Focussing in on focus groups: Effective participative tools or cheap fixes for land use policy?

This paper assesses the efficacy and relevance of focus groups as participative tools for land use policy and planning. The use of focus groups has mushroomed in land use research and policy in response to new governance and empowerment agendas with their emphasis on using more deliberative and participative approaches. However, their use within social science research has been controversial given perceived methodological limitations of rigour and bias. A detailed critique of three recent research projects has been undertaken to assess focus group in theory and practice; rural diversification, public perception of landscape and visitor payback. The assessment considers key questions relating to inclusion, participation, empowerment, policy impact and understanding of complex policy issues. The results show that focus groups can perform multiple roles as exploratory, explanatory, participative and deliberative tools. Nevertheless, focus groups have important limitations and methodological protocols which demand more care and attention. Crucially, they should not be used in isolation to influence policy decisions; end user pressure for quick fixes, group dynamics, issues of representativeness, together with the biases of a facilitator, can easily mask, distort or misrepresent results. It is concluded that focus groups have significant potential as qualitative tools in landscape research but that they must be used carefully and in tandem with other techniques if their true potential is to be realised.     

On the structural development of arable land in Finland – How costly will it be for the climate?

Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland's northern location presents special challenges for the profitability of agriculture. At the same time Finland has a fragmented property structure which means that each farmer cultivates a number of separate fields that are scattered into small parcels located around the village. The situation came into being because of land reforms whose purpose was to handle socio-political issues and not to improve the feasibility of farms. It is obvious that this inefficient property structure increases the cultivation costs but what is often forgotten is that it also increases the harmful emissions to the climate.The purpose of this article is to present the property structure of arable land and its development in Finland until 2020. The main objective is to estimate the monetary value for those climate impacts that the development causes. The study was set up to analyze land management tools and their capabilities to handle the future challenges. First, the study estimates how much petrol consumption increases because of the increased need for agricultural traffic due to the forecasted development of property structure. Secondly, the study estimates a monetary value for the increased emissions to the climate due to the changes in petrol consumption. To estimate the monetary value of the climate effect a substitute cost method is used.It was estimated that by year 2020 the agricultural working hours will increase by almost three million hours per year from its current level because of the expected changes in property structure. By using the information about petrol consumption and emission rate of petrol, it was calculated that the total increase in CO₂-emissions will be more than 200 000 tkgCO₂ per year. By using the information about the level of increase in CO₂-emission and their shadow prices, it was calculated that the changes in property structure will cost 37 million euros until year 2020 and 544 million euros until year 2050. The sensitivity analysis showed that the results are strongly dependable on shadow prices of CO₂-emissions, property structure's development scenarios and the expected fuel efficiency of agricultural machinery. On the other hand it also showed that the impact will be remarkable especially in the long run if the changes in property structure cannot be prevented.The study showed that there is a massive potential for land management activities. But since the current land management tools that are utilized in Finland are not efficient to handle the future problems the toolbox should be renewed. As the renewing work requires both legislative and organizational changes the progress will take time. This means that the harmful impacts that the development of property structure causes will be realized in the upcoming decades. The study concludes that the increase in CO₂-emissions doesn’t concern only Finland but also other EU countries and that is why the matter should be investigated in other countries as well.     

India’s land grab deals in Ethiopia: Food security or global politics?

The so called “land grabbing” has gained increased attention since the outburst of the global financial and food crisis triggering a new trend of acquiring land for outsourcing production of food, feed and agrofuels. India as one of the newly emerging economies is investing heavily in farmland as it faces enormous challenges to sustain its rising population and growing energy demands. This paper analyses Indian land acquisitions in Ethiopia, looking into India’s motivations to acquire farmland and what incentives does Ethiopia have to lease out land to large investors. The paper draws on trade data between India and Ethiopia, expert interviews, studies and reports on the use and productivity of grabbed land. In view of the land grabbing and food security debate, the paper critically evaluates whether acquiring farmland in Ethiopia can indeed contribute to food and energy security in India.     

Lineage and land reforms in Malawi: Do matrilineal and patrilineal landholding systems represent a problem for land reforms in Malawi?

Based on government statistics and interviews with villagers across Malawi this article argues that customary matrilineal and patrilineal land tenure systems serve to weaken security of land tenure for some family members as well as obstructing the creation of gender-neutral inheritance of lands. Data from the National Census of Agriculture and Livestock 2007and the 2008 Population and Housing Census are used to characterize marriage systems and landholding patterns of local communities. Marriage systems correspond to customary land-tenure patterns of matrilineal or patrilineal cultures. The differences between the two ways of land holding represent a challenge for land reforms aimed at unifying rules for land tenure and land devolution. Drawing on an analogy of the resilience of the patrilineal land holding system in Norway, we argue that it will be difficult to remove the preferential rights of lineage members directly. We recommend that, instead of creating a unified national system, existing land rights should be formally recognized and circumscribed by fair procedures. A well-designed landholding system should aim to ease the transitions of diverse customary tenure systems towards the requirements of a modern large-scale society.     

Money,Land or self-employment? Understanding preference heterogeneity in landowners’ choices for compensation under land acquisition in India

Land acquisition policies, upon which future land use patterns in India depend, are controversially tied to the question of whether to provide monetary or non-monetary compensation to affected landowners. However, turning to the preferences of landowners for answers only serves to complicate matters, as these are not homogenous on the question. This implies there is a need to identify the underlying factors giving rise to this preference heterogeneity, in order to develop more effective and efficient policy. This paper aims to address this gap using a contingent ranking experiment to study landowner disposition toward a range of compensation options, presented in a survey conducted in an ‘about-to-be-submerged’ region of a large, multi-stage irrigation project in India. Rankings were based on a selection of six compensation options, constituting different combinations of the attributes - cash, land, housing and self-employment. While the results suggest that landowners generally prefer non-monetary compensation, both the size of landholding and level of education of the landholder appear to influence the preferences for different compensation options. We find that landowners with more land or education tended to favour monetary compensation, while those with lower education or less land tended to favour housing and self-employment options. We close the text by exploring possible explanations for this specific form of heterogeneity, including access to information, to networks and capacities for income generation, and providing some reflections on the implications of these results for ensuring that rehabilitation and resettlement policies are both well targeted and effective.     

Logs or permits? Forestry land use decisions in an emissions trading scheme

Negative carbon emissions options are required to meet long-term climate goals in many countries. One way to incentivise these options is by paying farmers for carbon sequestered by forests through an emissions trading scheme (ETS). New Zealand has a comprehensive ETS, which includes incentives for farmers to plant permanent exotic forests. This research uses an economy-wide model, a forestry model and land use change functions to measure the expected proportion of farmers with trees at harvesting age that will change land use from production to permanent forests in New Zealand from 2014 to 2050. We also estimate the impacts on carbon sequestration, the carbon price, gross emissions, GDP and welfare. When there is forestry land use change, the results indicate that the responsiveness of land owners to the carbon price has a measured impact on carbon sequestration. For example, under the fastest land use change scenario, carbon sequestration reaches 29.93 Mt CO₂e by 2050 compared to 23.41 Mt CO₂e in the no land use change scenario (a 28% increase). Even under the slowest land use change scenario, carbon sequestration is 25.89 Mt CO₂e by 2050 (an 11% increase compared with no land use change). This is because, if foresters decide not to switch to permanent forests in 1 year, carbon prices and ultimately incentives to convert to permanent forests will be higher in future years.     

Does reading scenarios of future land use changes affect willingness to participate in land use planning?

Scenarios of future outcomes often provide context for policy decisions and can be a form of science communication, translating complex and uncertain relationships into stories for a broader audience. We conducted a survey experiment (n = 270) to test the effects of reading land use change scenarios on willingness to participate in land use planning activities. In the experiment, we tested three combinations of scenarios across two time periods, comparing survey responses of individuals reading a set of scenarios with individuals who did not read scenarios. Reading scenario narratives increased willingness to participate in land use planning activities and perceived self-efficacy. Measures of interest and sense of community also increased willingness to participate. Tests of an indirect mediation model found self-efficacy partially mediated the effect of reading scenarios on willingness to participate. This latter relationship may be a mechanistic explanation for the effect of reading scenarios. Envisioning the future with brief, bulleted scenarios of land use change in a print format appears to increase self-efficacy in planning for the future. Our results suggest scenarios can serve as a vehicle for changing public participation in land use planning.     

Are urban land tenure regulations in Namibia the solution or the problem?

Land tenure in Namibia is regulated by a variety of Acts, some of which date back to as far as 1937, and some of which are yet to be approved by Cabinet. This variety of Acts makes it difficult to evaluate the performance of land administration as a whole, and the appropriateness of coercive instruments with regards to urban land tenure in particular. In this article we evaluate how urban land tenure regularization practices are conducted in Namibia, and to compare new formal procedures, designed to address problems of efficiency and efficacy, to older existing procedures, supposedly not efficient or effective. This evaluation uses a theoretical framework of Pritchett and Woolcock [Pritchett, L., Woolcock, M., 2004. Solutions when the solution is the problem: arraying the disarray in development. World Development 32 (2), 191–212], which deals with public service delivery and transaction-intensive services. Applying this framework for a comparative analysis of 5 different land subdivision practices – each relying on a different land-related act – we conclude that the degree of regulation and regularization is perhaps not so much a solution for urban land tenure problems but more of a problem in itself.     

Meat demand in China: to include or not to include meat away from home?

This study examines meat consumption in China, the world's largest meat consumer and producer, by considering both meat consumed at home and away from home based upon a diary‐based household survey. The results indicate that income growth leads to beef, poultry, other meat and pork away from home consumption to grow more than proportionally to total meat consumption. We also find that meats consumed away from home grow faster than at home counterparts due to higher income elasticities, suggesting that ignoring meat away from home could significantly underestimate current and future meat consumption.     

Spatial dependence in agricultural land prices: does it exist?

Trade-offs arise between spatial dependence and choice of functional form in agricultural land price hedonic models. We discuss these trade-offs and how they can create spurious spatial dependence. Using a land sales dataset with apparent spatial dependence, we implement a semiparametric approach avoiding potential problems with the functional form. The results show that in addition to being nonlinear, the impacts are also characterized by significance thresholds that are difficult to capture in a parametric model. More importantly, we fail to detect any spatial dependence demonstrating that inappropriate functional form can indeed be responsible for finding spatial dependence in hedonic models.     

Evaluating willingness to pay for the temporal distribution of different air quality improvements: Is China's clean air target adequate to ensure welfare maximization?

Stated preference analyses seeking to determine the public's value for air quality improvements often estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for days at a specified minimum quality threshold (e.g., days with clean air), but do not consider the temporal distribution of pollution levels below this threshold. This paper develops a choice experiment designed to evaluate WTP for a more complete distribution of air quality improvements, including the number of days per year at multiple air quality levels. The model is applied to a case study of air quality improvement in the core districts of Xi'an City, China. Results from a linearly constrained mixed logit model demonstrate that average household WTP for improving a lightly polluted, moderately polluted, heavily polluted, or severely polluted day to a clean air day is 7.42, 8.90, 13.06, and 24.28 RMB per year, respectively. These results show that WTP depends not only on the total number of clean air days, but on the total distribution of pollution levels across all days of the year. Results are directly relevant to the development of clean air policies in China, for which benefit estimates are currently unavailable.     

The Dutch urban ground lease: A valuable tool for land policy?

Once heralded by both liberals and socialists as a tool for Dutch municipal governments to prevent land speculation and to implement spatial policies, a century later the Dutch ground lease (erfpacht) is now despised by many. The ground lease was the subject of strong debate in the recent past and is likely to remain so. It has been argued that lessees should have the right to become owner of the land, and this ‘right to buy’ has indeed been implemented in the land policies of several municipalities. The Dutch urban ground lease seems to be under serious pressure. Is it outdated or is it still a valuable tool for land policy? Before we answer this question, we firstly will provide an historical overview of Dutch ground lease. Secondly, the different types of ground lease will be elaborated. Thirdly, the focus will be on the urban ground lease used by Dutch municipalities and the developments in the use of this instrument. Fourthly, the recent policy changes will be dealt with, followed by an assessment.     

Farmers’ land use decision-making in the context of changing land and conservation policies: A case study of Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai Province,Northern Thailand

In Thailand, land use planning and policy decision-making were—and to some extent still are—organized in a hierarchical and disjointed fashion. This is also true for the utilization of public lands, including forest reserves in the northern uplands that are often settled by ethnic minorities. There are, however, instances of change in land policies and regulations and in the way decisions and plans are made. Doi Mae Salong (DMS) in Northern Thailand, where there is a trend towards land use for conservation purposes, is a case in point. This paper aims to explore decision-making by farmers in DMS in the context of changing land regulations and policies from the 1950s to the present. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, together with a historical perspective and with narratives on land management through time, were applied by using in-depth interviews of key informants and group farmers’ discussions as tools. The time period under investigation was divided into three periods of change: The first period, before the year 1960, was an era of security concern. In contrast, the second period, from 1961 to 1996, was an era of emerging conservation priorities. Finally, the third period, from 1997 to the present, is an era of lessons learned from the conservation era. Land use decision outcomes reveal that the decision-making processes of farmers are influenced both by the hierarchical decisions of higher authorities and by horizontal linkages among multiple stakeholders. However, while farmers participate readily in forest conservation activities, they do not play an active role in the process of changing policies.     

Forests or fields? A response to the theory that tropical forest conservation poses a threat to the poor

A rebuttal is provided of David Wood's proposal to open up tropical forests to agricultural uses. Concern is raised that his proposal exaggerates the ability of forests to regenerate after agricultural uses, sacrifices tropical forests in the name of alleviating poverty and in support of large land owners, and prevents valuable potential resource use by local populations. There is misunderstanding by Wood of conservationists' postures and the cause of current deforestation. In Brazil, deforestation has occurred primarily for low productivity cattle pasture (62% of all private land in the Amazon region in ranches over 1000 hectares-ha). Only 11% of private Amazonian land was in farms of less than 100 ha; only 30% of this size farm area was involved in 1991 in deforestation, while 70% of deforestation took place on ranches over 100 ha. Mass migrations of Brazil's population from the northeast to the Transamazon Highway and from Parana to Rondonia were impelled by increasing concentration of land tenure in migrant areas, and not by population growth. The rate of deforestation has slowed due to the economic recession. A World Bank study indicates that redistributing unproductive large landholdings in northeastern Brazil would increase agricultural output by 80%. The agricultural productivity of tropic areas is not as assured; Wood's support is based on preliminary findings, which are being revised with more cautionary thinking. Wood also understates the maintenance of soil fertility with fertilizers. The issue of scale also affects the use of agroforestry and perennial crop plantations such as rubber and cacao, which can only absorb the production of small areas, due to marketing constraints and physical resource limitations. Conservationists have not effectively redirected World Bank efforts to protect environments and help the impoverished, as suggested by Wood. Forest recovery has been very slow in large cattle pastures, and would take thousands of years if the land is left undisturbed. Recovery even under traditional shifting cultivation schemes is slower than Wood recognizes. Wood's argument that deforestation is temporary is not sufficient to invalidate the claim for conservation now. Reallocation is really the same as land extensification; current practices in Brazil will not support large human populations. The solution is to develop environmental services and find other means to support rural populations in urban areas.     

Tourism development strategy or just brown signage? Comparing road administration policies and designation procedures for official tourism routes in two Scandinavian countries

This comparative study maps and explores planning and designation of official tourism, routes in two countries with quite similar planning traditions, responding to a deficiency in research, on tourism route planning and development. Based on personal semi-structured interviews with, public road planners and managers in Norway and Sweden, the paper illuminates establishment and, management of official tourism routes, with an emphasis on overall strategies, funding, and, stakeholder involvement. Results show that public road administration route planning procedures in, the two countries are quite different. In Norway, a top–down principle is basically employed, concerning initiatives and designation of routes. In Sweden, the principle is one of muddling through, giving street-level planners more opportunities for individual influence on route planning. Funding for, road stretches included in the Norwegian national route programme is earmarked, whereas Swedish, routes are financed from ordinary appropriations to the regional road administrations. In Norway, regular follow-up studies such as road user surveys are conducted. In Sweden, a dearth of, documentation of tourist interests and route assessments seemingly makes route development, susceptible in relation to regional road administrations’ economic priorities.     

Is the widespread use of urban land for cycling promotion policies cost effective? A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the case of Seville

Cycling promotion has without doubt been the most intensive policy seen in Seville in the 21 st century as far as the use of public land is concerned. In the current context, economic tools need to be applied to rigorously assess the efficiency and economic rationality of cycling infrastructure investments. This article provides a Cost-Benefit Analysis to estimate the economic and social returns on investments from the construction of a bicycle lane network in the city of Seville (Spain). This kind of studies tries to contribute to mitigating the degree of conflict associated with a land policy that breaks with the traditional status quo. The case study is especially relevant due to the successful public policy implemented in recent years to transform the Seville's urban mobility model into a sustainable system. Based on fieldwork with two survey campaigns conducted among the different cyclist profiles (private bicycle users and public bicycle sharing system users), we analyze two major effects: modal change and changes in journey time. Our robust findings, subjected to a sensitivity analysis, point to the remarkable economic benefits of the bicycle promotion policy in Seville, with significant savings in travel times, vehicle use and infrastructure maintenance, health, traffic accidents, and air pollution for both cyclists and society as a whole.     

Strategic public land use assessment and planning in Victoria,Australia: Four decades of trailblazing but where to from here?

While various attempts have been made to establish strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processes and institutions in various jurisdictions within Australia, the success of these often short lived attempts at institutional approaches for managing public land use conflict has been patchy. The experience in the State of Victoria has been somewhat different, with public land use assessment and planning having been informed by a series of independent statutory bodies since 1970 (the Land Conservation Council, Environment Conservation Council, and Victorian Environmental Assessment Council). These SEA bodies have played a major role in mediating environmental conflict over public land use, and have significantly contributed to the increased size and coverage of Victoria's protected area system. However, while there has always been a statutory body in operation, the roles and responsibilities of these bodies have been subject to significant legislative change, with existing bodies replaced by new bodies in 1997 and 2001. Justifications for these reforms included changing circumstances and new understandings about environmental management, as well as changing views about public administration. As a way of contributing to enhancing the design of institutions and processes for strategic environmental assessment, this paper provides an assessment of Victoria's approach and discusses possible future directions.     

Identifying livelihood strategies and transitions in rural China: Is land holding an obstacle?

Using nationally representative rural survey data from 2010 and 2014 in China, this paper quantitatively investigates the factors determining Chinese rural households’ livelihood strategies and dynamics in transitions. Using a multinomial probit regression and ordered logit regression (OLR), we find that human assets and transport facilities are the most important factors in improving the livelihood strategies of rural Chinese households. These factors also encourage upward livelihood mobility. However, factors such as land endowment, land renting-in, and land expropriation have a negative effect on rural Chinese households’ upward mobility in livelihood strategies.     

Crisis or continuity?: Framing land disputes and local conflict resolution in Burundi

This article is about the importance of framing in conflict situations, and how this informs peacebuilding interventions. It discusses the consequences of understanding land disputes in Burundi as a short-term problem, resulting from the massive return of refugees and displaced to their former homes. This framing of land disputes urged international and local organizations to initiate programmes for strengthening the capacities of local conflict resolving institutions. The case material shows that, though the return of refugees was a factor in disputes about land, there was a lot of continuity between conflict-related and regular land disputes. Many disputes required first and foremost solutions at the national, political level, rather than at the local level. Further, the predisposition towards local institutions failed to take account of the weaknesses of those institutions. The article further points out some of the practices that played a role in this framing of conflict and the intervention strategies based on it.     

Does participation in the sloping land conversion program reduce the sensitivity of Chinese farmers to climate change?

Over the last two decades, extensive literature has examined the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of China's Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), a program that was launched in late 1990s to mitigate the environmental effects of agricultural production and reduce rural poverty. However, little empirical evidence exists with regard to the impact of SLCP on rural households' sensitivity to nature-induced changes and environmental challenges. In this study, household-level data covering the period 1995–2010 from five Chinese provinces were used to examine the effect of SLCP on farmers' sensitivity to climate change. The empirical results show that participation in SLCP significantly reduced farmers' sensitivity to climate change by reducing their dependency on land and natural resources for income, and by diversifying their livelihood options. Spatially, the results reveal that the effect of SLCP on farmers' sensitivity vary across regions. Specifically, SLCP was found to have a ‘rate effect’ on farmers in the Northern regions and a ‘level effect’ on farmers in the Southern regions. Likewise, we found that the effect of SLCP differs considerably across income groups, with the effect on low- and middle-income groups being most significant. The results indicate that subsidy is the main pathway through which SLCP reduces farmers' sensitivity to climate change. In contrast, we found inclusive evidence about the indirect effect of SLCP farmers' sensitivity through the promotion of non-agricultural employment. These results carry major implications with regard to the effectiveness of ecological conservation programs and their mitigation potential through building farmers' resilience in China and ecologically fragile environments.