Development,Land-use Change and Rural Resettlement Capacity: a case study of the Three Gorges Project,China

Resettlement of people displaced by dam projects is an important development issue. Land lost due to the Three Gorges reservoir inundation and the adjustment of land-use policy in China resulted in land-use changes, and impacted on the human carrying capacity of the land and the land availability for resettlement. The Chinese government has implemented a ‘development-oriented resettlement’ policy and a ‘near resettlement’ approach to relocating rural dwellers affected by the Three Gorges Project (TGP). Based on recent land-use survey and population data of the case study area and using GIS-based multi-criteria analysis in land-use planning, this study analyses the characteristics and changes of land use in both the inundation and resettlement areas. Undeveloped land is scarce in both areas. The non-flooded cultivated land is distributed mainly on steep slopes (over 25 degrees). There is a discrepancy between the amount of land required by those being resettled and what is available in the designated resettlement communities. This study suggests that resettlement should consider the human carrying capacity of the land and, from a community standpoint, sheds light on the interplay between land-use planning and resettlement, and provides constructive suggestions for TGP resettlement strategies.     

Policy narratives, landholder engagement, and oil palm expansion on the Malaysian and Indonesian frontiers

Over recent decades a structural transformation has affected agriculture in the frontier areas of Malaysian Borneo and Outer Island Indonesia with the rapid conversion of agricultural lands, fallows, and formerly forested areas into oil palm. These frontiers have similar positions in the international political economy of oil palm and have complementary resource endowments. In both cases, state planners face the common challenges of finding a disciplined labour force, delivering land for estate development, maintaining local legitimacy, and dealing with local contestation. Yet there are significant differences in systems of governance and policy frameworks regarding land, shifting capacity of state actors to facilitate the transformation of these agrarian frontiers, and changing degrees of local, national and international contestation. Considering the generic and the specific elements at play in each case, this paper argues that analogous policy narratives have shaped the ways in which landholders have been engaged in the process of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. In both cases, with the shift from state-led to neoliberal governance approaches to agricultural development, the 'frontier' has been created and transformed through policy narratives that facilitate the conversion of whole landscapes into oil palm. This has been achieved by obscuring indigenous forms of agriculture and land tenure, while creating reserves of available 'state' or 'idle' customary land, and counterpoising smallholder 'marginality' and 'backwardness' to the modernity of contemporary estate agriculture.     

Property and Difference in Nature Conservation

Social science research on nature conservation ascribes enclosures and the consequent evictions and dispossession of local people to unequal power relations. It reveals that the monopoly of power by the state configures new relations between local people and their natural resources, and legitimizes land grabbing. In this paper we build on this literature by engaging two questions. The first question relates to how land tenure regimes enable green grabbing and also configure the participation of local people in nature conservation enterprises. Knowing how land tenure regimes structure the involvement of local people in nature conservation is a necessary step toward an inquiry into the relationship between local people and protected areas. In the second question we ask how historical land tenure allocations enable current configurations of power relations in conservation areas. We use the case study of Mapungubwe on the Botswana‐South Africa‐Zimbabwe borderlands to demonstrate that historical land tenure allocations facilitate land alienation and the marginalization of local people in TFCAs.     

Perceptions of Climate Vulnerability,Tenure Security and Resettlement Priorities: insights from Lami Town,Fiji Islands

The future impact of climate change will be a considerable challenge for all countries, and in particular Small Island Developing States. Challenges related to climate vulnerability and tenure security are exacerbated in areas of rapid urbanisation and urban growth, with highly vulnerable informal settlements a common result. Drawing on research into vulnerable informal settlements in the Greater Suva Urban Area in Fiji, this research seeks to better understand perceptions of climate vulnerability, adaptive capacity, tenure security and options for resettlement. This research confirmed that there are important linkages at the settlement level between tenure security, perception of vulnerability, and people’s ability to adapt. Two critical factors in any decision to resettle people are (i) providing tenure security for all people affected, and (ii) considering livelihood impacts as a result of resettlement. We conclude that vulnerability, tenure security and resettlement decisions are complex issues and specific to individual settlements, and to specific households within settlements.     

‘The law is not for the poor’: Land,law and eviction in Luanda

This article investigates how an existing two‐tiered land tenure system creates a hybrid space that blurs, and essentially questions and problematizes the boundaries of the formal/informal divide as presented within Angolan political and legal discourses. It showcases how urban formality and informality exist alongside each other in Luanda and how people take recourse to both formal and informal channels in attempts to secure housing, land tenure and livelihoods in the city. Through case studies, the article describes how small‐scale farmers in Luanda's northern municipality of Cacuaco lost their lands to urban development in 2009–10 and the ensuing circumstances in which formal rights and informal land tenure became intermeshed and ambiguous. As the case studies illustrate, a gap exists between the legal code and practice on the ground. This gap is represented in how Angola's postconflict land strategy, with its forced evictions and demolitions of houses and neighbourhoods, often with little or no compensation, is at odds with the Angolan Land Law, which states that land may only be expropriated by the state or local authorities for specific public use and must be justly compensated.     

宁夏生态移民无土安置区风险评估研究

生态移民无土安置是指安置地不再为迁入的移民提供耕地,而是直接在城镇为其安排住房,将移民安插到企业务工或为移民提供就业平台,努力使移民通过在企业务工或自谋职业来满足其家庭生计。针对无土安置区资源、环境、经济、社会4个子系统在地理时空上的交织耦合结果,依据各个安置区区位、自然环境、经济发展水平、资源禀赋特色等关键性要素,在宁夏40个无土安置区中判别出6个"安置特征区",运用AHP模型对其进行风险评估,得出了安置区风险因子的风险程度及排序,为生态移民建设及无土安置区风险防范工作提供重要参考。     

Land tenure and forest cover change. The case of southwestern Beni,Bolivian Amazon, 1986–2009

As land use change continues to increase throughout the Amazon basin, there is a pressing need to accurately map, quantify and assess the effects of different factors on forest cover change (FCC). Land tenure may sometimes have important effects on forest cover, yet such effects remain poorly understood in Amazonia, particularly outside Brazil. In this paper we assess whether significant differences in trends of FCC can be partially explained by different land tenure arrangements, using a case study in southwestern Beni (Bolivian Amazon). We examine spatio-temporal dynamics of FCC across four land tenure systems (indigenous titled territory, protected area, logging concession, and private land) by classifying forests using a time-series of Landsat satellite imagery consisting of four dates (1986, 1996, 2001, 2009). Specifically, we unravel (1) trends in early growth and old-growth forest extent, including changes in total cover area, annual change rates, and spatial change dynamics, and (2) trends in old-growth forest fragmentation. To better understand the association between land tenure and FCC, we qualitatively assess the potential role that other underlying and proximate drivers may have had in FCC over the study period. We found that private lands underwent, by far, the largest FCC, that indigenous territories and the protected area had little FCC, and that logging concessions were responsible for the lowest FCC. Our findings suggest that land tenure played a key role in FCC except in private areas, where many other drivers had operated. Our study sheds light into the potential role of land tenure in FCC and has important implications for public policies aimed at socioeconomic development and environmental conservation in the Amazon. We give some policy recommendations drawn from a biocultural conservation perspective that could contribute to implement more inclusive conservation policies in the region.     

Comparative Study on Collective Forest Tenure Reform and Water Rights System Reform in China

Collective forest tenure reform and water rights system reform are two types of resource system reform initiated by the Chinese government since the implementation of the reform and opening policy of the 1980s. Forest tenure reform has been completed and water rights system reform is ongoing. This study analyzes key points and problems with collective forest tenure reform and summarizes four typical successful reform measures and lessons that will have implications for the developing water rights system: the collective forest-cutting quota system, collective forest tenure compensation, collective forest tenure confirmation, and collective forest tenure trading center. A flexible water permission index, compensation measures in water rights trade, water rights approval, and various forms of water rights trading platforms are proposed as reform measures. This study fills a gap in comparative studies between two important resource system reforms in China and provides a reference for further reform and development of water rights systems locally and abroad.     

政策影响下上海市工业用地扩张与效益研究

2003 年以后,国家及上海市委、市政府相继出台一些遏制工业用地的粗放扩张政策,那么其控制成效如何,工业郊区化只是工业转移还是带来更好用地效益。针对这些问题,采用GIS空间分析、统计分析和边际效益建模等方法,探讨政策调控对上海市工业用地扩张的作用效果和对工业用地效益的影响,并提出相关政策建议。研究结果表明：上海市郊区工业用地扩张明显,空间上趋于分散,工业用地效益有所提升,但相比国外发达地区,仍存在较大差距;工业向园区集中的政策驱动效果明显,工业郊区化转移并未给中心城区工业带来衰败迹象,郊区工业也并未体现出相应实力,控制工业用地扩张政策效果不佳;工业用地边际效益分析发现,边际效益呈递减趋势,工业经济增长仍主要依赖于工业用地的增加,粗放型增长未得到有效改善。     

Perceptions of Land Tenure Security in Rural China: The Impact of Land Reallocations and Certification

Abstract

Tenure security is commonly recognized as an important factor in stimulating long-term investments in land. Recent studies suggest that a distinction between legal, actual and perceived tenure security needs to be made in analyzing tenure security. This study discusses the relationships between legal, actual and perceived land tenure security in rural China, and empirically examines the impact of actual on perceived land tenure security by applying Probit models to household and village survey data collected in four provinces. Using household expectations about the absence of land reallocations within the next five years as the dependent variable, we find that tenure security is positively affected by the possession of land certificates in villages that periodically reallocated land but not in villages that did not do so. The estimated impact is larger for land certificates issued in the new round of land certification than for land certificates that were issued earlier.     

Environmental Resources, Population and Sustainability: Evidence From Zimbabwe

This paper examines four issues central to the relationships between environmental resources, population and sustainability in Zimbabwe. First, the conceptualisation of population-resource interrelationships and sustainability. Second, the legal basis of land use practices and origins of land use conflict within and between Zimbabwe's main population groups. Third, the demographic threats to sustainable resource development and the impact of the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) on rural and urban communities. Fourth, the dynamics of population change and environmental resource use constraints including resettlement and land redistribution or reform programmes. It is concluded that the relationships between environmental degradation and population pressure are complex. Sustainable environmental resource use to supply basic livelihoods can be achieved if appropriate technical expertise or backup is provided to the population. Developing and implementing sustainable resource development strategies in Zimbabwe requires attention to socio-economic and political challenges.     

Evaluation of eco-economic effects in relation to resettlement policy in Shulehe River Basin

In the Shulehe River Basin, policy of resettlement was very effective in handling agricultural development and livelihood problems in regions of poverty limited by topography, climate, or infrastructure. Thus, since 1996–1997, the Shulehe River Basin resettlement project transferred roughly 7.5×104 people from areas of Dingxi, Longxi or Minxian which could not offer sufficient resources for the residents. Meanwhile, construction facilities such as the reservoir, which underpins the resettlement project, also triggered an internal migration of people away from the reservoir to other parts of the Shulehe River Basin. This large scale migration derived apparent effects in water resources, land use and cover change, agricultural structure as well as landscapes. Results show that total arable land expanded by 3.1×108 m2, cattle numbers maintained a stable level of 1×104, pigs declined to a low level due to market trends, and sheep numbers soared from 17.44×104 to 73.57×104. However, greening and afforestation increased while croplands maintained a rational tendency accompanying with greening area expansion. From the standpoint of integration, the Shulehe River Basin resettlement policy fulfilled its previous goals of improving the inhabitants' livelihood and the capacity of environment when spatial residues including environmental capacity and resources consumption for sustainable development are still positive conditions.     

Land reform in Namaqualand, 1994–2005: A review

With the transition to democracy in 1994, South Africa was faced with an enormous challenge in redressing the highly unequal and racialized pattern of land rights inherited from the colonial and apartheid past. In Namaqualand, a history of land dispossession and racial segregation presented the new government with a complex set of problems, which led to a series of distinct policy responses within the context of the wider national land reform programme. Land reform in Namaqualand aims to impact positively on local people's access to land, improve livelihood opportunities and develop the local economy. Unique features of the land reform process in Namaqualand include the reform of tenure in the former Coloured Rural Areas, the prominent role played by local municipalities and the heavy reliance on municipal commonage as a form of landholding. This study provides and overview of the process of land reform in Namaqualand since 1994, considering the three elements of tenure reform, land redistribution and restitution of historical land rights. It concludes that, while considerable progress has been made in provision of additional land to historically disadvantaged communities, obstacles remain in the area of post-transfer support to new and emerging farmers.     

Working Together for Resource-based Recreation and Tourism, Sustainable Management and Biodiversity

There are opportunities for more effectively integrating resource‐based recreation and tourism with goals for primary production and nature conservation across a range of landscapes and land tenure types. ‘Naturalness’ sought for recreation and tourism, like biodiversity, is not confined to the conservation estate, and the ‘recreation estate’ extends into private land. Although it may be argued that ongoing privatisation of land ownership reduces public opportunities for recreation, diversity in ownership, at least at the regional level, enhances the overall spectrum of recreational opportunities. Diversification into recreation and tourism on private land may also help protect biodiversity through such processes as ‘sympathetic management’, as well as by making production land‐use systems more economically robust.     

面向空间开发利用的土地资源承载力评价技术

开展区域土地资源承载力评价技术研究,对区域经济社会的可持续发展以及党中央提出的“五位一体”发展思路顺利实现具有重要意义。本文从空间开发利用角度出发,综合考虑对土地开发建设影响显著的因子,运用分步式算法测算适宜建设用地规模及分布,确定土地合理开发强度及分布区域,通过分析现状开发状态与合理开发状态之间的差异评价区域承载状况。并以京津冀地区为例开展案例研究,结果表明：现状开发状态与合理开发状态之间的关系能够有效地反映土地资源承载开发利用的状态;同时以承载建设开发行为为明确承载对象,有显著的政策指向,为精细化、差异化制定空间格局优化调控政策提供了可能。本文从面向国土空间开发利用优化应用出发提出的承载力评价路径,可为中国制定和完善承载力评价相关技术规范提供一些新思路。     

地方政府竞争对城市土地利用效率影响分析

利用面板随机前沿分析法研究了2009-2015年期间地方政府竞争对中国城市土地利用效率的影响,为规范地方政府的竞争行为并提高中国城市土地利用效率提供政策参考.研究结果表明:地方政府基础设施竞争对中国城市土地技术效率的提高具有促进作用,但效果并不显著,而地方政府财政收支竞争、土地优惠政策竞争及外商直接投资竞争都不利于城市土地利用效率的提高.进一步测算各地区土地利用的技术效率发现,地方政府竞争影响下中国东、中、西部城市土地利用个体技术效率均出现明显下降.因此,应进一步完善城市土地利用中的地方政府竞争关系,改革地方政府官员考核机制,为城市土地集约利用提供良好政策环境.     

Conservation-induced resettlement as a driver of land cover change in India: An object-based trend analysis

Located in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya, Rajaji National Park was established to protect and enhance the habitat of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and tiger (Panthera tigris). In 2002 the Van Gujjars, indigenous forest pastoralists, were voluntarily resettled from the Chilla Range (an administrative unit of Rajaji National Park) to Gaindikhata, a nearby area where they were granted land for agriculture. In this study we used a variety of remote sensing approaches to identify changes in land cover associated with the resettlement. The methods comprise two main approaches. First, we used object-based image analysis (OBIA) to identify the pre-resettlement land cover classes of use areas (representing agricultural expansion and adjacent areas of grazing, and collection of fuelwood and fodder) and recovery areas (representing areas where settlements were removed, and the adjacent areas of resource use). Secondly, we used trend analysis to assess the gradual and abrupt changes in vegetation that took place in use and recovery areas. To conduct the trend analysis we used BFAST (Breaks For Additive Season and Trend), which separates seasonal variation from long-term trends, and identifies breaks that can be linked back to disturbances or land cover changes. We found that the OBIA classification yielded high average class accuracies, and we were able to make class distinctions that would have been difficult to make using a traditional pixel-based approach. Pre-resettlement, the recovery areas were classified as mixed forest and riparian vegetation. In contrast, the use areas were classified primarily as grass dominated, brush dominated, and plantation forest, and were located relatively far away from riparian areas. Following the resettlement, the trend analysis showed a sudden change in the seasonal variation of NDVI in areas converted to agriculture. Areas neighboring the new agricultural land experienced sudden decreases in NDVI, suggestive of disturbances, at a higher rate than the same land cover types elsewhere. At the same time, these neighboring areas experienced a gradual overall increase in NDVI which could be caused by an expansion of leafy invasive shrubs such as Lantana camara in areas heavily used for biomass collection. The recovery areas also experienced a gradual increase in NDVI as well as sudden breaks to this trend, but we lacked evidence to connect these changes to the resettlement. Our findings support the claim that the resettlement has shifted pressure from more ecologically valuable to less ecologically valuable land cover types, and suggest that to some degree resource use pressure has increased outside the park. The study employs a novel synthesis of OBIA and trend analysis that could be applied to land change studies more broadly.     

The geography of large-scale land acquisitions: Analysing socio-ecological patterns of target contexts in the global South

This paper analyses local geographical contexts targeted by transnational large-scale land acquisitions (>200 ha per deal) in order to understand how emerging patterns of socio-ecological characteristics can be related to processes of large-scale foreign investment in land. Using a sample of 139 land deals georeferenced with high spatial accuracy, we first analyse their target contexts in terms of land cover, population density, accessibility, and indicators for agricultural potential. Three distinct patterns emerge from the analysis: densely populated and easily accessible croplands (35% of land deals); remote forestlands with lower population densities (34% of land deals); and moderately populated and moderately accessible shrub- or grasslands (26% of land deals). These patterns are consistent with processes described in the relevant case study literature, and they each involve distinct types of stakeholders and associated competition over land. We then repeat the often-cited analysis that postulates a link between land investments and target countries with abundant so-called “idle” or “marginal” lands as measured by yield gap and available suitable but uncultivated land; our methods differ from the earlier approach, however, in that we examine local context (10-km radius) rather than countries as a whole. The results show that earlier findings are disputable in terms of concepts, methods, and contents. Further, we reflect on methodologies for exploring linkages between socio-ecological patterns and land investment processes. Improving and enhancing large datasets of georeferenced land deals is an important next step; at the same time, careful choice of the spatial scale of analysis is crucial for ensuring compatibility between the spatial accuracy of land deal locations and the resolution of available geospatial data layers. Finally, we argue that new approaches and methods must be developed to empirically link socio-ecological patterns in target contexts to key determinants of land investment processes. This would help to improve the validity and the reach of our findings as an input for evidence-informed policy debates.     

Forest cover change and land tenure change in Mexico’s avocado region: Is community forestry related to reduced deforestation for high value crops?

Forest cover change in highland pine-oak forests of Michoacan, Mexico is due to a process of conversion of natural forests to avocado orchards. Privately-owned avocado orchards are found on land that was common forest before the 1992 Reform of the Mexican Constitution. We ask how forest cover change was facilitated by policy changes that affected land tenure rules and existing community forestry programs. We use a comparative case study of four communities, an analysis of forest cover change, and interviews and household surveys. Results show that 33.1% of forest cover was lost over a 16-year-period across the region. However, two forestry case study communities lost 7.2% and 15.1% of forest cover, while two adjacent non-forestry communities lost 86.5% and 92.4%, respectively. Interview data show that the Reform of Article 27 combined with the 1992 Forestry Law led to collapse of local governance, illegal division of common forests, and illegal logging in the two non-forestry communities.     

珠三角地区耕地多功能空间差异与影响因素分析

在借鉴文献的基础上,结合珠三角地区实际情况,构建耕地多功能评价指标体系,运用加权求和评分法计算得出耕地各类功能指数。结果表明:2005—2013年珠三角各城市耕地总功能整体表现稳定,空间差异表现为中心城市的功能等级较低,外围城市的功能等级较高,耕地资源禀赋和经济发展水平是影响耕地总功能的最主要因素;耕地的各项子功能整体表现较为稳定,体现出较为明显的空间差异;耕地资源禀赋、经济发展水平、人口及城市化水平、要素投入水平和政策因素等是影响各项子功能的主要因素。