The purpose of this paper is to empirically track the progress and consequences of the emergence of cultivated land markets in China since 2000. We draw on a set of nationwide, household‐level panel data (for 2000 and 2008) and find that the markets for cultivated land rental have emerged robustly. According to our data, 19 of China's cultivated land was rented in farm operators in 2008. We also find that the nature of China's cultivated land rental contracts has become more formal and lengthened the period of time that the tenant is able to cultivate the rented‐in plots.

O desenvolvimento da agricultura e da pecuária na Amazônia tem resultado na expansão dos desmatamentos, o que contribui para emissão de gases de efeito estufa na atmosfera e redução da biodiversidade. A evolução dos desmatamentos realizada pelos produtores rurais é condicionada por características das famílais produtoras e pelo ambiente socioeconômico. O objetivo desse estudo foi identificar os condicionantes de desmatamentos nos principais pólos de produção agropecuária familiar no estado do Acre. Foi utilizado o modelo econométrico logit multinomial para essa avaliação.

Although there is alarm over the global land rush, many plans for the large-scale transformation of land acquired by investors remain on the drawing board. Based on a study of two land deals in Kenya's Tana Delta, this paper considers the processes by which blueprint designs are amended or delayed through the involvement of local actors. It demonstrates that even top-down acquisition of land by powerful state-linked actors with the support of policy discourse can be stalled by the rural poor, particularly if the latter have strong customary claims and links to wider opposition.

We discuss coastal shellfisheries management and governance models in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) at different scales. Self-imposed governance with spatial property rights, internal rules and co-management resulted in successful local shellfisheries. At the national level, the long-term Chilean governability system, which included sea-zoning for artisanal and industrial fleets and exclusive allocation of rights to artisanal shellfish communities, successfully tamed wicked management problems.

Organic farming has risen in popularity with both farmers and consumers, with Australia having the largest area of certified organic land in the world. Australian governments have traditionally ignored the organic farming sector, while making policies that have hampered its further development. Although policies have become more favorable over time, recently, there has been a slight reversal in approach. Such a reversal in policy makes Australia unique when compared to the pro-organic policy developments in nearly all other developed countries.

This research is an empirical examination of institutional developments in Afro-Colombian communities that have occurred since the change in the property rights regime in 1991. I surveyed 82 local leaders of 42 communities to understand whether these communities have succeeded in designing and implementing rules to manage their collective land and its resources. I found that the new property regime has not replaced individuals' informal land holdings, which are still managed as de facto individual private property and are traded in the informal land market.

Against the backdrop of post-Apartheid neoliberal reform, South African landowners have gained the option to acquire full ownership over wild animals on their land. Corresponding with this, approximately one sixth of South Africa's total land has been ‘game-fenced’ and converted for wildlife-based production (i.e. hunting, ecotourism, live trade and venison production). This article analyzes the institutional process in which authority concerning access to wildlife is being restructured, and argues that the unfolding property regime leads to an intensified form of green grabbing.

This paper examines the role of property rights and community control in promoting forest conservation, and extends the classic framework of the bundles of property rights to non-consumptive resources and ecosystem services. Common property resources are first contrasted with protected areas, and then combined to develop a conceptual framework for common property protected areas (CPPA). A case study of a communally owned forest reserve in Costa Rica shows how the CPPA model identifies various stakeholders and their roles, rights and responsibilities.

Institutional thinking has long been central to fisheries governance. Defined in its most generic form as structural constraints that provide regularities, reduce uncertainties and shape people's interactions, institutions create an enabling or controlling environment for specific governing actions and decisions to take place. Over the years, fisheries governance has relied heavily on the creation and evolution of institutions, especially those related to property rights and access rules.

A new social forestry program has been implemented in Java to overcome encroachment of state forests. In this program, the state and local communities jointly manage the state forests and share the benefits of increased forest resource stock and flow as a result of the management. This article aims to investigate the complete incentive structure of the social forestry program and how the incentive structure changes community member participation in forest management. Property rights transfers and economic analyses were employed to analyze the incentive structure.