The Chieftaincy Institution in Ghana: Causers and Arbitrators of Conflicts in Industrial Jatropha Investments
Large-scale land acquisition in Africa has been the concern and the focus of growing global literature on land grabbing. The upswing in biofuel investments in Ghana led to large-scale land acquisitions by the private sector presided over by chiefs. This research investigates how chiefs, in playing their traditional roles in the acquisition of land and as arbitrators, were, in most instances, the cause and the solution to the ensuing conflicts in the various communities. Data was collected through interviews, use of questionnaires and focus group discussions.
Marketization of Collective-owned Rural Land: A Breakthrough in Shenzhen, China
This study focuses on analyzing the ongoing land policy reform that allows collective-owned rural land transactions in the open market in Shenzhen, China. Employing a case study method, we investigate this land policy evolution through description and contextual analysis. We argue that the existing dual-track land administration system, within which the state administers market transactions, has contributed to numerous social problems, such as urban land scarcity, inefficiency of land resource allocation, and exacerbated social injustice.
Densification without Growth Management? Evidence from Local Land Development and Housing Trends in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
In urban America, land development and residential real estate have passed through a number of different phases during the post-WWII era. In contemporary discourse on urban sustainability, attention is often expressed in terms of intensity of land development, lot sizes, and square-footage of housing units. In this paper, we reconstruct the land development trajectory of a rapidly growing southern city in the United States and assess whether this trajectory has experienced any reversal in the face of socio-economic transformations that have occurred over the past decade or so.
Performance Evaluation of Industrial Land Policy in China
Rapid industrialization, as one of the main driving forces promoting sustainable economic growth, has increased the area of industrial land use significantly. Industrial land use manifests that the competition between it and other kinds of land use is growing. During the last decade in China, many targeted industrial land use policies have been enacted to stimulate appropriate industrial land use and to promote healthy economic development. However, it is difficult for scholars and governments of rapidly developing countries to judge and evaluate the performance of such policies.
A turning point? Land, housing and natural resources rights in 2012
Whereas 2011 had seen a sharp increase in the number of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) granted by the Royal Government of Cambodia to private companies, in 2012 conflicts became more acute and protests multiplied. The government showed that it had understood the seriousness of the situation by taking initiatives aimed at resolving land disputes, addressing some of the issues related to ELCs and granting thousands of land titles to rural families.
Community guide: Protecting community lands and resources
"The Government of Liberia is in the process of drafting new land laws that give people ownership rights over their customary lands. This guide teaches communities how to go through the process of getting papers (deeds) for their land. The end result of doing all of the work explained in this guide will be both papers for your land and a more organized, more united, and more peaceful community ready to develop and grow."
Access Denied: Land Rights and Ethnic Conflict in Burma - Burma Policy Briefing
ABSTRACT ORIGIN UNKNOWN: This report provides a recent update on land policies in the ethnic regions of Burma following the 2010 national elections and the beginning of the ceasefire with the Karen National Union in 2012. The authors argue that, while military conflict and associated abuses have declined, the Burmese government’s commitment to foreign investment and export-led economic growth is making traditional land tenure even less secure than before.