat's two main alkaloids, cathinone and cathine, lessen hunger and produce enhanced wakefulness, greater physical energy, and focused concentration. As a major component of numerous cultures and economies in Africa and Yemen, the leaf has been studied by agricultural experts, anthropologists, botanists, chemists, economists, historians, medical doctors, psychologists, and others. Recently, qat surpassed coffee as Ethiopia's top export earner, yet public and private [End Page 134] debates rage about whether the economic benefits to farmers, traders, sellers, and government offset the stimulant's deleterious effects on chewers and their societies. Despite the past and present significance of qat in the Horn of Africa, Ezekiel Gebissa's monograph is the first on the topic in Ethiopian studies, and it makes a novel and welcome contribution to the historiography. An in-depth study of Ethiopia's eastern province, Hararge, it takes demographic, ecological, market, political, and other factors into consideration to provide solid analyses of agricultural, policy, and parallel economic (smuggling) issues. Most of it is well written and reveals far-ranging research, considerable thought, and meaningful theoretical engagement. While readers interested in issues of consumption will be disappointed, scholars of agriculture, political economy, and state–society relations will find much of interest between its covers. The book begins by linking the spread of increased Ethiopian qat consumption over the twentieth century to rises in disposable income and rapid transportation systems, and situates the book historiographically. Gebissa then describes the administration of Harerge and changes in land tenure there under Ethiopian rule (after 1887), and explicates the Djibouti–Addis Ababa railway's influence on cropping regimes and exports. Although qat is potentially lucrative, it is highly perishable and must be delivered soon after being harvested; therefore, notwithstanding higher shipping costs, the arrival of the railway in Dire Dawa, in 1902, made distant marketing more feasible. Still, the post-1941 period witnessed the most marked expansion of the cultivation of qat. To account for this development, Gebissa looks beyond the basic forces of supply and demand, and improved transportation networks, to investigate farm-level issues affecting cropping choices. By the 1940s, population growth, state and private acquisition of lands, and inheritance patterns had made land scarce. Farmers responded by "claiming land from the forests" (p. 66) and opted increasingly to plant qat in the cleared plots. Highly disease-resistant, the leaf promised long-term yields, meshed well with seasonal labor demands, did not necessarily disrupt food production for family consumption, and could be sold year-round, often for high profits, unlike coffee, whose prices began to drop in the 1950s. When asked in 1994 about the returns obtained from these cash crops, one respondent answered, "Oh! You are comparing a slave to a free man. . . . Coffee is slavery, khat is freedom" (p. 74). Gebissa then reviews internal factors that led to increased qat consumption in Yemen, Djibouti, Somaliland, and the Ogaden. Improved infrastructure and modern transport, including airplanes, permitted delivery of fresh leaves from Harerge to the chewers. Alarmed by the amount of currency this international trade diverted to Ethiopia, other governments endeavored to discourage it: in 1963, Aden succeeded in imposing a lasting ban; in 1964, Ethiopia countered Somalia's invasion by prohibiting cross-border transactions. The loss of these legal outlets spurred Hararge qat smuggling, whose appeal was strengthened by Ethiopia's punitive tax structures [End Page 135] and insufficient policing resources. The surplus resulting from closed foreign markets was partially absorbed by rising domestic consumption—an important phenomenon, but regrettably summarized in little more than one page. Gebissa subsequently discusses domestic marketing structures and the logic of farmers' decisions to...

Land policies and agricultural land markets in Russia

Russia has experienced dramatic changes in land ownership and land tenure since the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991: agricultural land has been largely privatized, individual landowners now have legal rights to most agricultural land in the country, and previous prohibitions on buying and selling of land have been removed by recent laws. The necessary pre-conditions for the development of agricultural land markets have been met and we are beginning to witness transactions that involve individual landowners, and not only the state. However, further development of the embryonic land market is severely circumscribed by the inadequacy of the administrative and technical infrastructure. The paper reviews the dynamically evolving legal framework for land reform, considers the impacts of land reform on privatization and ownership structure of agricultural land, and analyzes the development of land market transactions. The analysis is based on the results of a questionnaire-based survey conducted by the authors in 2003 in three regions. The survey results are supplemented with data from official statistical sources when appropriate. The paper concludes with a review of the existing constraints on land transactions and some policy recommendations.

The tenure factor in wildlife conservation

Kakamega Forest and its environs have undergone rapid changes in land tenure and land use activities in recent years. Consequently, changing land tenure and land use and their impact on local communities’ conservation initiatives have become central in conservation debates. Despite this, wildlife conservation is constrained by a legacy of top‐down government approaches that do not recognize indigenous land and resource rights. Yet effective conservation is only possible where land ownership, tenure security, access and use rights and legitimacy of authority exist. This paper examines the link between land tenure and the Isukha community’s participation in wildlife conservation within and around Kakamega Forest National Reserve in Kenya. Results indicate that there is a link between land tenure and the Isukha community’s participation in wildlife conservation. Results also indicate that as in other African countries, the introduction of radical land reforms and wildlife conservation laws and policies impacted negatively on the community’s indigenous land rights as well as their participation in wildlife conservation.

Privatizing pastoral lands: economic and normative outcomes in Kenya

This article presents empirical data from household level studies and anthropological field research regarding the economic and normative outcomes of privatization of pastoral land among a Samburu community in Kenya. The privatization of land in Samburu fits neither the optimistic scenario of property rights theorists nor the gloomy forecasts of those who favor communal ownership in pastoral areas. While many households experienced gains from privatization this was due to the particular ways in which the process of land tenure change proceeded and how agriculture was integrated into their pastoral livelihood. Local level norms have emerged that reinforce the value of land ownership for residents and discourage land sales, effectively preserving the pastoral way of life.

Some Outstanding Issues in the Debate on External Promotion of Land Privatisation

Since the early 1990s, the dominant consensus in the debate on land rights reform in sub-Saharan Africa has been that external interventions to privatise land rights are usually inappropriate and likely to remain so. This article suggests that two elements in the debate – the scope for varying adjudication criteria, procedures and support systems in order to enhance equity, and the influence of a region's agro-ecological and socioeconomic characteristics on the impacts of tenure change – merit further attention. The article urges a shift towards a more pragmatic approach, sensitive to the diversity of both physical and socio-economic conditions within which tenure systems operate. Illustrative evidence is drawn from a relatively low-potential farming region in eastern Kenya.

Integrated Assessment of the Dynamics, Stability and Resilience of the Inner Mongolian Grazing Ecosystems

Abstract This paper presents results from an ecological assessment of land use and climate change in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Using a combination of fieldwork, rangeland monitoring, and simulation analyses, this study tackles the socio-economic issues faced by pastoralists in this region, focusing on linkages between climate, land use and human welfare. Employing a systems approach, we use the SAVANNA ecosystem simulation model to examine the long-term effects of anthropogenic pressures on the biophysical system. Our model demonstrates that in order to maintain grassland sustainability, climate variations must be considered by land managers making decisions on grazing. Our model indicates that traditional ways of nomadic herding, where nomads were able to move their herds in response to changing distributions of available forage, would be more adaptive in spatially and temporally variable climate and foraging conditions. In contrast, increased sedentarisation and restrictions on grazing movements imposed by political boundaries or fenced croplands may endanger sustainability by reducing options for adaptive grazing tactics. We suggest that new grazing systems must be developed to mitigate these changes in land use and land tenure.

Socioeconomic Factors Influencing Customary Marine Tenure in the Indo-Pacific

For generations communities in the Western Pacific have employed a range of resource management techniques (including periodic reef closures, gear restrictions, entry limitations, and the protection of spawning aggregations) to limit marine resource use. Localized control over marine resources, commonly known as customary marine tenure (CMT), is the legal and cultural foundation for many of these practices. Because of their perceived potential to meet both conservation and community goals, these traditional resource management techniques are being revitalized by communities, governments, and NGOs as an integral part of national and regional marine conservation plans in the Pacific. However, the viability of conservation strategies built on a foundation of marine tenure may be in question, as it remains unclear whether marine tenure systems will be able to withstand the profound social and economic changes sweeping the Pacific region. Numerous studies have suggested that changes in marine tenure are attributed to social and economic factors, however, specific relationships between socioeconomic conditions and marine tenure are still not well understood. This paper examines the social and economic characteristics of 21 coastal communities in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, and explores the characteristics of the communities that employ exclusive marine tenure to answer the following questions: Which socioeconomic factors are related to the presence of CMT regimes? How might socioeconomic factors influence the ability of communities to employ or maintain CMT regimes? Distance to market, immigration, dependence on fishing, and conflicts were found to be related to the presence of highly exclusive marine tenure systems. Exploring these relationships will help conservation practitioners better understand how future social changes may influence the foundation of conservation and development projects.

Changes in population and land use over time in the Ecuadorian Amazon

This paper draws upon a detailed longitudinal survey of households living on agricultural plots in the northern three provinces of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the principal region of colonization by migrants in Ecuador since the 1970s. Following the discovery of petroleum in 1967 near what has subsequently come to be the provincial capital and largest Amazonian city of Lago Agrio, oil companies built roads to lay pipelines to extract and pump oil across the Andes for export. As a result, for the past 30 years over half of both Ecuador's export earnings and government revenues have come from petroleum extracted from this region. But the roads also facilitated massive spontaneous in-migration of families from origin areas in the Ecuadorian Sierra, characterized by minifundia and rural poverty. This paper is about those migrants and their effects on the Amazonian landscape. We discuss the data collection methodology and summarize key results on settler characteristics and changes in population, land use, land ownership, technology, labor allocation, and living conditions, as well as the relationships between changes in population and changes in land use over time. The population in the study region has been growing rapidly due to both natural population growth (high fertility) and in-migration. This has led to a dramatic process of subdivision and fragmentation of plots in the 1990's, which contrasts with the consolidation of plots that has occurred in most of the mature frontier areas of the Brazilian Amazon. This fragmentation has led to important changes in land tenure and land use, deforestation, cattle raising, labor allocation, and settler welfare.

Desert ‘wastes’ of the Maghreb: desertification narratives in French colonial environmental history of North Africa

The origins of the word ‘desertification’, most commonly attributed to Aubréville’s 1949 work on tropical African forests, may be traced back much earlier, to nineteenth-century French colonial North Africa. The concept of desertification was central to French colonial thinking about the North African environment. This paper argues that an environmental history of the Maghreb was constructed during the French colonial period which blamed local North Africans, especially pastoralists, for the deforestation and desertification of what was erroneously believed to have been a fertile, forested landscape in antiquity. This environmental narrative of destruction and decline was first fabricated during the early years of the French occupation of Algeria, and was invoked in Tunisia and Morocco as they were occupied. Founded on historical inaccuracies and environmental misunderstandings, this narrative helped to justify land expropriation, changes in land tenure, forest appropriation and the criminalization of traditional land use, all of which facilitated the colonial venture in the three Maghreb countries.

China’s Land Use Reforms: A Review of Journal Literature

This bibliography reviews periodical literature on China’s experience in land use reforms after the 1970s. It begins by examining the introduction of market mechanisms in land allocation and subsequent changes in land tenure in both rural and urban areas, in which land use rights are separated from ownership and are privatized. These changes led to the development of urban housing markets and a housing finance system. The bibliography then examines influences from legislative and administrative sectors, such as land use laws, governmental policies, and urban planning. In addition, the bibliography examines Hong Kong’s land use system that is based on market mechanisms in which, nonetheless, the city government, through land use laws and plans, plays a significant role.

Rural Development, Growth and Poverty in Africa

The paper argues that rural-based policies in Sub-Saharan Africa have the potential to stimulate overall growth and reduce poverty because poverty is mainly a rural phenomenon. Further, rural development is likely to have a salutary effect on the whole economy for several reasons. First, rural-based growth is typically accompanied by improvements in income distribution. Secondly, where reduction in income inequality comes from land reform and changes in land tenure, it has a tendency to increase agricultural productivity because of the resultant intensification of labour input on land. Thirdly, rural development inevitably involves increased investment in human capital of the poor, which in addition to expanding their economic opportunities, improves their quality of life directly. Fourthly, by expanding the tax base for the modern sector, rural development can empower governments to reform distortionary taxes, especially on agriculture, and thus increase overall efficiency in the economy. Although African agriculture -- the usual emphasis in povertyreduction strategies -- remains the principal source of employment and incomes for most rural people, its dynamism depends critically on conditions prevailing in rural non-farm sectors. Similarly, growth in non-farm sectors creates opportunities for higher incomes and employment in agriculture. Thus, agriculture and the rural non-farm sector complement each other in the process of rural development. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

A planning support system for rangeland allocation in Iran with case study of Chadegan sub-region

Overgrazing and untimely grazing are common on rangelands in Iran often because of land tenure ambiguities. For the same reason a considerable portion of the rangelands has been converted into farmland for rainfed cereal production. As a result, these rangelands are experiencing land degradation under the increasing pressure to support a growing population of people and livestock. Land tenure reform is perceived as one approach to improving the use and condition of Iranian rangelands. Changes in land tenure involve very complex decision-making that should lead to sustainable use of the land and contribute to the sustainable livelihood of present and future generations. This paper describes a planning support system developed for rangeland allocation in Iran to support the tenure-reform process. The system is composed of three modules: land evaluation module, district planning module and local planning module. The land evaluation module works in a GIS environment and uses the FAO methodology for land evaluation, with emphasis on biophysical characteristics of the land-use system. Socio-economic factors in terms of the effect of human intervention on the current status of the land have also been taken into account. The district planning module comprises three sub-modules: planning sub-module, grazing sub-module, and a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) sub-module. The planning sub-module is an optimisation model that examines the degree of realisation of various objectives of stakeholders and generates alternative solutions. For each alternative, the grazing capacity of the land is assessed (grazing sub-module). The MCE sub-module ranks the alternative solutions, taking into account their advantages and disadvantages. The outcome is a pattern of land use consistent with existing government policies and satisfying the needs and desires of the local population. The local planning module also comprises three sub-modules: land allocation sub-module, economically viable grazing enterprise sub-module, and a land improvement planning sub-module. The land allocation sub-module transforms the district land-use pattern into a local land-use plan. The economically viable grazing enterprise sub-module determines the appropriate size of the land holding for each household on each land-mapping unit. Finally, the land improvement planning sub-module provides information on the status and impact of the land improvement program. This planning support system has been applied to the Chadegan sub-region in Iran to illustrate its potential as a decision-making tool. Three scenarios were defined at district level, in addition to the status quo: maximum benefit for farm households; minimum government subsidies; and maximum land cover, emphasizing environmental goals. Results suggest that maximum land cover is the preferred scenario with the highest income and carrying capacity, and lowest level of subsidisation. However, since it eliminates wheat production, this scenario it culturally less attractive.

Residential relocation under market-oriented redevelopment: the process and outcomes in urban China

Residential displacement by urban regeneration in western economies and forced relocation in the Third World countries are contentious issues. This paper, based on a household survey in Shanghai, examines the process and outcomes of residential relocation under market-oriented urban redevelopment in China. The results show that commodification of the socialist tenancy right helped to initiate large-scale urban redevelopment. First, there has been a complicated process of negotiation during residential relocation, involving residents, development companies, and government agencies. The de facto right of public housing tenants is considered by a pragmatic attitude in urban redevelopment in the early years. Second, residential relocation is accompanied by the changes in housing tenure, housing conditions, and the improved built form of planned residential districts. Nevertheless, the social conflict has become intensified recently because the deepening of commodification began to favour property developers by constraining the compensation standard for relocated households.

A Note from the Editor-Select

In January 2004, we start the transition of editorship for the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. I feel greatly honored with the 2005-2008 appointment and the bestowal of trust involved with editing the leading journal of our discipline. We are coming upon our 50th Anniversary in BEA and the Journal of Broadcasting. The year was 1955, and our first editors are names you'll remember: Robert E. Summers, John M. Kittross, and Christopher H. Sterling. We are deeply indebted to these early editors who established the foundation for our journal as one of the premier publications of scholarly research. I pledge to follow that tradition. As you read this note, I'm just beginning to review manuscripts as editor-select. My first issue will appear March 2005, when I assume the editor's role. During this transition, editor Thomas R. Lindlof (University of Kentucky) continues to publish articles for his term, and he's teaching me the process. I don't foresee a lot of change in my tenure as editor. I think we have the finest journal in the field. The articles published represent a diversified spectrum of interests, disciplines, and methodologies. This variation strengthens all of us, as well as our discipline. It is my intention that JOBEM remain an intellectual leader as we will stay the course of excellence. As always in such transitions, there will a few changes on the editorial board. The purpose of the board remains to provide a collective body of national and international expertise. The board remains strong in disciplines of quantitative research. I have also invited qualitative scholars to join the board and have worked to maintain a large pool of reviewers from all disciplines. Really, the most important decision an editor makes is the assignment of reviewers to a manuscript. It is the quality of the editorial board and manuscript reviewers that have maintained, and continues to maintain, the high quality of our journal. One of my goals as editor is to affirm our current quantitative submissions while at the same time encouraging more qualitative submissions in history, criticism, and law. I'd like to invite variety in our subject matter and our methodological approaches. So, you'll notice a few changes in the Guidelines for Submission of Manuscripts. Manuscripts may submitted in APA, MLA, or The Chicago Manual of Style. This is our first step. I hope this flexibility will encourage more research from our historical, critical, and legal scholars. Upon a manuscript's acceptance the Publications Committee still mandates that the publication style APA and must prepared, by the author, in accordance with the current edition of the Publication Manual of the American psychological Association. You'll notice that I've also edited the length considerations. I don't want to discourage longer submissions; however, I do want to encourage more submissions. Thus, succinctness is highly encouraged. I know how important each word seems, but it has been my own experience that my manuscripts have always been improved by a good dose of editing for brevity. I totally agree with our previous editors who have worked hard to maintain a short manuscript evaluation turnaround time. I will work to maintain no more than a three month period where possible. Having said that, I'd like to provide a few words of advice and encouragement to our younger scholars and those looking anew at JOBEM. I want to encourage new and young scholars to consider our Journal--your quality work is paramount. Having reviewed many manuscripts over the years, I'd like to say to you, be persistent, polite, accommodating. I pledge that your manuscripts will reviewed by scholars who are leaders in our field. I ask you to remember that these scholarly reviewers are often the busiest of our colleagues, these are productive people with national reputations. They review your material without compensation or rewards of any kind. …

Land cover and land use changes in relation to social evolution—a case study from Northern Chile

In the Chile's Choapa valley (4th Region), the small-scale irrigated agriculture found today was brought about by the changes in land tenure which occurred between 1965 and 1975. In the Chillepin district, an extensive holding that produced wheat and cattle was expropriated and, after a period of collective farming, small family holdings of vineyards and orchards took their place. These changes were studied over a 50 years period through the use of social enquiries, local history, vegetation measurements and aerial photographs so as to compare the effects of the successive agrarian systems on the environment. The most intense wood extraction occurred during the 8 years’ period just after the expropriation. During 25 years of small family farming we observed that (i) diversity and number of cultivated plots in the irrigated area have increased and (ii) tree vegetation in the hinterland has partially recovered. The first is due to the know-how of the peasants, who agreed to specialize in grape production as the market became assured, but who have managed other productions in mixed farming using few chemicals and the traditional irrigation system. The second effect, in the mountainous hinterland, is mainly due to (1) the termination of rain farming and charcoal production, (2) the slowing down of the deforestation for fuel-wood and (3) the controlling of the perimeter as private property.

University Faculty In Partner Schools

A common component of teacher preparation reform includes the development of partner schools. As more universities create partnerships, the impact on faculty rewards, rank and status are significant concerns. This research examined these issues with National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER) institutions. The amount and nature of faculty work in partner schools varied considerably across NNER institutions suggesting that progress is variable and/or that institutions are arriving at different solutions regarding partnerships. In addition, the provision of formal and systematized teaching load credit or course release for faculty who work in partner schools is only slowly emerging at some institutions. Finally, only a small percentage of institutions reported changes in tenure and promotion guidelines recognizing partner school work, with about one third indicating that such changes were under discussion, while half reported no changes. Reasons for these findings are offered and analyzed in terms of changing teacher preparation programs.

Changes in miombo woodland structure under different land tenure and use systems in central Zambia

AbstractAim Population pressure and communal land ownership are often perceived as serious threats to forest conservation in savanna woodlands of central and southern Africa. I aimed at testing the hypothesis that the rate of miombo woodland recovery after clearing and re‐growth structure are determined by land tenure and use.Location Miombo woodland under customary, leasehold, forest reserve and national park on ten permanent and temporary sites was studied in central Zambia. Two sites were in mature woodland and eight sites were in re‐growth miombo ranging in age from 1 to 30 years.Methods I enumerated and measured girth at breast height (1.3 m above ground) of trees/stems in sixty‐four 20 × 10 m plots in 1982, 1986 and 2000 at six sites and annually from 1990 to 2001 at four sites to determine stem density and status (live, dead or cut) and wood biomass. A total of 239 trees were cut, wood biomass measured and the data used to develop equations for estimating wood biomass on study plots. Distance between each study site and the nearest human settlement was estimated during each sampling period using aerial photographs, topographical maps and the global positioning system.Results Land tenure was responsible for significant differences in stem density, wood biomass and rate of biomass accumulation in re‐growth following clearing of mature miombo woodland. Although stem density was highest on customary land, wood biomass and accumulation rate were lowest. The highest biomass was on plots in forest reserves, with intermediate values for leasehold and national park. Fire was responsible for tree mortality at all the study sites and its impact was highest at a site in a national park. Sites close to human settlements had the highest density of cut stems but this activity did not significantly reduce wood biomass. Rate of woodland recovery was higher on sites cleared in the 1970s than on sites cleared in the 1990s, irrespective of age of re‐growth. The development of the first, second and third re‐growths following successive woodland clearing in 1972, 1981 and 1990, respectively, was not significantly different, except for stem density which was highest in the second re‐growth. Analysis of interactions between five land tenure and use factors (independent variables) and re‐growth structure revealed that 52% (P=0.0000) of the variation in stem density was because of re‐growth age and decade in which the woodland was cleared while distance to human settlements and age of re‐growth explained 42% (P=0.0000) of the variation in wood biomass. Individually, distance to human settlements explained 25% (P=0.0000) of the variation in wood biomass accumulation rate.Conclusion The results supported the hypothesis that rate of miombo woodland recovery and structure were influenced by land tenure and use. However, analysis of interactions between factors revealed that use related factors (i.e. decade in which woodland was cleared and distance to human settlements) and re‐growth related factors (age and type of re‐growth) were more important than land tenure per se in explaining variation in miombo recovery. The conclusion from these results is that regulation of land use is more important than change in land tenure to the proper management of miombo woodland.