The purpose of this paper is to highlight the detrimental impact of land tenure insecurity on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. It is related to recent controversies about the detrimental impact of land laws on deforestation, which seem to legitimize land encroachments. The latter is mainly the result of land tenure insecurity which is a key characteristic of this region and results from a long history of interactions between rural social unrest and land reforms or land laws. A simple model is developed where strategic interactions between farmers lead to excessive deforestation.

Land Economics/Use,

Planting trees on public lands are often considered unsustainable due to the rights of individuals arc weak. Therefore it is important to know the individuals tree rights to promote tree planting. The study aims to conceptualize tree tenure system to encourage better management of agroforestry at the farm level. The result showed variation on tree tenure rights can be separated from land tenure rights, but attached to a custom or habit which is a local setting (customary).

Although recent developments greatly increased interest in African land tenure, few models to address these issues at the required scale have been identified or evaluated. Rwanda.s nation-wide land tenure regularization programme is of great interest.

Rural Development - Common Property Resource Development Communities and Human Settlements - Land Use and Policies Rural Development - Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction Public Sector Management and Reform Urban Development - Urban Housing Public Sector Development

This paper uses data collected in Thailand among permanent rural-urban migrants to analyse the motivations in land temporary transfers such as free loans or rentals. Land transfers are here looked at in a continuum and categorized according to three characteristics: the nature of the relationship between the parties of the exchange, the monetary nature of the payment as well as its explicit or imlicit nature. This methodology allows a richer typology than traditionnally used in empiric literature, and distinguishes between various loans that are not always free.

This paper analyze the colonial institutions set up by the British to collect land revenue in India, and show that differences in historical property rights institutions lead to sustained differences in economic outcomes. Areas in which proprietary rights in land were historically given to landlords have significantly lower agricultural investments, agricultural productivity and investments in public goods in the post-Independence period than areas in which these rights were given to the cultivators.

Land Economics/Use,

Farmers' ability to leave agriculture is an important and debated topic in China and other countries. Many scholars believe China's unique land tenure policies prevent farmers from leaving agriculture. This paper examines the hypothesis that China's land tenure system deters exit from agriculture using household level data from Northeast China. Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use,

This paper considers two land tenure modes. leasehold and freehold. and models housing maintenance incentives under land tenure security in Japan. Compared with freeholders, leaseholders are equally likely to remain in the premises, but spend less on home maintenance, because leaseholders are not full residual claimants, even under land tenure security. The empirical results show that maintenance expenditures of leaseholders are about 30% lower than those of freeholders in the Japanese residential land market.

Rural Development - Rural Land Policies for Poverty Reduction Gender - Gender and Law Communities and Human Settlements - Land Administration Communities and Human Settlements - Land Use and Policies Private Sector Development - Land and Real Estate Development Rural Development - Common Property Resource Development