This book covers land administration and reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is highly relevant to all developing countries around the world. It provides simple, practical steps to turn the hugely ...controversial subject of "land grabs" into a development opportunity by improving land governance to reduce the risks of dispossessing poor landholders while ensuring mutually beneficial investors' deals. This book shows how Sub-Saharan Africa can leverage its abundant and highly valuable natural resources to eradicate poverty by improving land governance through a ten point program to scale up policy reforms and investments at a cost of USD 4.5 billion. Formidable challenges to implementation are discussed. These include high vulnerability to land grabbing and expropriation with poor compensation, as about 90 percent of rural lands in Sub-Saharan Africa are undocumented, as well as timely opportunities since high commodity prices and investor interest in large scale agriculture have increased land values and returns to investing in land administration. The book argues that success in implementation will require participation of many players including Pan-African organizations, Sub-Saharan Africa governments, the private sector, civil society and development partners. Ultimate success will depend on the political will of Sub-Saharan Africa governments to move forward with comprehensive policy reforms and on concerted support by the international development community.
This book emphasizes the centrality of cities in China's ongoing transformation. Based on fieldwork in twenty-four Chinese cities between 1996 and 2007, the author forwards an analysis of the ...relations between the city, the state, and society through two novel concepts: urbanization of the local state and civic territoriality. Urbanization of the local state is a process of state power restructuring entailing an accumulation regime based on the commodification of state-owned land, the consolidation of territorial authority through construction projects, and a policy discourse dominated by notions of urban modernity. Civic territoriality encompasses the politics of distribution engendered by urban expansionism, and social actors' territorial strategies toward self-protection. Findings are based on observations in three types of places. In the inner city of major metropolitan centers, municipal governments battle high-ranking state agencies to secure land rents from redevelopment projects, while residents mobilize to assert property and residential rights. At the urban edge, as metropolitan governments seek to extend control over their rural hinterland through massive-scale development projects, villagers strategize to profit from the encroaching property market. At the rural fringe, township leaders become brokers of power and property between the state bureaucracy and villages, while large numbers of peasants are dispossessed, dispersed, and deterritorialized; their mobilizational capacity is consequently undermined.
In 1823, Chief Justice John Marshall handed down a Supreme Court decision of monumental importance in defining the rights of indigenous peoples throughout the English-speaking world (the United ...States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). At the heart of the decision for Johnson v. M'Intosh was a “discovery doctrine” that gave rights of ownership to the European sovereigns who “discovered” the land and converted the indigenous owners into tenants. Though its meaning and intention has been fiercely disputed, more than 175 years later, this doctrine remains the law of the land. In 1991, while investigating the discovery doctrine's historical origins this book's author made a startling find: in the basement of a Pennsylvania furniture-maker, he discovered a trunk with the complete corporate records of the Illinois and Wabash Land Companies, the plaintiffs in Johnson v. M'Intosh. This book provides a complete and troubling account of the European “discovery” of the Americas, detailing how a spurious claim gave rise to a doctrine — intended to be of limited application — which itself gave rise to a massive displacement of persons and the creation of a law that governs indigenous people and their lands to this day.
This Special Issue provides an insight, collated from 26 articles, focusing on various aspects of the Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) concept and its application. It presents some ...influential and innovative trends and recommendations for designing, implementing, maintaining and further developing Fit-For-Purpose solutions for providing secure land rights at scale. The first group of 14 articles is published in Volume One and discusses various conceptual innovations related to spatial, legal and institutional aspects and its wider applications within land use management. The second group of 12 articles is published in Volume Two and focuses on case studies from various countries throughout the world, providing evidence and lessons learned from the FFPLA implementation process.
This Special Issue provides an insight, collated from 26 articles, focusing on various aspects of the Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) concept and its application. It presents some ...influential and innovative trends and recommendations for designing, implementing, maintaining and further developing Fit-For-Purpose solutions for providing secure land rights at scale. The first group of 14 articles is published in Volume One and discusses various conceptual innovations related to spatial, legal and institutional aspects and its wider applications within land use management. The second group of 12 articles is published in Volume Two and focuses on case studies from various countries throughout the world, providing evidence and lessons learned from the FFPLA implementation process.
It is increasingly being recognized that land use and land cover changes driven by anthropogenic pressures are impacting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and their services, human society, and ...human livelihoods and well-being. This Special Issue contains 12 original papers covering various issues related to land use and land use changes in various parts of the world (see references), with the purpose of providing a forum to exchange ideas and progress in related areas. Research topics include land use targets, dynamic modelling and mapping using satellite images, pressures from energy production, deforestation, impacts on ecosystem services, aboveground biomass evaluation, and investigations on libraries of legends and classification systems.
Land Matters Corsi, Anna; Selod, Harris
2023, 2-20-2023
eBook, Book
Open access
Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), land is scarce and valuable. Demand for land is projected to dramatically increase to meet the needs of a fast-growing urban population. At the same ...time, the supply of land is restricted by weak governance and climate factors, causing the quasi-exhaustion of cultivable land reserves. As a result, a crisis is looming. Yet, land continues to be used inefficiently, inequitably, and unsustainably.
Land Matters identifies and analyzes the economic, environmental, and social challenges associated with land in the MENA region, shedding light on policy options and proposing paths to reform. It concludes that MENA countries need to act promptly, think more holistically about land, reassess the strategic trade-offs, and minimize land distortions. This report promotes a culture of open data, transparency, and inclusive dialogue on land, while filling major data gaps. These important steps will contribute to renewing the social contract, transforming the region economically and digitally, improving women’s land rights, and facilitating recovery and reconstruction in a context of dramatic social, political, and climatic transformation.
It is increasingly being recognized that land use and land cover changes driven by anthropogenic pressures are impacting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and their services, human society, and ...human livelihoods and well-being. This Special Issue contains 12 original papers covering various issues related to land use and land use changes in various parts of the world (see references), with the purpose of providing a forum to exchange ideas and progress in related areas. Research topics include land use targets, dynamic modelling and mapping using satellite images, pressures from energy production, deforestation, impacts on ecosystem services, aboveground biomass evaluation, and investigations on libraries of legends and classification systems.
Land in Transition Ravallion, Martin
2008, 04-08-2008, 20080101
eBook, Book
Open access
This book is a case study of Vietnam's efforts to fight poverty using market-oriented land reforms. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country undertook major institutional reforms, and an impressive ...reduction in poverty followed. But what role did the reforms play? Did the efficiency gains from reform come at a cost to equity? Were there both winners and losers? Was rising rural landlessness in the wake of reforms a sign of success or failure?Land in Transition investigates the impacts on living standards of the two stages of land law reform: in 1988, when land was allocated to households administratively and output markets were liberalized; and in 1993, when official land titles were introduced and land transactions were permitted for the first time since communist rule began. To fully assess the poverty impacts of these changes, the authors' analysis of household surveys is guided by both economic theory and knowledge of the historical and social contexts. The book delineates lessons from Vietnam's experience and their implications for current policy debates in China and elsewhere.
Land use is the projection of human activities in space, and it has become an important insight into the transformation and reconstruction of human society and economy. Rural land use in China is ...undergoing rapid transformation driven by the rapid development of science and technology. Effectively grasping the change and transformation process of rural land use and its internal mechanism provides an important reference for revealing the inherent laws of China's rural development. Rural land use is closely related to the rural vitalization strategy and urban–rural integration in the new era. An in-depth study of China's rural land use and policy reform provides the basis of knowledge for formulating and optimizing urban–rural relations. This Special Issue focuses on the changes, effects, and regulation of rural land use in China, focusing on its main contradictions and solutions, building a cooperative network and sharing platform for rural land use research from a multidisciplinary perspective, and further deepening the theoretical innovation and practical application of rural land use research. We invited scholars from various disciplines to contribute to the Special Issue, especially with papers on the subjects of theoretical innovation, technological innovation, and practical innovation in this field.
