Using the 2009 round of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey, this paper examines the medium-term impact of the land registration on investment behavior by households, particularly the adoption of soil conservation techniques and tree planting. It investigates whether men’s and women’s knowledge of their property rights under the land registration (as measured by answers to a list of questions regarding the provisions of the registration, covering such areas as tenure security, land transfer rights, and rights related to gender equity and inheritance) has an impact on these investments.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE OBJECTIVES SECTION: These Voluntary Guidelines seek to improve governance of tenure of land*, fisheries and forests. They seek to do so for the benefit of all, with an emphasis on vulnerable and marginalized people, with the goals of food security and progressive realization of the right to adequate food, poverty eradication, sustainable livelihoods, social stability, housing security, rural development, environmental protection and sustainable social and economic development.

This paper starts from the assumption that the process of reform is as important as the content of the reform. Many excellent land policies, laws and technical reforms have been developed, yet, in many cases, implementation has slipped, stalled or has even been reversed. The paper argues that an understanding of land issues and the reform process from a governance and political economy perspective offers insights that can not only improve the design of reforms, but can also offer tools to support implementation.

Foreign investment in agriculture and extractive industries is increasing pressures on land and natural resources. This handbook is about how to use law to make foreign investment work for sustainable development. It aims to provide a rigorous yet accessible analysis of the law regulating foreign investment in low and middle-income countries – what this law is, how it works, and how to use it most effectively.

Political dynamics of the global land grab are exemplified in Cambodia, where at least 27 forced evictions took place in 2009, affecting 23,000 people. Evictions of the rural poor are legitimized by the assumption that non-private land is idle, marginal, or degraded and available for capitalist exploitation. This paper: (1) questions the assumption that land is idle; (2) explores whether land grabs can be regulated through a ‘code of conduct’; and (3) examines peasant resistance to land grabs.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: This report shows how, contrary to Cambodia’s obligations under international human rights law, those affected by evictions have had no opportunity for genuine participation and consultation beforehand. Information on planned evictions and on resettlement packages has often been incomplete and inaccurate, undermining the right to information of those affected.

As shown in this report, harassment of local activists in Cambodia, including defenders of the right to housing, is widespread. Cambodia’s rich and powerful are increasingly abusing the criminal justice system to silence communities standing up against land concessions or business deals affecting the land they live on or cultivate. Many poor and marginalized communities are living in fear of the institutions created to protect them, in particular the police and the courts. As forced evictions increase, public space for discussing them is shrinking.

Access to land empowered by law is a crucial issue for sustainable development of a modern, prosperous Cambodia where the social and ecological responsibilities are well developed and embedded in a State Land Management. The State is the main actor in the land sector and has to guarantee State public property which cannot be transformed into private property. Cambodia shows still a high rural poverty rate, land concentration and anarchy in illegal land possession, illegal claim of State land and protected areas as privately owned and unlawful logging.

Rural areas in Cambodia have been the target of large-scale land acquisitions since the late 1990s. As of March 2012, economic land concessions in Cambodia covered more than 2 million hectares, equivalent to over half of the country’s arable land. In this paper, we discuss the policy narratives and discursive strategies that are employed by various actors to justify and legitimize large-scale land acquisitions. We then analyze the underlying mechanisms of such acquisitions and investments and examine how they are entangled with donor-assisted land use planning efforts.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In May 2012 Prime Minister Hun Sen issued Directive 001 (also known as Order 01BB) on ‘Measures to strengthen and enhance the effectiveness of management of economic land concessions (ELCs)’ announcing a moratorium on the granting of new ELCs, the review of existing ELCs and the implementation of the so-called “leopard-skin” (or “tiger-skin”) policy, with the aim to allow communities to live side by side with the concessions.

This paper presents an analysis of an environmental conflict that arose in a Thai industrial zone. The authors analyse state policies to resolve the conflict, and draw lessons for other industrializing nations adopting industrial zone models. The study revealed that a root cause of the conflict was violation of land-use planning regulations and expansion of the industrial zone into community areas. Through legal action, civil society successfully forced the state and industries to halt unplanned expansion.

Increased global demand for land underscores the need for well-designed, country-level land policies to protect long-held rights, facilitate land access, and address constraints to growth. However, reforms are often technically complex, politically sensitive, and time consuming. It is thus critical to identify priority issues in a participatory way, have a clear understanding of how they fit into the broader policy context, and be able to monitor improvements over time.