Pastoralism within the cadastral system: Seasonal interactions and access agreements between pastoralists and non-pastoralists in Northern Kenya

The imposition of exclusive statutory real property rights in or near pastoralists’ areas and their migration corridors permanently excludes and extinguishes pastoralist rights to mobility and access to required resources. Seasonal interactions with non-pastoralist land use actors often occur during pastoralist migrations between rangelands and highlands or dry season grazing areas. In an embedded case study in Northern Kenya, in which interviews based on semi-structured questionnaires were held with pastoralists and non-pastoralists, we investigated how non-pastoralist land use actors manage encounters with migrating pastoralists within the context of the Land Administration system. We found that the majority of non-pastoralist land use actors encounter migrating pastoralists during distinct periods. Most never allow herders access to privately owned land. A small proportion allow access and make temporary verbal or written access agreements containing provisions on grazing fees, grazing regulations and rules to protect private property. The majority of non-pastoralists are unwilling to have access arrangements formalized. We argue that land rights adjudication should identify and confer all existing land rights to all users to avoid obstruction or renegotiation for access, and recommend the inclusion of pastoralists’ access rights as real property rights in the Land Administration system.     

Groundwater Depletion and Agricultural Land Use Change in the High Plains: A Case Study from Wichita County,Kansas*

Shifts in resource availability and resulting land use changes are important research themes for coupled human and natural systems and human dimensions of global environmental change. This study examines the relationship between groundwater depletion and agricultural land use change within a single county in the High Plains, where agro-economic systems and populations are dependent on access to reliable groundwater supplies. Results indicate a significant relationship between high proportionate decreases in groundwater and land being removed from irrigation. This case study strengthens the links among local, regional, and global environmental change, and contributes to a greater understanding of the High Plains in the context of regional sustainability and vulnerability concerns.     

"VALUING THE TROPICS": DISCOURSES OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE FARM AND FOREST SECTORS OF FRENCH INDOCHINA, circa 1900–40

The paper examines how land and forest management policies were elaborated in French Indochina circa 1900–40. It places their development in the context of a scientific and economic discourse about the value of land and forest resources, the most appropriate ways in which they might be exploited and the relationship between colonial science and indigenous knowledge. By focusing on debates and laws relating to the development of small‐scale and plantation farming systems (Land Code legislations) and forest management and exploitation (Forest Code legislations) the paper seeks to ground arguments about Western conceptions of the “tropics” within a discussion of national policy development and impacts. Focusing primarily on Cochinchina and Annam (southern and central Vietnam) and drawing on materials from French archives, the paper shows how changes in both attitudes and legislation have had lasting consequences on systems of property rights in forest management and on the place and status of indigenous peoples in Indochina.     

Finding common ground: relational concepts of land tenure and economy in the oil palm frontier of Papua New Guinea

In the oil palm frontier regions of West New Britain and Oro provinces, Papua New Guinea, customary land tenure arrangements are changing in response to the growing demand for land for agricultural development. This paper examines one aspect of these changes, namely the gifting and selling of customary land for oil palm development to people who have no customary birthrights to the land. By analysing how access rights are maintained over the relatively long cultivation cycle of oil palm (approximately 25 years), and in the context of the rapidly changing socio-economic and demographic environments of the oil palm frontiers, the paper demonstrates that while land transactions seemingly entail the commodification of land, land rights and security of land tenure remain embedded in social relationships. For customary landowners, the moral basis of land rights is contingent on 'outsiders' maintaining particular kinds of social and economic relationships with their customary landowning 'hosts'. In exploring how these social relationships are constituted through the performance of particular kinds of exchange relationships, the paper provides insights into relational concepts of land rights and how these are able to persist in Papua New Guinea's oil palm frontier regions where resource struggles are often intense and where large migrant populations are seeking land for agricultural development.     

我国耕地资源利用效益的数量经济分析

耕地数量平衡与质量下降的错位是当前我国耕地资源利用中存在的一个不可忽视的问题。该文构造了耕地产出效益系数、耕地消耗回报系数、耕地污染替代系数、耕地利用集约化系数等指标,对我国现有耕地利用效益进行了定量分析。在此基础上,从观念更新、技术进步、财政投资、产权制度优化等角度,提出提高我国耕地资源利用效益的宏观对策,以缓解我国人地矛盾的压力。     

农用土地价格初步研究--温州市农用地案例分析

根据农用土地价格特征,选择适当的方法和评估的操作是研究重点,为此建立农用土地类型、等级、基准地价及变幅的价格体系,为农用土地流转、土地税收等提供依据,促进耕地保护和利用格局调整。并在温州市农用土地管理中的实践,有利于深化土地有偿使用制度改革,建立、健全农村土地市场,强化农用土地资产化管理。     

Enclosing the land: Cotton,population growth and tenure in Mali

On-going tenure changes in the cotton zone in southern Mali are discussed. Land tenure in the area is changing and adapting to the rapid agricultural development taking place. This adaptation supports the main tenets of Property Rights Theory (PRT). The driving forces behind enclosure of land rights as described by PRT, such as population pressure and increased market access, are acknowledged. Enclosure takes two forms in the study area. First, some customary authorities in villages where population pressure is relatively high attempt to restrict access to pastures and woods on village land to create exclusive village commons. Second, holdings are being subdivided and farmers are increasingly confining their fields through tree planting. Except around the towns, where semi-formal land sales are becoming increasingly frequent, this individualisation does not imply exclusive and absolute private property to land. Bundles of overlapping rights still exist where various individuals or groups control access to different resources on the same piece of land.     

产权变化视角下的珠江三角洲土地利用 时空变化及其机制——以佛山市南海区为例

以佛山南海区为例,采用遥感、土地利用调查及土地利用现状图等多种数据,运用遥感影像人机交互解译、景观格局指数以及田野调查、案例分析等定量与定性相结合的方法,分析了1987年以来南海区土地利用时空变化及其对土地产权变革的响应。结果发现,南海区土地产权变化分为3个阶段：即土地有偿投包制阶段（1987-1992年）、土地股份合作制阶段（1993-2002年）和土地紧缩及“三旧”改造政策下的政府主导模式阶段（2003-2013年）,这3个阶段土地产权的演化具有以土地的“所有”为中心向以“利用”为其中心转变的趋势,这是市场需求和资源利用高效化发展的结果,也是土地由资源转变为资产及资本的过程。南海区土地产权变化与土地利用时空变化具有较为显著的关联性及规律性。土地利用在不同时段变化的速度、强度和结构等对土地产权变化的响应明显,其空间格局也同样呈现“农用地集聚-乡村工业化破碎格局-集聚与破碎化共存”3个阶段性变化特征。南海区土地利用变化是众多内外部因素综合作用的结果,主要表现为诱致机制、引导机制、引擎机制及调节机制。宏观上,土地股份制改革和分散的管理体系导致了土地利用的粗放扩张和破碎化格局;微观上,不同土地利用主体间的利益博弈、土地收益分配方式及产权割裂是导致土地利用变化的根本原因。未来经济转型与土地再开发过程中,如何针对土地产权变化新趋势,兼顾各利益相关方的诉求,构建利益共享机制是实现土地高效利用和空间优化的关键。     

商丘市构建农村宅基地退出机制探讨

农村宅基地使用制度改革是当前农村土地制度改革的重要内容,是统筹城乡发展、解决保护耕地和保障发展"两难"问题的突破口。商丘市作为河南省农村空闲宅基地退出机制改革试验区,探索构建了一套行之有效的宅基地有偿退出机制。从阐释农村宅基地退出的历史背景、改革方向和驱动因素入手,总结提炼出迁村并点、村企合一、原址改造、整村搬迁和中心社区集聚5种退出模式,并分析退出后的资金保障、补偿标准、产权关系和整理复垦等关键问题,为推进农村宅基地使用制度改革工作提供借鉴和参考。     

Uneven urban metabolisms: toward an integrative (ex)urban political ecology of sustainability in and around the city

ABSTRACT

Expanding cities present a sustainability challenge, as the uneven proliferation of hybrid landscape types becomes a major feature of 21st century urbanization. To fully address this challenge, scholars must consider the broad range of land uses that being produced beyond the urban core and how land use patterns in one location may be tied to patterns in other locations. Diverse threads within political ecology provide useful insights into the dynamics that produce uneven urbanization. Specifically, urban political ecology (UPE) details how economic power influences the development decision-making that proliferate urban forms, patterns of uneven access, and modes of decision-making, frequently viewing resource extraction and development through the urban metabolism lens. The political ecology of exurbia, or, perhaps, an exurban political ecology (ExPE), examines the symbolic role nature and the rural have played in conservation and development efforts that produce social, economic, and environmental conflicts. While UPE approaches tend to privilege macroscale dynamics, ExPE emphasizes the role of landowners, managers, and other actors in struggles over the production of exurban space, including through decision-making institutions and within the context of broader political economic forces. Three case studies illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, demonstrating the benefits for and giving suggestions on how to integrate their insights into urban sustainability research. Integrated political ecology approaches demonstrate how political-economic processes at a variety of scales produce diverse local sustainability responses.     

The battle over the commons in port cities

ABSTRACT

The zone of intersection between land and sea within an urban context has long been viewed as a special type of urban commons. The well-researched port-city interface, however, tells a rather tragic story about the use and management of this valuable resource. This study asks how four major regulatory-institutional issues in the interface – land ownership, activities allowed in port area, planning autonomy, and public access – affect the ability of ports and cities to preserve elements of “commons” in urban coasts? Furthermore, it assesses if and how Elinor Ostrom’s principles for overcoming commons-related tensions, could contribute to the management of port-city conflicts over land-uses in the Mediterranean urban coastline and the various questions that may derive from such an application. For these purposes the study combines a comprehensive literature review with the analysis of planning regulation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews of key-stakeholders in seven port cities across three Mediterranean countries. The common experience in these different cases suggests that through a strategy involving scaling-down spatial decisions or governance, and built-in mechanisms for spatial cooperation, ports and the cities that host them can find a new joint path, which will strengthen local synergies and the quality of urban, public space.     

Rescaling of Access and Property Relations in a Frontier Landscape: Insights from Jambi,Indonesia

The recent expansion of protected areas and oil palm plantations in Jambi (Sumatra), Indonesia, has been notably disruptive. This article investigates the scalar dimensions of land conflicts within a privately managed conservation area. We built on qualitative research focusing on struggles related to the formation of two informal settlements within the conservation area. Results indicate that, especially in the context of rapid rescaling (e.g., decentralization), new power constellations emerge, thereby altering preexisting property relations. We argue that competing scales of meaning and regulation are structuring the ability of actors to access land and, consequently, reflect tensions between structure and agency.     

The Matter of Matter: Making Property in the Holland Marsh

This paper explores how characteristics of biophysical nature—specifically the unique properties of the Organic Order of soil—have shaped the conditions of property in what is currently protected agricultural land, in the Holland Marsh, Ontario. Drawing on political ecology and critical property scholarship, I investigate how “nature” conjoins, complicates, and structures property in the Marsh. I start from the premise, as others have, that “things” matter to the dynamics of property, and add to this by demonstrating that matter matters as well. Property in the Holland Marsh—and elsewhere—is a socionatural arrangement. I develop this argument by highlighting three periods in the history of the Marsh; (1) the preagricultural period, (2) the agricultural intensification period, and (3) the conservationist period. I demonstrate how biophysical conditions codetermine parameters of property in the Marsh and show how the dynamics of property change along with the biophysical character of landscapes.     

Evaluating the Effects of Geographic Contexts on Individual Accessibility: A Multilevel Approach1

Centrality within a city and neighborhood characteristics have often been used as indicators of access to employment and services in statements about urban form and accessibility, but there are reasons to question the appropriateness of doing so. This paper evaluates the importance of geographic context within the urban environment (both location within cities as well as neighborhoods characteristics) for individuals in Portland, Oregon. Because conventional accessibility measures cannot incorporate individual characteristics, space-time individual accessibility measures were used with multilevel modeling to isolate the effects of individual level variations from that of geographical context. The results show that the influence of context on individual accessibility is weak, as accessibility tends to reflect individual and household characteristics rather than the local urban environment. Accessibility cannot be determined from location within cities, or from land uses around an individual's home, implying that the use of urban design to influence accessibility is inappropriate.     

Unravelling property relations around forest carbon

Market‐based interventions to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) enable the carbon stored in land and forests to be traded as a new and intangible form of property. Using examples from Cambodia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, we examine the property negotiations underpinning this new forest carbon economy. We show that the institutions and land use negotiations needed to ‘produce’ forest carbon interact recursively with existing property claims over land and forests. Even where customary rights are formally recognized (PNG, Philippines), claims to forest carbon are still complicated by ambiguities and complexities surrounding rights to forested land. Meanwhile the new value attached to forest carbon can stimulate efforts to appropriate land and forest resources associated with it, creating new power relations and property dynamics. This interplay between forest carbon and underlying contested property claims in rural forest settings creates an unstable basis for forest carbon markets and raises questions about future access to forested land.     

Continuity and change: Spatiotemporal land use dynamics on Bellona Island, Solomon Islands

Traditional agricultural land use systems in the humid tropics of the Southwest Pacific are, as elsewhere, affected by globalization processes. This paper analyzes the directions of change in the land use system of Bellona, a small outer island in the Solomon Islands. We focus on the human–environmental interaction that shapes land use patterns and practices in the context of theoretical lines of thought concerning intensification of agricultural systems in the tropics. Aerial photography from 1966 and satellite imagery from 2006 in conjunction with studies from the 1960s and a contemporary household survey reveal only minor changes in the agricultural system. Land use and land cover dynamics are related to agricultural strategies, demographic factors, institutional actors as well as biophysical drivers or constraints. Local agricultural production still contributes significantly to local subsistence but imported food has also become a major food source. Hence, land use has become partially disconnected from the local population pressure and therefore remains relatively stable while the larger livelihood portfolio has undergone significant diversification. At present, the agricultural system is a supplement to a range of strategies supporting the increasing number of people on the island. This explains why land use patterns continue relatively unchanged while livelihood and food supply strategies have changed.     

Factors Influencing the Development of Rangeland Fire Protection Associations: Exploring Fire Mitigation Programs for Rural,Resource-Based Communities

Increases in wildfire frequency and extent in rangelands pose a growing threat to private property and ecosystem health. The state of Idaho, USA, recently promoted rangeland fire protection associations (RFPAs)—nonprofit organizations of local citizens who contribute to firefighting efforts on public rangelands—as one way to mitigate rangeland wildfire risk. This study used in-depth interviews with RFPA members and land management professionals to explore the local circumstances that influenced the establishment and functioning of one RFPA. Results indicate that intergenerational ties to “working the land,” existing reciprocity among neighbors, a culture of self-reliance, and informal social networks all contributed to RFPA formation and functioning. Interaction between RFPA members and professionals improved their relationships and promoted shared understandings about wildfire response. We conclude by discussing conditions that might enable or inhibit RFPAs in other areas and how our findings advance research on adapting mitigation programs to local context.     

Using GIS and large-scale digital data to implement hedonic pricing studies

This paper describes how a standard GIS package can be used to convert large-scale vector digital data (point, line and annotation features) into polygons using standardised and replicable methods. Building area, garden and land use polygons are all derived from such data (Ordnance Survey LandLine.Plus). These entities are then combined with further sources of digital data to derive more refined information such as property types. Finally, complex DEMs are developed for use in visibility studies. The variables calculated are subsequently employed in a property valuation study where many are found to be significant determinants of property price. The main exception is variables relating to viewsheds, although it is argued that this does not invalidate the techniques used in their deviation but highlights the difficulties involved in modelling a large number of variables in a property price analysis.     

南京地铁对城市公共交通网络通达性的影响及地价增值响应

以南京地铁1、2 号线为例,通过多个指标测度地铁建成前后的交通通达性及其格局变化,探讨不同类型用地对地铁通达性的增值响应模式。研究结果表明：地铁从时间成本、影响范围等方面增益了研究区交通通达性;外围绝对通达性增幅高于中心区,而“半径陷阱”作用使得中心区的相对通达性高于外围,产生“中心膨胀-外围坍缩”的通达性格局变化;地价格局变化与通达性格局变化类似,不同类型用地对地铁的增值响应模式不同,商业用地增值为对数响应模式、住宅用地为指数响应模式、工业用地为线性响应模式;地铁对城市土地升值的贡献占到总量的1/3,其中地铁对商业用地外部性作用大于住宅和工业用地。研究结果可为评估地铁对城市土地利用影响、城市经济外部性以及制订征收差别化的土地房屋税收政策提供依据。     

Land reform and the new elite: Exclusion of the poor from communal land in Namaqualand, South Africa

The reserves and homelands across South Africa share a common history of policy interventions resulting in sedentarization, villagization and formalization of communal land use. In Namaqualand, such interventions culminated in the 1980s with attempts by the state and local vested interests to privatize the commons in the three largest Namaqualand reserves, including Leliefontein. This proposed privatization, although ostensibly aimed at averting land degradation and modernizing agricultural production, was as much about the apartheid state's broader strategy of co-option, and served to further long standing processes of class formation in the coloured communal areas of Namaqualand. In the post-apartheid period land reform has expanded the communal land-base in Namaqualand by over 25%. In spite of this, the management of the new commons in Leliefontein has many of the characteristics of land management policies imposed during apartheid. As a result, the new commons have effectively been arrogated by the same category of people who would have benefited under past privatization initiatives.This paper examines how the interests of a local elite have gained exclusive access to the new commonage farms. This has come about despite the government's commonage policy which privileges access by poorer, disadvantaged communal farmers. This case study uncovers the dynamic complexity of community driven land reform especially in relation to the roles of rural elites and their relationship to government institutions.