Conference Agenda

This study analyses how agricultural land rental market contributes to efficient land allocation in Ukrainian agricultural production. Ukraine has been struggling to introduce land sales market for the last two decade. Nevertheless, agricultural production has grown substantially in the recent years. We assess how current land relations in Ukraine have contributed to agricultural growth. In particular, we examine whether agricultural land tends to flow towards better skilled agricultural producers, thus, improving agricultural efficiency. Utilizing a rich panel of Ukrainian commercial agricultural producers for 2006-2017, we examine the determinants of participation in the land rental market. We show that the likelihood of renting in land does not depend on proxies for agricultural ability. Furthermore, exit-entry of farms seems to be associated with their agricultural ability but less so in regions with predominant large-scale production. We examine the factors that may contribute land rental markets failing to facilitate efficient land allocations.

The evidence on welfare implications of land market imperfections is relatively scarce in academic literature. Partial equilibrium models currently available consider welfare implications and land redistribution in presence of significant market power and credit market imperfections in rental land markets. However, land and credit market imperfections are treated separately.

Moreover, only rental markets are discussed in the literature in this regard, leaving sales markets out, thereby leading to a major and important simplification, as rental markets have different weights in the total volume of land market transactions.

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework that integrates land and credit market imperfections, and explore an interplay between rental and sales land markets. This model can be used to provide innovative insights for welfare implications and distributional impact of various policy design options, which would come in handy for carrying out land reforms in developing and transition countries.

All over the world, institutionalization of property rights and its impact on economic growth have become of high importance. New institutional economists contrast institutions and organizations (including individuals), indicating that a market comprised of individuals requires institutions to avoid inefficiency and failures.

In Ukraine, agricultural sector is responsible for a significant share of GDP. In addition, there is a moratorium on land sales still in place, and therefore agricultural producers almost completely cultivate the rental land. However, institutions behind land tenure are still in the nascent stage of formation, which is why it is important to analyze the impact of property rights institutionalization on achieving political goals mentioned above.

The main contribution of this paper is thus to establish a theoretical model of relationships between the agricultural productivity and development of institutionalization, check existence of correlation between these phenomena, and try to explain possible cause-effect relationships.

The authors describe the process of setting up and implementing participatory land demarcation in a conflict-affected setting in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The necessary conditions for success are highlighted and particularly difficult aspects of the work are traced and underlined. These relate among others to the diversity of interests that need to be accommodated and the history of violent conflict in the area. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that locally oriented interventions need to be linked to the larger political-economic context in a dialogical way that allows for input from and towards higher levels of governance and policy-making. In this way, the paper combines discussions of very practical grass-roots experience with larger efforts at coordinating and improving land governance at the regional level.

Following the 1986-2006 northern Uganda war, most Acholi returned to their customary, clan-based land. Because of multiple threats to this land, a consortium of Acholi leaders – the Joint Acholi Sub-Region Leaders' Forum (JASLF) – initiated a research and advocacy project to document the current organization and management of Acholi land and to help secure and protect it.

In partnership with the NGO Trócaire, the resulting 2016-17 project included a research sample of 141 land-holding clans from across Acholi, producing an unprecedented trove of primary, field-based data on the principles and practices regulating Acholi clan-based land. Hindered by numerous obstacles, project funding regretfully ended before researched clans were provided sufficient practical information and assistance to enable them to legally protect their land.

This paper will discuss the JASLF land project, outline the many challenging steps necessary for official clan-based land registration, and describe any subsequent efforts to help clans navigate those steps.

The importance of building land information systems cannot be underestimated in support of land reform, public service provision and promotion of social economic development especially in post conflict areas. There are many opportunities for their applications particularly in context such as enabling access to land, resolving disputes, raising revenue, service delivery as well as providing information services for private investment and local economic development. They provide an elaborate framework for creating inclusive and integrated system thus facilitating collaboration and participation of many actors. The systems are more acceptable (and sustainable in the long term) if they adopt bottom up and participatory processes for gathering information and if they use affordable and appropriate systems as advocated for by the principles of fit-for-purpose land administration. The paper highlights the need for a flexible and affordable system coupled with participatory approaches for promoting stakeholder engagement, coordination, inclusive development, and effective land information management.

By devolving greater powers to decentralized administrations, land-use planning reforms underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo present an opportunity to integrate community tenure rights and local development needs into wider planning processes. Yet there remain significant barriers to effective community participation in these processes including the lack of available geospatial data on their existing use and possession of forests, weak political representation as well as different technical and logistical constraints. The Rainforest Foundation UK’s land-use planning initiative in DRC seeks to overcome these barriers through participatory approaches and the use of simple, low-cost technologies to enable forest peoples to proactively engage in and shape land-use planning. This paper describes the methodology and results from two different pilot experiences to date, and considers some of the challenges for doing this at scale.

JURISPRUDENCE AND LAND CONFLICT IN THE PROCESS OF DEMARCATION OF THE INDIGENOUS RESERVE RAPOSA SERRA DO SOL

The Raposa Serra do Sol is an indigenous territory located in the extreme north of the Brazil, in the state of Roraima, specifically in the Normandia, Pacaraima and Uiramutã districts, between the Tacutu, Maú Surumu Miang and the Venezuelan and Guyana frontiers. The main objective of this article is to understand the complexity involved in the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indian Reservation, considering the need to bring to the discussion the peculiarities of the Amazonian biome, the question of national sovereignty, which in this case was strongly contested by international agents working in the region, and the debate on indigenous law. These discussions have returned with force in the last months, seen diverse declarations on the unconstitutionality of the present demarcation.

Since 1974, the Peruvian government has formally recognized the collective rights of more than 1,300 native communities with titles to over 12 million hectares. Despite this progress, the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP) calculates that there are outstanding claims to 20 million ha of land and forest. The context surrounding implementation is complex, with different interests shaping the priorities of each respective government administration. This paper analyses the process of formalizing collective rights to native communities in Peru, from the perspective of government agents involved in implementation procedures, activities and the outcomes derived from this. The analysis is based on a mixed method approach that combines legal and institutional analysis of the implementation framework. It provides lessons on the barriers and limitations to promote more effective processes around the formalization of collective rights to forests and lands in Peru.

The forests of the DRC support millions, including 700,000 to 1,000,000 indigenous peoples (IP) for whom identity and survival are intrinsically linked to their land. In a backdrop of ongoing land related reforms and legal revisions, IP communities, depending on their geographic location and history, prioritize different land rights (access, use, withdrawal, management, exclusion, alienation, due process and just compensation). This case study will present a model process followed by the national level governance structure of IP organizations in the DRC to elaborate a coherent strategy to secure an array of land related rights, through the development of a set of guiding principles; and of a strategy for securing 1) traditional IP lands, held collectively; and 2) new settlement lands, held by IP individuals and IP families, enabling them to settle at their own pace and integrate into existing communities in a fair and sustainable way.

The indigenous people in Uganda comprise of former hunters/gatherer communities such as the Bennet and the Batwa also known as Twa. They also include minority groups who include the Irk, the Karamojong and the Basongora. Ancient communities of hunters and gatherers, living in forested areas and practicing their cultural and economic way of life.The above group of people do not enjoy fundamental human rights like other Ugandans. The suffer discrimination,severe poverty and exclusion. The discrimination and marginalisation experienced by the indigenous communities range from lack of security of tenure, marginalisation in terms of political representation, poor education and provision of social services, negative stereotyping and segregation. They have common experience of state-induced landlessness and historical injustices caused by the creation of conservation areas. Their right to both land and other natural resources are well established under international and national legislation yet ignored and not implemented thus human rights violation

In the face of increasing pressure on land and natural resources, combating land degradation in arid rangelands of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is essential to ensure sustainable productivity of these environments. The successive droughts coupled with environmental and demographic factors remain a threat to livestock-based livelihoods, hence limiting the livelihood opportunities available to millions of resource-poor pastoralists. This study assessed the influence of adopting fodder production on land use and livelihood changes in Isiolo County of Kenya. Data was collected using key informant consultations, focus group discussions and individual household survey. The findings showed that adoption of fodder production promotes productive land uses and pastoralists’ participation in diversified income-earning activities. Therefore, resilience focused interventions through asset creation are vital pathways that facilitate pastoralists’ access to resources, and opportunities towards self-reliance, hence aiding the achievement of a sustainable socio-economic development in line with Kenya’s vision 2030 and global development agenda.

This paper presents lessons learned, experiences of OSIEA and her partners working with pastoralists in securing land rights using both traditional and modern systems. We believe that it is the extent to which pastoralists are able to mobilize amongst themselves that will ensure to enable them positively influence policy processes.