Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Crowd sourced information submitted anonymously from the students of the class of 2017-2020 of the European Law School Programme from Maastricht University Faculty of Law.

Why would politicians give up power over the allocation of critical resources to community leaders? This article examines why many African governments have ceded power over the allocation of land to non-elected traditional leaders. In contrast to the existing literature, which suggests traditional leaders’ power is a hang-over from the colonial period that has not been eliminated due to weak state capacity, I argue that African politicians often choose to devolve power to traditional leaders as a means of mobilizing electoral support from non-coethnics.

mproving land governance is key in assuring that land resources can be enjoyed by all parts of the population. Donors can play an important role in combatting corruption in land administration and building a well-functioning land administration by both supporting domestic government efforts as well as engaging in international and multi-country initiatives. However, donors are advised by experts and civil society organisations to be mindful of the possible impact of their interventions on issues of land grabbing and forced relocations.

The use of forests as carbon sinks is examined by introducing carbon sequestration benefits’ accounting in a multi-vintage land allocation model. Following the IPCC, three carbon accounting methods are considered. We compare the results in each case with those without carbon sequestration, as well as the performances of the ton-year and the average methods (second-best) to the carbon flow (first-best) concerning optimal land allocation between forestry and alternative uses, total carbon sequestered, timber production and social welfare.

Reducing pesticide use in agriculture is necessary to preserve natural resources. However, pest control without pesticides is a challenging issue. In particular, weed infestation may cause severe losses of crop yield. Weeds have been traditionally managed solely at the field level. However, larger scales must be considered because invasive and herbicide-tolerant weeds are spreading over larger scales. This review discusses three spatial scales at which agricultural management might affect the dispersal of weeds and, in turn, their distribution and abundance in agricultural fields.

We used Ricardian framework with heterogeneous land quality to analyse how policies used to support farm incomes, reduce negative agri-environmental externalities and enhance the provision of positive externalities influence land allocation decisions and land prices. Four agri-environmental policy instruments are considered: a uniform area payment, a quality-dependent area payment, a mandatory buffer strip policy and a voluntary buffer strip payment. We also analyse how general tax and monetary policies may affect agricultural land prices.

This report explains TMP Systems’ statistical analysis of how geospatial data showing indicators of local environmental, social and governance (ESG) conditions correlate with tenure risk. The results indicate strong enough correlations between some of these indicators and tenure risk, to support use of the indicators by companies and investors. This work underpins something new and useful, which is Landscope’s ability to provide location-specific risk assessments across many developing countries.

Nowadays, the issue of land plot selection for linear facilities is relevant because of high land load rate world-wide. The given research into establishing a rationale for linear facilities location focuses on the determination of an optimum alternative. The method used is based on the expert analytic hierarchy process to improve the economic, technical and ecological justification of projects of land allocation for linear facilities of utility equipment. The method was applied in order to select a land plot for a gas pipeline.

Building inclusive societies that reflect the needs of all categories of people within the social spectrum is critical to achieving sustainable development. This is reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which among things seek to ‘by 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex. This places enormous tasks on all governments especially in developing countries like Ghana to ensure that the youth are not left behind in access and control over land as a building block for economic empowerment.