In a widely read paper, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank and others propose systematic property rights formalization as a key step in addressing the problems of irresponsible agricultural investment. This paper examines the case of Cambodia, one of a number of countries where systematic land titling and large-scale land concessions have proceeded in parallel in recent years.

The need of Fulanis for secured access to land is a long time policy challenge in Nigeria but progress in achieving this is far from being made. Meanwhile, access to land, of Fulanis that are settled among the Yorubas in southwest Nigeria, is dependent on land rights regimes operating in Yoruba communities. The study examines the nature of land rights in southwest Nigeria and how these provide access to Fulanis for their livelihoods activities. The study hypothesised that land access and land rights relate significantly to livelihood security of the Fulanis.

The long-term solution to managing the impacts of sea-level rise is through the development and application of planning provisions and public policy, especially with regards to new developments in the coastal zone. By contrast, imposing new planning provisions, such as enforced retreat strategies, on legacy or existing private assets that are exposed to erosion and sea-level rise will impact on private property rights. In many cases this will incentivise rights-holders to pursue alternative recourse pathways.

This paper examines interethnic conflict on grazing land previously accessed as common property. The study was undertaken in Mieso District of eastern Ethiopia where two ethnic groups experience different production systems – pastoral and agropastoral. Game theoretic approach and analytic narratives have been used as analytical tools. Results show that the historical change in land use by one of the ethnic groups, resource scarcity, violation of customary norms, power asymmetry and livestock raids are some of the factors that have contributed to the recurrence of the conflict.

Fisheries systems are widely considered to be ‘in crisis’ in both economic and ecological terms, a considerable concern given their global significance to food security, international trade and employment. The most common explanation for the crisis suggests that it is caused by weak and illiberal property regimes. It follows that correcting the crisis involves the creation of private property rights that will restore equilibrium between the profitable, productive function of fishing firms and fish stocks in order to maximize ‘rent’.

We examined the evolution of four public wildlife management issues using theories from collective action, social networks, and social constructionism to understand key roles and perspectives among stakeholders engaged in collective actions related to wildlife management policies. We conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 50 key stakeholders in four communities in New York State that experienced collective stakeholder interactions in the contexts of waterfowl hunting or wildlife trapping.

Agent-based simulations and human-subject experiments explore the emergence of respect for property in a specialization and exchange economy with costless theft. Software agents, driven by reciprocity and hill-climbing heuristics and parameterized to replicate humans when property is exogenously protected, are employed to predict human behavior when property can be freely appropriated.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered by some to be a promising technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and advocates are seeking policies to facilitate its deployment. Unlike many countries, which approach the development of policies for geologic storage (GS) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) with nearly a blank slate, the U.S. already has a mature policy regime devoted to the injection of CO₂ into deep geologic formations.

Adoption of effects-based management, environmental effects-based management (EEM) or ‘learn as we go, is essential to open up access to all of New Zealand’s Maritime Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) resource base into the future. Utilising knowledge gained from ‘learn as we go’ and combining it with the integration of sectarian agendas and establishment of a central government EEZ agency empowered by an Act of Parliament will ensure future food and energy security is met. To achieve this integration of environmental effects management with security of access and stakeholder buy in is needed.

The paper presents an empirical study on the use of woody biomass for energy supply in Germany and the federal state of Brandenburg. It aims to explain the role forestry enterprises have for bioenergy provision in this area. The 'Institutions of Sustainability' framework is used as an analytical tool to investigate the role of private and public actors in these transactions, respectively, in the governance structures they are subject to. Empirical evidence was gathered by in-depth interviews with actors from forestry and bioenergy practice.

This paper presents an institutional analysis of hydropower development in Chile, focusing on the main legal institutions involved and relevant jurisprudence. Hydropower expansion took place within a neoliberal institutional framework imposed by the military government (1973–1990) that included reforms in both the water and electricity sectors. One of the stated purposes of these reforms was to remove ideology from both water management and electricity generation and ensure the neutrality of the state.