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Land Reforms in Asia and Africa: - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management

Land Reforms in Asia and Africa: - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management. Workshop in Beijing 24-25.January, 2010 Stein Holden. Introduction. Thanks to EfD-for funding the workshop Thanks to Gunnar for support Thanks to Jintao for hosting the workshop

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Land Reforms in Asia and Africa: - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management

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  1. Land Reforms in Asia and Africa: - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management Workshop in Beijing 24-25.January, 2010 Stein Holden

  2. Introduction • Thanks to EfD-for funding the workshop • Thanks to Gunnar for support • Thanks to Jintao for hosting the workshop • Thanks to Kei for joining in as editor

  3. Objectives of workshop • Identifyresearchabletopicsrelated to land reforms in Asiancountries • Poverty impacts • NRM (especiallyforest land) impacts • Identifygoodresearchquestionsthatcan be answered • Withincountries • Acrosscountries (Asia and Africa) • Identifytestablehypotheses • Withincountries • Acrosscountries • Make a realistic plan for preparing book chapters (milestones)

  4. Land reforms • Definition: • Apply a broaddefinition as compared to some more narrowdefinitionsthatarecommon. This may be illustrated by the types of reforms thatweintend to study: • Market-friendly land reform (provisionofstronger transfer rights to land) • Reforms aiming to enhancetenuresecuritysuch as land registration and certification • Redistributive land reforms • Reforms aiming to strengthen land rights ofpoor and vulnerable groups • Reforms aiming to enhancesustainable land management (investment and conservationincentives)

  5. Land Reforms back on the Agenda • MDGs: Rights-basedapproaches • Commision for Legal EmpowermentofthePoor (CLEP) • Rapid economicdevelopment in Asia (change in fooddemand) • Increasing land scarcity in Africa • New demands for land for food and energyproduction • Climatechange: REDD and theroleofforesttenure

  6. New Standards for ImpactAssessment • Difficulties of identifying impacts of reforms • Few good studies exist • Randomized experiments infeasible? • Natural experiments hard to find? • Alternative econometric methods required to analyse existing data • Better data sets emerging • Better methods developed • Aim to apply such methods on new data for the book

  7. Issues and Research Questions • Whatarethepovertyreductioneffectsof alternative land reform approaches? • To whatextent have the reforms enhancedproductivity, investment and growth • To whatextent have the reforms beenpro-poor, e.g. benefitedthelandless, low-caste, women, etc? • Howcan more socially optimal property rights regimes be defined for agricultural and forest land resources?

  8. Countries to be studied

  9. Historicalcontext: Initial conditionson land rights • Whatarethe initial and historicalsituation in terms ofallocationofthe bundle of land rights and obligations? • How is thedistributionof land to differentgroupsofsociety? E.g. is landlessnesscommon? • How is thisrelated to thesocialpowerstructure? • Whatrolesdoes land play in thesociety? • Sourceofincome, food, shelter, employment, safetynet, credit, store ofwealth, prestige, taxshelter, …. • What alternatives/exit optionsexist? • E.g. would it be preferable to sellthe land to get starting capital for establishingsomeother business?

  10. The bundle of land (natural resource) rights and obligations • A vectorof • Use rights (food, shelter, energy, belowgroundresources, water, input in production, safetynet, collateral, collectfirewood, fish ………..) and • Tranfer rights (rights to rent, sell/buy, borrow, bequeath, inherit) • Rights ofexclusion • Obligations (land conservation, sustainablemanagement, use (not leaveidle or abandon) • Restrictions (max and min farm size, transfer right restrictions)

  11. Methodological issues • Identificationof most relevant counterfactual • Can be challenging in economy-wide reforms • Internalvalidity • Establishment ofcausality • Endogeneity, self-selection • Externalvalidity • Cross-countrycomparisonswhere relevant • Spillover effects • Economy-wide reforms • Direct and indirecteffects • Intended and unintendedeffects

  12. Effects of Land-to-the-Tiller policies Efficiency Nepal Vietnam India China Equity in land distribution

  13. Effects of land renting Efficiency Nepal Vietnam India China Equity in operational land distribution

  14. Property rights regimes vs. management • Choicebetween • Private/individual rights • Communal rights • State ownership • Who managethe land • Individualmanagement • Group/communitymanagement • State (company) management • Do land reforms movetowards more optimal property rights regimes and management regimes?

  15. Property rights regimes vs. Management (use) rights

  16. Forest tenure reforms • Decentralizationprocesses • Increasingvalueofforests • Economicdevelopment • Increasingpopulationpressure/landscarcity • Individual vs. Group management • Durationofcontracts • Investmentcapacity/Creditaccess • Management skills • Economiesofscale • Management • Harvesting • Marketing

  17. Group work • To address all the objectives • I look forward to a productive and constructive workshop!

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