Reconciling moral and legal collective entitlement: Implications for community-based land reform

This paper discusses the drawing and contesting of social boundaries in the enactment of collective land rights, and the implications for land reform policies based around the notion of ‘community’ entitlement. Drawing on recent research in the crofting areas of Scotland, the paper explores the tensions arising when legal collective rights—or proposed changes to them—do not coincide with perceived moral claims to land. Examining the enactment of existing collective rights demonstrates how contested moral assumptions underpinning crofting identities, discourses and land use practices qualify and disqualify individuals as members of an imagined ‘crofting community’, and shape de facto access to and control over land-based resources. Some of the key policy implications of these findings are discussed with particular reference to Scottish land reform.     

Lessons from approaches to informal housing and non-compliant development in Turkey: An in-depth policy analysis with a historical framework

This article examines informal housing/non-compliant development and related formalisation practices in Turkey. An in-depth policy analysis is conducted within a historical framework to underline outcomes and policy performance of approaches and formalisation initiatives. The analysis was conducted by taking the earlier studies focusing on the formalisation practices and debates in the international literature into consideration in order to understand how the case of Turkey confirms, contradicts or adds to the existing body of the literature. Formalisation practices in Turkey, especially the recent one implemented in 2018, have been successful to secure land tenure rights to a certain extent. However, these attempts have not addressed the issues such as mitigating hazard risks, enabling public participation, managing the processes transparently and inspecting the non-compliant development put forward by the scholars. The outcomes of the policy analysis are compared with the approaches of transition and developed economies in Mediterranean Basin. As a result of these comparisons, remarkable similarities were found. The findings of the analysis can be a harbinger of the future for other countries on a rapid development path by means of a considerable policy exchange between countries with similar population and GDP.     

Pastoralism within land administration in Kenya—The missing link

In land administration (LA), the right to exercising property/ownership rights on land is based on cadastral processes of adjudication, survey and rights registration. Private ownership rights are now being taken up in pastoral areas, where they must contend with pastoralists’ land rights. Pastoral land use requires seasonal migrations determined by climatic conditions. This study aimed to find out how well the existing land laws and property rights in LA are able to serve the requirements of pastoralists land use, identify mismatches and put forward possible solutions. A case study was carried out in the Samburu–Laikipia–Isiolo–Meru landscape in Kenya. Data on the degree of livestock dependency among pastoralist communities, the spatial extent and patterns of dry season migrations, the resulting encounters between herders’ and non-pastoralist land use actors, and the perceptions of land rights held by actors were collected through a variety of methods and analysed. The results show that pastoralism is still active. The migration corridors reveal that herders maintain extensive dry season mobility, even though some of the corridors currently overlap with areas where land is privately owned by non-pastoralist land use actors. Moreover, the results show that most non-pastoralist land use actors have their land rights registered, but seasonal encounters with migrating pastoralists persist as pastoralists continue to exercise customary rights of communal use. We conclude that existing land laws and property rights in LA are suitable for sedentary land use, but do not address how to serve pastoralists land rights in time and space. The pastoralist's migration routes and patterns obtained indicated that it is possible to predict where pastoralists will be at a given time/drought period. This information could be used by decision makers and land administrators to identify where and when pastoralists’ land rights apply. This could provide the foundation for including pastoralists’ spatiotemporal land rights in LA. Arguments emphasize that adjudication, surveys and registration of rights should focus not only on ownership and full control of land, but also on defined periods when spatiotemporal mobility and access rights could be granted to pastoralists.     

Land Reform in South Africa

An insightful study of the complexities of land reform in South Africa is reviewed, and its key arguments assessed. The study astutely combines ethnographic and historical detail from in-depth case studies in Mpumalanga Province with critical analysis of land reform policies, and locates these within larger theoretical debates on property rights, citizenship and identity. The author argues that a profound and unresolved tension exists within South Africa's land reform programme between broad and inclusive conceptions of 'rights' that are linked to notions of restored citizenship and sovereignty, and a conception of 'property' as individualized ownership of land, implying a much narrower conception of citizenship. The study also focuses on the roles of a variety of mediators and 'brokers' in land reform. Despite its many strengths, the study is not entirely convincing, partly because some key policy debates are mischaracterized. Its treatment of questions of agricultural production, rural livelihoods and the political economy of agrarian change is somewhat disappointing.     

Fictitious commodification and agrarian change: Indigenous peoples and land markets in Highland Ecuador

Creating private property rights and establishing land markets were fundamental to the historical development of capitalism in the Global North and remain at the centre of capitalist development in the Global South. This article contributes to debates about these processes by analysing the relationship between land markets and indigenous peoples in Highland Ecuador. Building on Karl Polanyi's concept of fictitious commodities, it elaborates a new concept that makes an analytical distinction between the activation and development of land markets. The former refers to the occasional participation of actors in markets to secure land, whereas the latter relates to the establishment and expansion of markets that regulate the distribution and value of land through market prices. Focusing on indigenous land struggles in the late 20th century, this article shows that the activation of land markets created opportunities for indigenous peasants to secure land, whereas the development of land markets closed them down. Social and class differentiation among the highland indigenous population increased through this contradictory process. The article connects this historical analysis to recent developments in Ecuador to contribute to empirical and theoretical debates about contemporary land struggles and agrarian change elsewhere in the Global South.     

Livelihood rights perspective on water reform: Reflections on rural Zimbabwe

The right to water has been adopted as a human right in General Comment 15 by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It provides a new framework for law and policy supplanting the Dublin Principles that have too often been understood in the African context to mean water with the ‘right’ price. Does a human rights approach to water, especially in rural contexts, speak to the multiple ways in which men and women share and manage water? How are water tenure and land tenure linked in Zimbabwe's rural areas? We examine if and how local norms and practices include water within a broader right to livelihood. Substantial field research in Zimbabwe including ours demonstrates the existence of a right to water and livelihood, which can be responsive to gender and poverty. We suggest the incorporation of local norms and practices within water management laws and policies at regional, national and local levels.     

基于耕地发展权价值的东北粮食主产区耕地保护补偿机制研究

研究目的：通过建立耕地保护补偿机制,促进区域耕地保护与经济发展相协调,为合理确定国家征地补偿标准提供科学依据。研究方法：基于假设法、比较研究法和文献法,通过建立耕地发展权价值测算模型,测算耕地发展权价值大小,进而建立耕地保护补偿机制。研究结果：（1）巴彦县耕地总面积约1/5可以满足该区域的自身粮食需求,其余约4/5为耕地盈余面积,耕地发展权总价值最高为303.72亿元;（2）为保障国家粮食安全而限制区域耕地转为他用,国家应给予失去发展权的权利主体相应补偿;（3）对无法完成耕地“占一补一”,委托区域代为落实耕地占补平衡任务的地区,应购买区域耕地发展权;（4）对确需满足国家建设需要占用区域耕地,国家或用地单位应给予失去发展权的权利主体相应补偿。研究结论：耕地保护补偿实质是向农民或农村集体经济组织购买耕地发展权权力的价值。在满足区域自身粮食需求、保障国家粮食安全前提下,以耕地发展权价值为载体,应建立集粮食安全补偿、区域性差别补偿以及因建设占用耕地等补偿为一体的耕地保护补偿机制。     

Land governance as a precondition for decreasing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper’s aim is to show that improvements in land governance in Brazil, and particularly in the Amazon region, have been the main pre-condition enabling reductions in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation occurs primarily where property rights are not clearly established, and occurs mostly on land directly or indirectly under state responsibility. This paper also shows that land speculation plays an important role in deforestation. Based on these findings, it is evident that Brazil must improve its land governance in order to decrease rates of deforestation. The Brazilian government has adopted important new efforts to improve land administration, including improvements in the registration process and the Terra Legal program, which are addressing public land problems across large areas of the Amazon. The concluding section highlights how efforts to reduce deforestation will only be possible through more efficient land governance, especially in the Amazon region, and discusses the important role that participatory land governance may play in improving land use and land ownership through application of land taxes.     

农村集体建设用地住宅用途入市的现实约束与赋能探索

研究目的：分析当前农村宅基地流转的现实约束,通过构建集体建设用地住宅用途入市的市场交易和收益分配机制,赋能宅基地制度改革。研究方法：文献资料法,案例分析法。研究结果：允许闲置宅基地转为集体经营性建设用地入市是城乡融合发展的重要路径。目前受到宅基地流转和集体经营性建设用地入市范围、用途的限制,试点地区的改革探索整体上是城乡二元土地制度的延续。农业转移人口市民化的闲置宅基地转为集体经营性建设用地,可以从商业和工业用途拓展到住宅用途入市,在城乡统一建设用地市场公开交易,城乡居民均可成为使用权主体,入市收益缴纳相关税费后由农民和集体共同分享。研究结论：深化宅基地制度改革的方向是城乡住宅用地具有平等的财产权能,协同推进新型城镇化和乡村振兴。     

Politics of rural land registration in post-socialist societies: Contested titling in villages of Northwest Vietnam

Land registration has been perceived as a precondition for secure property rights and agricultural development. Yet land registration has often failed to achieve its presumed benefits. This article explores the relationship between land registration, tenure security, and agricultural development in the context of post-socialist transformations. It focuses on one key difference between socialist property and the notions underlying post-socialist land laws: socialist property law accommodated the existence of multiple layers of social control over land whereas post-socialist land legislation promotes exclusive land rights. Post-socialist land rights are exclusive in the sense that the new laws do not recognize any intermediate layers of control between the landholder and the state. The paper draws on a case study of land registration in a commune in north-western Vietnam. The research included semi-structured interviews with 65 randomly selected households and informal conversations during extended stays in the commune as well as the collection of government statistics and interpretation of SPOT images. Its results demonstrate that villagers opposed land registration and refused to comply with its rules, although registration would have strengthened villagers’ legal rights to land. The villagers resisted land registration because the new land rights conflicted with their actual land relations, which included more layers of social control than land registration could accommodate. At the same time, although land registration failed to take effect in the villages, agricultural output expanded and the forest regenerated. The findings therefore suggest the need for adjusting land registration to accommodate intermediate layers of control over land where land claims are not as exclusive as assumed by the existing legislation.     

Women's Land Rights and the Trap of Neo-Conservatism: A Response to Jackson

In response to Cecile Jackson's article, I argue here that Jackson has seriously misrepresented my work, often attributing to me the opposite of what I have said, and turned nuanced and balanced formulations into one-sided extremes. I seek to correct the important misrepresentations, as well as outline my substantive differences with Jackson. In particular, her argument that women should not claim family land for risk of destabilizing family relations could, by extension, have deeply conservative implications for all forms of women's struggles to enhance their freedoms and capabilities. In many South Asian communities, conflict is equally inherent in women choosing their own marriage partners or professions, or seeking gender-equal education, or wanting freedom of reproductive choice or free public interaction. The fear of family conflict could tie women down on numerous such counts as well. Jackson also overextends the resistance to women's claims in family land by treating South Asia as a uniform entity. The analysis in my book on this subject shows a substantial regional variability in kinship structures and social norms, which would make for much less resistance in southern South Asia than in the north, providing promising initial avenues for extending women's land claims. Also, unlike Jackson, I do not locate the process of women acquiring land rights in each woman's isolated struggle within the family, but in a collective struggle that seeks to build support across multiple tiers of society.     

Violent visions of an ownership society: The land administration project in Petén, Guatemala

This article is a case study of phase one of the World Bank's land administration project in Petén, Guatemala. Although the project's stated aims are merely to formalize an existing set of individual landed property rights, this development intervention necessarily changes the property regime, thereby changing underlying relationships that land as property embodies. Impact evaluations conducted by development economists may fail to substantively address displacement and violence that occur as a short-term effect of the project and long-term disparate impacts of the project that may exacerbate existing inequalities. The case of Petén also highlights the possibility for violent enforcement of property boundaries, where conflict surges between the disenfranchised and those who gain power under the new property regime.     

压煤村庄搬迁与"挂钩流转"政策相结合时的问题及对策研究——以兖州市为例

研究目的:在建设用地指标异常紧张的情况下,为顺利推进压煤村庄搬迁提供途径。研究方法:资料综合分析法、对比法和实证分析法。研究结果:压煤村庄搬迁与"挂钩流转"政策相结合时存在4大难题,提出了解决方法。研究结论:压煤村庄搬迁与"挂钩流转"政策相结合是可行的。但应适当放宽周转指标归还时间和对耕地数量质量的要求,优先开采能复垦出耕地的村庄下的煤炭资源,尽快归还挂钩周转指标。     

Informal land registration under unclear property rights: witnessing contracts,redevelopment, and conferring property rights

The significance of informal land registration in property transactions and development has been discussed at length, but there are few examples of in-depth case studies of how this information accessing and collection institution relates to them and how it may create property rights. This paper examines the nature and operation of non-governmental and voluntary land transaction registration practices in Kowloon Walled City, an ideal example of a privately-planned and developed habitat under unclear property rights due to jurisdictional disputes between China and Britain and no state protection of property rights or intervention in building control existed. Based on documentary evidence interpreted from a Coasian and Hayekian stance, it advances the proposition that the contracts the Kowloon Walled City Kaifong Welfare Promotion Association (hereafter the Kaifong Association) sought to represent as a witness built up its political credibility as a representative body. Such a role not only reduced transaction costs of contract enforcement and, hence, facilitated redevelopment, but also became that of a quasi-government land registrar due to the popularity of its witnessing service, which, under specific circumstances, served as the basis for the assignment of de jure private property rights by the state.     

基于产权与利用视角的台中市土地变化分析

[目的]以我国台湾省台中市为研究对象,利用多源统计数据,对其2011—2015年土地产权变化及土地利用变化进行分析,以揭示台中市几年来土地产权变化和土地利用变化的主要特征。[方法]文章主要采用描述性分析和统计分析方法。[结果](1)2011—2014年台中市共计增加登记土地产权面积621 hm2,公私共有产权土地面积先减少后增加,至2014年达到643hm2。(2)已登记非都市土地总面积,从2011年起处于先减少、后增加的趋势,特别是2014年已登记非都市土地总面积增加较多,相对于2013年增加了1.4196万hm2。(3)都市发展区中的住宅用地、商业用地、文教用地、特定专用区的面积皆有增长,而工业用地、公共设施用地、其他区的面积有所下降;非都市发展区中的保护区面积比较稳定,而农业区、风景区和河川区的面积处在调整的状态。[结论](1)台中市私有土地面积占比处于下降趋势,但整体不是非常明显;土地所有制包括公有、私有和公私共有等多种形式完全可以共存;东南亚人取得的土地所有权数量在总体上增减变化不大;(2)台中市都市发展区用地虽有增长但增幅较小,而都市区土地、非都市区土地内部的用途竞争导致了各类用地功能区的面积此消彼长;土地所有制对城市用地扩展没有构成制约,即土地所有制不是城市发展的分歧所在;(3)非都市土地转换为都市土地,不仅取决于各类土地竞租能力的差异,还取决于都市发展计划与土地使用分区管制,土地用途转换应以经济高质量发展与居民社会福利增进为目标。最后,提出完善土地权利结构体系,增加公有土地面积占比来保障社会公共福利等政策建议。     

The institutional drivers of sustainable landscapes: a case study of the ‘Mayan Zone’ in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Research on the dynamics of tropical forest land use and cover change (LUCC) has focused on the three scenarios: (1) deforestation/degradation; (2) settled, degraded areas in recovery, and (3) sparsely settled, expansive, intact forest. Through examination of a central Quintana Roo, Mexico case study we propose a fourth scenario of a ‘sustainable landscape’: an inhabited, productively used, forested landscape that nonetheless shows little change or net gains in forest cover over the last 25 years. We use Landsat images to demonstrate a low incidence of net deforestation, 0.01% for the 1984–2000 period, the lowest recorded deforestation rate for southeastern Mexico. Institutional innovations such as an agrarian reform process that established large common property forests for non-timber forest product extraction, and later innovations such as sustainable forest management institutions have driven the outcome of low net deforestation, added to multiple organizational processes that promote sustainable land use.     

Land use rights reform in China : Some theoretical issues

The socialist regime in China abolished the long-established system of private property rights in land during the Great Leap Forward (1957–1962) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1978) and replaced it with a bureaucratic and discretionary system based upon the Communist Party hierarchy. Recently, however, through the so-called ‘land use rights reform’ introduced as part of the economic liberalization programme of Deng Xiao Ping, the Chinese government has in effect revived private property rights in land in the form of leasehold interests allocated by auction, tender and private negotiation.     

Sharing property value losses: The spatial concentration of development rights as a way to limit urban sprawl

The examination of the literature on land value capturing and compensation shows that strategies based on the sharing of value losses deserve increased attention. This topic is relevant also with regards to the Swiss context of the study: following the entry into force of more stringent antisprawl provisions at the federal level, numerous peripheral municipalities must reduce the size of the designated building zones and withdraw development rights from landowners. Two municipal cases are presented: the first illustrates the difficulties currently faced by Swiss municipal authorities; the second shows a possible way of dealing with these difficulties. In this second case, a specific instrument that allows for the sharing of property value losses was implemented in the past. This instrument, which we will call the spatial concentration of development rights, is analyzed along with the conditions that made possible its successful implementation. The political and technical transferability of this instrument outside its original context is also addressed. The results show that the sharing of property value losses helps to deal with equity issues while being less demanding in terms of institutional change compared to the creation of a TDR system in Switzerland. Thus, the sharing of property value losses deserves being discussed as a suitable approach while implementing antisprawl policies in peripheral areas.