Many countries grapple with the intractable problem of formalizing tenure security. The concept of ‘fit-for-purpose land administration’ (FFPLA) offers a way forward by advocating a shift towards a more flexible, pragmatic and inclusive approach for land rights recording. Inherently, the process and outcome of implementing FFPLA will have significant socio-political ramifications but these have not received much attention in the literature; additionally, few papers have considered this in the context of decentralization, an endorsed strategy for implementing FFPLA.

Forest carbon sequestration offset protocols have been employed for more than 20 years with limited success in slowing deforestation and increasing forest carbon trading volume. Direct measurement of forest carbon flux improves quantification for trading but has not been applied to forest carbon research projects with more than 600 site installations worldwide.

This paper reviews experiences and development impacts of a selected number of developing countries in Asia and Africa that have used emerging land registration approaches to rapidly secure land rights at scale. Rapid and scalable registration is essential to eliminate a major backlog of the world’s unregistered land, which stands at about 70 percent. The objective of the review, based on secondary data, is to draw lessons that can help accelerate land registration across many countries.

This paper strives to introduce a discussion of the gender dimensions into the growing debate on large-scale land deals.

Poorly developed countries with weak institutions often face severe commitment problems. International investors are reluctant to invest in these countries because their property rights are insufficiently protected. We argue that in order to overcome the commitment problem countries may subject investors' rights protection to independent investment tribunals. These tribunals are known to strictly support property rights protection and to be reluctant to honor human rights considerations, although they might be applicable.

Africa's biofuel potential over the last ten years has increasingly attracted foreign investors’ attention. We estimate the determinants of foreign investors land demand for biofuel production in SSA, using Poisson specifications of the gravity model. Our estimates suggest that land availability, abundance of water resources and weak land governance are significant determinants of large-scale land acquisitions for biofuel production.

Large-scale agricultural land acquisitions might entail substantial welfare implications for the affected rural population. Whether the impacts are indeed as devastating as the popular notion of land grabs would suggest depends on a number of factors, including the size of compensation payments, productivity spillovers on smallholders, employment opportunities for displaced farmers, and changes in food prices.

Agricultural land resources have been the central issue for the Chinese government in its attempts to secure food and agricultural sustainability. Yet strict land use control does not protect the agricultural land from erosion by urban expansion. Identifying the specific patterns and mechanisms of the agricultural land conversion, thus, is critical for land management and related decision making.

Agricultural development is facing two problems: insufficient grain production and low profit of farmers. There is a contradiction between the government’s goal of increasing production and the farmer’s goal of increasing profit. Exploring the appropriate management scale of farmland under different objectives is of great significance to alleviate the conflict of interests between the government and farmers.

This study set out to estimate the effects of large-scale agricultural investments (LSAIs) on household food security in one community each in Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique. An endogenous switching regression model was adopted to control for a possible selection bias due to unobserved factors. It was found that households with members employed by large-scale agricultural investment companies were more likely larger households headed by younger migrant males holding smaller plots and fewer livestock than non-engaged households.

Suzhou city was the cultural centre of ancient south China. It continues the urban pattern of more than 800 years ago. Suzhou gardens are the essence of Chinese gardening art, as well as the valuable world cultural heritage site. This paper compared the evolution in the distribution and scale of Suzhou gardens among five historical periods, and discussed the influence of urbanization on gardening.