What have we learned about land markets in South Asia about land reform, land fragmentation, sharecropping, security of tenure, farm size, land rights, transaction costs, bargaining power, policy distortions, and market imperfections (including those associated with gender)?Faruqee and Carey review the literature on land markets in South Asia to clarify what's known and to highlight unresolved issues. They report that: We have a good understanding of why sharecropping persists and why it can be superior to other standard agricultural contracts.

The draft Indian Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 7, 2011 is one of the most important legislations waiting for Parliamentary approval. In its present form, the bill is a major improvement over the archaic 1894 land law that has contributed to the impasse over land acquisitions across the country. The bill makes a genuine push for a better land acquisition regime in the country by doing three things: combining both compensations, resettlement and

The analysis of land investment and tenure security usually assumes land scarcity. However, some developing countries have communities with land abundance. This article therefore examines the effects of land abundance for investment and tenure security. The author finds that in contrast to the literature, area farmed is a determinant of investment and tenure security. However, no link exists between investment and tenure security.

Since 1994, the South African government has embarked on an ambitious land reform programme to redistribute and return land to previously disenfranchised communities. However, many black people lack the knowledge, skills and experience needed to manage their land.

This document reports on a workshop held in South Africa in June 2003 to address continuing insecurity of women's land rights. It brought together a broad group of participants covering NGO, grassroots, government, UN agency staff, researchers, activists, lawyers, and women living with HIV/AIDS.

This report looks at possible ways for policy-makers and decision-takers to combat and/or prevent land degradation in the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) region, both generally and specifically in the following countries: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This report recounts the experiences of 130 women from various regions, ethnic groups, religions, and social classes in Kenya who have had their property rights flouted because they are women.The report presents evidence that women are excluded from inheriting, evicted from their lands and homes by in-laws, stripped of their possessions, and forced to engage in risky sexual practices in order to keep their property. When they divorce or separate from their husbands, they are often expelled from their homes with only their clothing.

While there is a consensus in Nicaragua that the security of property rights is a fundamental constraint to the long run development of the agricultural sector, there has been little empirical analysis to date of the relationship between land rights and rural economic activity.Using household level data collected between December, 1997– April, 1998 within the regions of Leon and Chinandega (known administratively as Region II), this paper investigates the relationship between rural land rights and agricultural credit, investment, and rural incomes (on farm and off farm).Results indicate tot

FAC Policy Brief 55by Blessings Chinsinga and Michael Chasukwa There is often a mismatch between the apparent benevolent intents and the practical manifestations of the large scale land deals. The empirical realities of the large-scale land deals call for critical scrutiny and interrogation of the underlying interests of the stakeholders involved to assess the extent to which they genuinely prioritize win-win scenarios. As the experiences of the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) in Malawi demonstrated, the smallholder farmer is almost always the loser.

Reviews the current understanding of the relationship between land use (especially forestry), carbon dioxide emissions and the Kyoto Protocol agreementsTopics cover: how the global carbon cycle operates, and how this relates to forestry activitiesaccounting rulescomparison of the usefulness of models and ground-based assessments of changes in carbon stocksshort term prospects for policy implementationimplications for sustainable development

This paper examines the challenges of institutional, organisational and policy reform around land in Southern Africa. It analyses the land situation in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and identifies key issues for further research in each of these countries.
Findings include:

This paper begins by exploring the history of tenure in Tanzania's forests. It states that, while the government has retained ownership of forests centrally; locally, people have used forest resources without restriction. This has led to the over exploitation of many forest resources and a lack of sense of ownership and responsibility among forest communities.The author states that the government plans to transfer management rights for forests while retaining tenure centrally, but that there is confusion over how this division of rights can occur legally.