Exploring the evolution of land tenure and land use change in Panama: Linking land policy with development outcomes

In this paper I discuss the linkages between land use management and land use change, as well as the impacts of land use policies at the local level. Specifically, I suggest the current land tenure regime in Panama is the outcome of a path-dependent process that includes a Spanish legacy of land tenure institutions and beliefs, a policy-making process that responds to immediate or short-term development outcomes, and the broader political economic context. First, I introduce theoretical perspectives on land policy and development. These are followed by a narrative of the evolution of land tenure in Panama, in the context of develoment processes and land policies in Latin America. In the final section, with the case of lifestyle migration to Bocas del Toro, Panama, I illustrate how the pathways between land management and land use, in the context of political economic development drivers and outcomes, have significant local outcomes.     

How and why large scale agricultural land investments do not create long-term employment benefits: A critique of the ‘state’ of labour regulations in Ghana

Support for large scale agricultural investments in Africa has been mainly premised on their employment prospects for local populations. However, despite earlier calls by Tania Li to centre labour in the land grabs debate, labour is generally invisible in both mainstream policy and academic research. This paper, through a governance lens, draws attention to the implications of the global land rush on wage labour. In principle, policy frameworks that emphasise the labour potentials from large-scale land investments also gravitate towards regulations that seek to facilitate capital accumulation and mitigate negative impacts on communities – congruent with Ghana’s policy direction. This paper assesses the political-economic context of the legislative gaps in the current governance framework for wage labour and large-scale agriculture in Ghana; characterised mainly by absent, illusively present and repressive institutions. It is supported with empirical findings from the nature of farm workers’ incorporation into a transnational oil palm plantation in Ghana, their struggles over the nature of the investment, and the political orientation of the existing regulatory institutions. The study calls for policy measures which address power relations that shape the distribution of benefits from land investments, and also recognise structural inequalities that exist in and outside of agriculture.     

The living commons of West Tyrol,Austria: Lessons for land policy and land administration

A right of commoners to pastures existed since the Early Middle Ages in Anglo-Saxon England and the European mainland, including Tyrol in Austria. Lowland commons institutions were largely dissolved by the 19th century; however, in the European Alps contiguous commons remain alive. Some two thousand alpine commons institutions are registered in the Tyrolean parcel cadaster and land registry. A specific study of West-Tyrolean commons (known as Agrargemeinschaft or AGMs), framed by Ostrom's design principles is presented. General lessons for land policy and land administration are extracted. An interview period was split between the Inn valley and the Ötztal. Roughly half are considered independent: others are regulated by the Tyrolean Agricultural Authority. Some AGMs hold the full bundle of land rights: others only hold pastoral and forestry rights. AGMs consisted either of a single cadastral parcel or several contiguous parcels. In the Inn valley villages the pastoral commons were owned by the municipalities, while in the researched Ötztal, AGMs are frequently the full owners of the commons. AGM membership ranges between 5 and 60 farm households. The number of livestock units pastured was in most cases stipulated in approved regulations. Alpine commons larger than 200 ha are also hunting-zones: revenue is collected from the lease of hunting rights. Most of the alpine commons are designated and used as ski-zones. Upper portions of two alpine commons in the Ötztal are state protected natural areas. The number of farms with pastoral rights is declining at District and State level. Key lessons for land policy and land administration include: Ostrom's design principles being a precondition rather than a panacea; commons institutions requiring one clear ownership party; both public and collective ownership producing success; publically owned commons requiring a local representative; small membership numbers being preferable; small shareholdings not being preferable; decentralized governance being beneficial; internal democratic elections being beneficial; internal boundary records being superfluous; explicit sanctions being superfluous; mixed economies being acceptable; and geography being a significant influence on the longevity of pastoral commons.     

The interrelations of land ownership,soil protection and privileges of capital in the aspect of land take

The novelty of this study lies in the analyses of legislation concerning land use policies by examining the specific boundary between land ownership and land take. The basic motive was that the European Commission (EC) withdrew the Soil Framework Directive (SFD) in 2014 following the objections of certain Member States (MS) who countered that as most lands are privately owned, they should not fall under the remit of public governance. Since the withdrawal of the SFD land take is an issue receiving more attention. The legal content of ownership rights has been subjected to constant debate in the context of land-use policies and planning practices, which raises the questions of who decides how the land can be used and whether administrative authorities give priority to non-agricultural uses. Our study seeks to explore these issues through the lens of property law by comparing different legislations on access to land on three levels of policy implementation: the EU, the national, and the local levels. MS legislations are highlighted through the example of Hungary in two aspects: (1) regulation regarding Access to Land and Land Ownership Rights (ALOR), and (2) legislation and results of the LANDSUPPORT decision support system concerning Land Take Changes (LTC). We designed figures to demonstrate how policymakers can use the new LANDSUPPORT platform to show the gaps and inconsistencies among the above aspects. We found that the legislative regulations concerning private land use to achieve soil protection objectives remain the weakest link in the environmental protection legislation of the EU. Anxieties concerning built-in legal guarantees on each of the studied levels actualise our research. Currently, global land management is not on the political table although common European legislation might be able to preserve land for agricultural use.     

From goodwill to good deals: FELDA land resettlement scheme and the ascendancy of the landless poor in Malaysia

Land resettlement schemes are commonly used in the developing countries to leverage poor people’s access to land for shelter, food production, or boosting rural development. Unfortunately, not many resettlement schemes have effectively solved the problems they were designed to tackle. For researchers and policymakers in particular, part of the problem has been the lack of enabling analytical tools for holistic and an in-depth analysis of the trajectories of the few successful models of land resettlement schemes. The current study examines the features of one of the most successful land resettlement initiatives, namely the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) scheme in Malaysia. Established in 1956, the scheme comprises over 400 settler communities that cover about 16% of Malaysia’s total land area. The FELDA scheme has tremendously transformed the lives of the landless population through provision of shelter, jobs, income from agribusiness shareholding, and ownership of highly valorised land titles. This study combined the path dependency approach and Earth system governance analytic tools to examine the trajectories and multidimensional features that make the FELDA scheme a good example to reckon with. Thus, broadening researchers and policymakers appreciation of the role of analytical dimensions is a major contribution of this study to the current debates on the pro-poor land governance strategies in the Global South. Finally, the study shines some light at the role of land governance in streamlining land development and goals of sustainable national planning.     

Contemporary Discourses and Contestations around Pro‐Poor Land Policies and Land Governance

The meaning of land and land policies is diverse and contested across and within local and (inter)national settings. The phrase ‘land policy’, used to refer to all policies that have anything to do with land, may be convenient, but it masks the actual complexity of issues. Meanwhile, concern for ‘pro‐poor’ land policy has coincided with the mainstream promotion of efficient administration of land policies, leading to the concept of ‘land governance’. Such concepts have enriched discussion on land issues, but they also complicate further an already complex terrain. In response, this paper offers possible analytical signposts, rather than an actual in‐depth and elaborated analytical exploration of this terrain. It hopes to be a modest step forward and towards a better understanding of contemporary policy discourses and political contestations around land and land governance.     

Large-scale agricultural investments under poor land governance in Zambia

This paper looks at how large-scale land acquisitions made by foreign investors in Zambia are implemented. It scrutinizes both the steps that an investor has to go through in order to attain land within the Zambian land governance system as well as the actors shaping the acquisition process.As the most important formal change introduced to the Zambian land governance system, the Lands Act 1995 paved the way for foreign investments in land. The new actor “investor” on the other hand has emerged as a result of rising prices for food and non-food commodities. The study finds that the enforcement of formal rules in the process of acquiring land is currently weak and largely determined by a number of actors: while investors, local authorities and government officials have strong leverage, local land users are excluded from the process. If the process of transformations of customary land into state land continues, land administration will be inevitably shifted toward statutory jurisdiction. As a result, local chiefs will lose their discretionary power thereby further marginalizing local land users. As it stands, welfare implications are chiefly down to the individual actors. However, it is only the government that can issue a guarantee that local land users will also benefit from land acquisition.     

A multi-criteria model for land valuation in the land consolidation

Land consolidation is an effective technique in land management that contributes to sustainable rural development. Land valuation is one of the most important steps in land consolidation because it plays an important role in the reallocation process. Land valuation is also an important problem in Turkey as in many countries in the world. Because the lands will be reallocated at the end of the consolidation process, it is very important to determine the precise value of each parcel. However, the methods used in land valuation in many countries lag behind current techniques and technologies. For this reason, a new method for land valuation is needed. The purpose of this study was to develop a new model based on multi-criteria calculations that is suitable for today's technologies and addresses the weakness in the current land valuation methods. In a case study of Solak, Antalya, Turkey, we identified fourteen key land value factors. Those factors were assigned weights by the Land Valuation Committee, academic staff, engineers, and local landowners. The weights were then integrated into a framework called the Land Quality Index. The land quality index factors are the criteria for evaluating the geographical, physical, and socio-economic structure of the region. The scores for each factor on each parcel were determined using GIS software. The total score of fourteen factors was then converted to a 100-point scale, that comprised the Land Quality Index. The land value of each parcel was determined by adding the soil index to the Land Quality Index. In our study, we also created three different models to investigate how the parameters were apportioned during the land valuation. We found that, while the current method used by the government agency (General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works) classified the lands into five groups, our methods classified the lands into 17, 20, 24 groups, respectively. In addition, while the deduction rate was 4.97 % in the current method, they were 4.89 %, 4.86 % and 4.85 % in our new models, respectively. The method we proposed in this study determined land values more accurately, precisely, and fairly compared to current method used by General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works. It is suggested that our models could be used instead of the current method in the land consolidation works in Turkey.     

Using a Delphi approach to identify the most efficacious interventions to improve Indonesia’s forest and land governance

Improvements to forest and land governance are key to addressing deforestation and degradation of peatlands in Indonesia. While this is a priority area, the steps to achieving good forest and land governance have been under-researched. There is a need for better links between theoretically informed academic analysis and work in the field. This study drew together a panel of experts on forest and land governance using a Delphi method to discuss the underlying drivers of deforestation and peatland degradation, and correspondingly, to identify interventions to improve land and forest governance in Indonesia. Seventeen panelists with an average of more than 12 years’ experience reached agreement over four governance interventions: increasing the capacity of local communities to manage and monitor forests and natural resources (65% of panelist’s votes); identify strengths and weaknesses of community organisations and institutions, and develop strategies to improve their performance (65% of panelist’s votes); gazetting forests to clarify land boundaries and determine which areas should be village, community and state forest zone (59% of panelist’s votes); and, integrating participatory community maps into spatial plans to protect local communities and indigenous peoples’ development needs (53% of panelist’s votes). They also supported action research involving the government, private sector and communities, and political economy approaches to researching forest and land governance issues. Panelists indicated that community level approaches such as securing community forest tenure through clarifying land claims and integrating local land tenure into spatial planning had an important role in sustainable forest management.     

Major issues in Indonesia's urban land development

This article addresses issues of urban land development in Indonesia, including urban land use; ownership and transfers; land taxation; and land information systems. Until very recently, urban land-use planning in Indonesia was largely top-down in character and neglected to include the public as a stakeholder. This article argues that the role of government in urban land-use development needs to change at all levels and that the capacity of local government in land-use management needs to be strengthened. The presence of private developers in urban development should be encouraged. Land development permits—as a means of urban development control—while they may still be necessary should be granted primarily in relation to urban land-use plans (RUTR). Land taxation instruments have not been effectively applied to control land utilisation in the cities. Data and information on land affairs are lacking.     

Protecting farm land near cities : Trade-offs with affordable housing in Hawaii

In protecting farm land near cities, policy makers must balance the interests of farmers against affordable housing demands of the urban population. This article examines land use competition between agriculture and housing on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Land suitability ratings for farming and urban development are compared, and future urban expansion onto agricultural land is simulated under different land use policies. Results indicate severe tradeoffs for affordable housing if all high quality farm lands are strictly preserved. Achieving farmland protection goals will require further policy support to transform the local farm structure from plantation to diversified agriculture.     

Using participatory mapping and a participatory geographic information system in pastoral land use investigation: Impacts of rangeland policy in Botswana

Since the 1980s, the spatial extent of communal grazing lands in Botswana has been diminishing due to rangeland privatisation and fencing associated with animal health policies. Spatial comparisons of pastoral land use transformations are particularly important where accessibility to grazing and water resources remains at the core of sustainable pastoralism policies. Achieving success in pastoral development research requires a sound understanding of traditional pastoralists’ information systems, including the nature of local spatial knowledge. This study explores local spatial knowledge through participatory mapping and a Participatory Geographic Information System to understand and analyse pastoralists’ grazing patterns, spatial mobility and the impacts of subdivisions and privatisation policies in Botswana’s Ngamiland rangelands. The study uses focus group discussions, historical analysis through key informant interviews, and participatory mapping exercises along with community guided transect walks. The resulting maps provide insights into the traditional tenure patterns of land use and the impacts of rangeland policy on traditional livestock spatial mobility and access to grazing lands. Privatisation and rangeland enclosures have resulted in the restricted movement of livestock and overstocking of floodplains and riparian rangelands, with some natural water pans becoming inaccessible to local communities. We conclude that the integration of local spatial knowledge can be used to foster better articulation and understanding of pastoralists’ tenures, which are often lacking in communal land administration systems. Such integrated analysis can contribute to sustainable pastoral land management policy toolkits in semi-arid rangeland environments and enable better land tenure and management decision making for sustainable land management.     

论土地善治

研究目的:探讨新时代背景下土地善治的概念、特征及体系。研究方法:归纳分析与演绎推理。研究结果:土地善治实质上是一种对管理理想状态的孜孜追求,其核心是由政府与非政府协同及多向网络化的管理模式,目标是以最小的政府和社会投入获取最大的土地管理效应;土地善治应遵循土地的基本属性、土地利用的价值准则和政策目标;现阶段实施土地善治重点需处理好土地行政管理权与国有土地所有权、政府与村民委员会及政府与农民等的关系。研究结论:土地善治是新时代土地管理的必然选择,土地资源的基本属性、土地利用的价值准则和政策目标是科学构建土地善治体系的基本逻辑依据。     

广东省土地市场运作模式与相关政策分析

本文回顾了广东土地市场的发展过程，就土地相关政策对土地市场的导向作用进行了分析，并针对土地市场运作中的一些问题提出了完善土地市场运作模式的建议。     

The evolving concepts of land administration in China: Cultivated land protection perspective

This paper presents a holistic method by integrating three concepts (land resources management, assets supervision and political governance for sustainability) for investigation of land administration in China, taking into consideration of cultivated land protection for a testimony with econometric method. Theoretically, in this self-organizing integrated method, land resources management focuses on the productivity of land; land assets supervision centralizes on the realization of land usufruct rights in land transference; land political governance for sustainability concentrates on harmonious linkage of economic efficiency, social stability and environmental safety of land use. Their interrelations are complex. Methodologically, the results indicate that the theoretical model is feasible to explain variations of cultivated land protection with these three concepts. Cultivated land decreases with increasing land value increment multiples, and is positive with political governance concept, but not in a linear fashion. Finally the results suggest that roles of government in land administration need to be changed and strengthened, supporting complete compensation for land expropriation and modification to policies of cultivated land.     

Associating land use/cover information with land parcels represented in LADM

LADM design requires the association of external land use/cover information with cadastral land parcels. In addition to model design, related specifications are to be defined in the implementation. Yet, there are many severe obstacles against defining such specifications that are applicable to all cases. In this context, there are many different types of land use/cover classification systems for different purposes in different data quality, scale and content, which are either designed internationally or nationally. FAO Land Cover Classification System (LCCS), CORINE land cover, INSPIRE land use/cover themes, land use capability classification and Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) are common international examples.In this study, management of spatial land use/cover data in association with cadastral land parcels represented by LADM was studied in a pilot study area in Turkey. In this context, association of spatial information as sub-divisions of land parcels (sub-parcels) was studied. Different land use/cover data sets (four types) were specifically produced for this study with an LPIS like digitization method. For the association, special overlay operations with and without predefined XY tolerances were carried out. Effects of similar yet different data sets, spatial data consistency between the produced sub-parcel data sets and land parcels, and also errors were analyzed based on the results. It is found (1) that the level of detail (base production scale) of external land use/cover data set increases spatial association errors, (2) that using XY tolerances to reduce these errors causes data inconsistency and (3) that direct spatial harmonization of two data set may be a robust solution when it is possible. In this context, in order to contribute to the implementation of LADM in terms of spatial association of land parcels and external land use/cover data, together with these data processing and analysis work, LADM modelling abstraction, availability and data quality issues of external land use/cover data, updating and maintenance issues were also discussed.     

The role of government in land registry and cadastre service in Turkey: Towards a government 3.0 perspective

Within the scope of the developments in public administration after the 1990s, “Good Governance” approach has been preferred instead of the traditional public management approach. Good Governance is a fair, impartial and egalitarian management model that is based on co-management and envisages the participation of all actors (e.g. public and private sector, civil society) in decision-making processes. With this new management model, public institutions in Turkey began to realise good governance based reforms, especially in areas where they establish a close relationship with citizens. In this article, changes in the public administration in Turkey together with good governance and the effects. The effects change on the land registry and cadastre processes are discussed. In this regard, a situation is evaluated in the context of the future Government 3.0 process by discussing the successful and incomplete aspects of good governance in land registry and cadastre practice in Turkey.     

Generic land registry and cadastre data model supporting interoperability based on international standards for Turkey

Managing land information effectively is a key factor in achieving successful land administration and sustainable land development. To manage land, each government has a land policy and administration system. A land administration system (LAS) enables identification, registration and sharing of information about land in compliance with land policies by using information technologies effectively. In this context, land information systems (LISs) are designed to fulfill the requirements related to land, to provide tenure assurance and to manage natural resources sustainably. In Turkey, the necessity of information technologies and geographic information systems (GIS) was recognised by public institutions in the early 1990s. The Land Registry and Cadastre Information System Project (TAKBIS in Turkish) started to manage land registry and cadastre data and processes throughout Turkey. By using a standard framework, the project aimed to digitise land registry and cadastre data and to perform all activities and queries in a digital environment. However, the project did not reach the expected level of success because the data infrastructure was not standardised and did not meet the data requirements of other stakeholders at the national and international level.On the other hand, studies of a new e-government project called Turkish National GIS (TUCBS in Turkish) was initiated to establish a national geographic data infrastructure (GDI) which allows efficient management of geographic data and corresponds to national-level user requirements and Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) specifications. In this study, to provide data interoperability among different institutions and meet stakeholder needs, the data model of the Land Registry and Cadastre Data Theme is examined and improved. Within the design process, the ISO 19152 Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) and INSPIRE Cadastral Parcels are examined and applied as the baseline international standards. In addition, main land and land group parcel types in the Turkish cadastral system, the main rights, restrictions and responsibilities related to land in the Turkish registration system, mortgages established over rights, cadastral maps, standard subdivision of two-dimensional (2D) space with special names, surveyed point and monumentation types were explained briefly within the revised land registry and cadastre data model. As a case study, data sets from different sources were transformed to open data sets compatible with the model. This model enables data interoperability in land-related applications. However, models should be kept as simple as possible for effective data transformation and management.     

An evaluation framework for earthquake-responsive land administration

In recent years earthquakes and their secondary hazards have claimed the largest number of lives of all large natural disasters. Some of the world’s most earthquake-prone zones are also areas of high population density. The impact is magnified by vulnerability factors including non-enforcement of building codes, knowledge gaps, urban poverty and poor governance capacity to manage and reduce earthquake risks. Poor security of land tenure and property rights increases the vulnerability of people and affects their ability to respond to natural disasters.Earthquake recovery and reconstruction provides very significant challenges for land agencies, with these challenges differing from one country to the next due to differences in the local context. Drawing on contrasting case studies in Haiti, Nepal and New Zealand this paper identifies the common post-earthquake land administration functions and challenges that may apply to many contexts. These lessons provide land agencies and other key stakeholders with a summary of the challenges an earthquake poses for land administration at different post-disaster stages. We also discuss the policy and regulatory, institutional, operational and preparedness lessons for land administration. From these lessons we propose a framework for evaluating the earthquake-responsiveness of a land administration system. This framework can be used by a land agency in an earthquake prone region, or where an earthquake has recently occurred, to assess what challenges to land administration might occur in the event of an earthquake, and the preparedness of their land administration system.