Resource information
This study assesses the alignment of
land use, land tenure, and land market outcomes in El
Salvador with public policy aspirations in recent decades
for efficient, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable
development in both urban and rural spaces. In doing so the
study indirectly gauges the effectiveness of land sector
institutions in facilitating such developmental outcomes in
agricultural production, urbanization, and forest
management. Chapter 1 briefly reviews some of the prominent
struggles over land in El Salvador and outlines the salient
features of today's institutional framework for land
governance. Chapter 2 asks the question, "How effective
have public policy interventions, including the Agrarian
Reform, been in reducing rural inequality and tenure
insecurity?". Chapter 3 explores what has happened to
the lands transferred to Agrarian Reform cooperatives under
the last iterations of the Agrarian Reform. Chapter 4 asks
the question, "How has land governance in El Salvador
responded to the challenges of urban land supply in the last
decade?". In Chapter 5 the extent to which urban
spatial expansion in El Salvador has been occurring in an
inclusive way is explored. Chapter 6 presents the findings
of the original analyses of land use in relation to
deforestation. Chapter 7 analyzes available land market data
in three Departments, Ahuachapan, Santa Ana, and Sonsonate,
to identify trends and land use dynamism in the first decade
of this century. Chapter 8 looks at the study's
empirical findings from a more integrated, cross-sectoral
perspective so that their implications for public policy are
better understood. The final Chapter of the study presents
policy options for consideration by the Government of El
Salvador and the country's civil society organizations
in order to address the key challenges related to land
tenure, land use, and territorial planning.
