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Natural Resources Forum 31 (2007) 238–240

1 Viewpoints
Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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4 The Natural Resources Forum is running a special series related to the themes for the United Nations Commission on
5 Sustainable Development in its 2008/2009 cycle. The Viewpoints in this issue will focus on Land Tenure, which relates

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6 to one of these themes — Land.
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Experts address the question:
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How important is security of land tenure for achieving sustainable development goals?
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13 Land plays a significant social, religious, and economic self-sufficiency, and to safeguard their traditional means
14 role amongst the people in Africa. As an economic of subsistence for the economic, cultural and political
15 resource, land is vital to poverty reduction and the development of future generations.
16 establishment of sustainable livelihood systems. Lack of Security of land tenure is indispensable for indigenous
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access to land and other resources associated with it is seen
as the major cause of entrenched rural poverty.
Land tenure security is essential for intensifying agri-
peoples to exercise their knowledge of sustainable environ-
mental use. Moreover, maintaining and protecting the
environment is the essence of indigenous peoples’ lives;
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20 cultural production, improving natural resource management understanding and respect for the land enriches their social
21 and enabling sustainable development. Rural people need and spiritual well being. For these reasons, security of land
22 both secure individual rights to land and secure collective tenure is vital both for the protection of the environment
23 rights to common pool resources to be able to improve their and for indigenous peoples’ survival.
24 livelihood. Land tenure systems that impose unequal access As a final point, many conflicts in developing countries
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25 to and control of resources contribute to degradation. relate to land and access to natural resources. A clear legal
26 Insecure land tenure and dysfunctional land institutions framework providing recognition of indigenous peoples’
27 discourage private investment and overall economic growth. rights to land would assist with conflict resolution.
28 Farmers will not make long-term land improvement if their
29 tenure is insecure. Moreover, skewed land ownership Estebancio Castro Diaz
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30 distribution and discrimination according to gender or Kuna from Kuna Yala, Panama
31 ethnicity limit economic opportunities for disadvantaged International Indian Treaty Council
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groups and provide fertile conditions for social conflicts. Panama

33 Facilitating equitable access to and security of tenure is
34 therefore crucial to ensuring economic survival, reducing
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35 land-related conflicts and placing communities on a steady While most people agree secure access to land, particularly
36 course towards the achievement of sustainable development. for poor people, women and indigenous people, is necessary
37 to make investments toward sustainable development, there
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38 Dr. Kadir Osman Gyasi is not enough discussion about what kind of tenure. This is
39 Research Scientist crucial for determining the sustainability of the outcome.
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CSIR — Savanna Agricultural Research Institute Institutions like the World Bank are promoting
41 Ghana individual, alienable titles as the minimum requirement to
42 make investment in land improvements and production.
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43 Those who defend the rights of women and indigenous

44 Security of land tenure is the basis for indigenous peoples people within this dominant paradigm call for women to
45 to be able to pursue their own development. It would allow be on these titles, and for titling to extend to indigenous
46 them to exercise their fundamental rights to practice their territories. Yet case studies from around the world reveal
47 religious beliefs, tend to their physical and spiritual health, that under current anti-peasant and anti-poor policies,
48 as well as realize their economic, cultural and political alienable titles are the first step toward indebtedness and
49 development. It would allow them to live according to their land loss (see Rosset et al., 2006, for examples). They also
50 own vision which would bring about food security and promote land fragmentation through inheritance.
© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 United Nations.
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA.
 Viewpoints / Natural Resources Forum 31 (2007) 238–240 239

1 The alternative is the recognition of communal rights of sustainable development. Freehold titles can enhance
2 access, with equal rights for women under community farmers’ ability to buy more land and cultivate larger plots
3 management arrangements. In this way, land cannot be lost using modern technology and machinery leading to better
4 through debt, and the right of indigenous peoples to productivity, more income and better access to credit with
5 territory, not just land, is guaranteed. Under communal lower interest rates. Many financial institutions recognize a
6 arrangements young people can be assigned land other than title as security for loans. Insecure land tenure forces the
7 that of their parents, avoiding fragmentation, and migration owner to access credit through other means that, in most cases,
8 can be better managed. carry high interest rates. This limits access to support
9 services for full land utilization and curtails efforts towards

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10 María Elena Martínez-Torres sustainable development and agricultural productivity. There-
11 Professor, Center for Research and Graduate fore, security of land tenure could lead to better credit for

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12 Education on Social Anthropology (CIESAS-Sureste), farmers; enable economic and social empowerment as well
13 Chiapas, Mexico as poverty eradication; and enable efficient and ecologically
14 and sound utilization of land to achieve sustainable development

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15 Peter M. Rosset goals. In this sense, security of land tenure is indispensable
16 Researcher, Center for the Study of Rural Change for achieving sustainable development goals.

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17 (CECCAM), Chiapas, Mexico
18 Komen Kibii
19 Research Assistant
20 Reference University of Pretoria
21 South Africa
22 Rosset, Peter, Raj Patel and Michael Courville (eds). 2006. Promised Land:
Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform. Oakland: Food First Books.
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25 D Among Caribbean SIDS, the psychological and economic
security of land tenure is fundamental to achieving sustainable
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26 Policy that provides for more secure land tenure in the development goals. SIDS are characterized by limited land
27 developing world should be seen as critical to securing masses, fragile tropical ecosystems, endemism, and rich
28 productive assets for the poor. Numerous studies have shown biodiversity, and are challenged by a rapidly expanding
29 that the strengthening and clarification of tenure may better youthful population that has exponentially increasing basic
30 enable escape from the poverty trap. However, in the context needs and aspirations. The physical attributes and demographic
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31 of sustainable development, two caveats should be borne trends make land tenure and natural resources management
32 in mind. First, governments have often been reluctant to complex components of sustainable development.
33 allow for a more complete devolution of responsibilities Empirical evidence on Caribbean SIDS, which have all
34 over land and natural resource management to the local adopted the Western model of land tenure based on
35 level. Second, even where property rights systems have been individual freehold ownership and land leasing, with the
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36 properly devolved and enforced by the state, it is not clear exception of Cuba, confirms that landlessness is a major
37 that local land-use behaviour will help achieve sustainable problem. The landless poor have focused on the short term,
development goals. It is likely that local landowners acting
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38 exploiting agricultural lands, forests and coastal ecosystems,

39 in their own interests will seek to maximize land productivity which causes long-term environmental damage, high
40 thus potentially creating non-local environmental externalities. economic costs of rehabilitation and loss of livelihoods.
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41 In the absence of external incentives for local landowners The landless are victims and agents of environmental
42 to provide global public goods, security of land tenure may degradation. Insecure land tenure among Caribbean SIDS
43 actually lead to environmental degradation. This suggests is best illustrated in the common practices of residential
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44 that policies to secure land tenure should be undertaken squatting, and slash and burn cultivation on hillsides.
45 hand-in-hand with policies to provide incentives to landowners The consequences of those practices are deforestation,
for the sustainable use of natural resources, e.g. Payments
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46 with its attendant impacts of habitat loss, reduction of

47 for Environmental Services (PES). water resources, soil erosion, landslides, flooding and coral
48 reef bleaching, all of which undermine the potential for
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49 Dr. Charles Palmer achieving sustainable development goals.

50 Research Fellow, Institute for Environmental Decisions
51 ETH Zurich, Switzerland Dr. Michelle Mycoo
52 Lecturer
53 Security of land tenure can settle the landless, act as a Planning and Development Programme
54 livelihood asset (to improve communities’ living standards) Department of Surveying and Land Information
55 and meet the goal of food security. Land tenure security University of the West Indies
56 can be seen as part of a poverty reduction strategy for St. Augustine, Trinidad
© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 United Nations.
 240 VIewpoints / Natural Resources Forum 31 (2007) 238–240

1 Security of land tenure provides an incentive for medium-
2 and long-term economic and social investment towards
3 the achievement of sustainable development goals. The
4 investment usually materializes in concrete actions towards
5 conservation of natural resources (e.g. water and soil
6 management, erosion control, reforestation), which in turn
7 manifests in concrete improvements in the livelihood of the
8 communities engaged (e.g. health, education, and transport
9 and communication facilities). It is also an incentive for
at best risky, this continued shift towards individual
property has its costs.
Today, despite having individualized their land, some
Maasai are making attempts to reaggregate their plots and
to rebuild to a scale (somewhere above an individual parcel?)
that may enable them to better manage environmental and
livelihood risks. While property rights are fundamental for
sustainable livelihoods and environment, the ‘right’ form
of property arrangement is crucial.

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10 the diversification of economic activities, moving from
11 intensive agricultural and livestock practices towards Esther Mwangi

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12 sustainable initiatives as eco-tourism or community-based Giorgio Rufallo Sustainability Science Fellow
13 schemes. An example of this change in attitudes and and Environment Fellow
14 practices through security of land tenure can be found in Kennedy School of Government and

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15 Laikipia, Central Kenya. Laws and regulations on land Center for Environment
16 tenure through group ranches have led the Maasai and the Harvard University

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17 Samburu to invest in conservation projects such as the Boston, MA, USA
18 Naibunga Conservancy Trust, where nine communities have
19 come together to set aside 43,000 acres of their land for
20 conservation, thus, embodying the direct correlation between Land tenure is crucial to sustainable development because
21 security of land tenure and sustainable development goals. it provides the resource access needed to sustain livelihoods.
22 In Latin-America, land tenure has largely proven to
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25 D Dr. Talia Vela de Eiden
Consultant, The Horn of Africa Pastoralist
Communication Initiative (PCI)
facilitate a subsistence economy. In recent decades,
international trade relations encouraged by increasing
globalization have gradually pushed farmers out of their
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26 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia lands. Furthermore, foreign direct investment has led to
27 privatization of formerly community-managed lands at the
28 expense of the poor.
29 Forcing farmers to leave their lands endangers livelihoods,
30 One would not plant a tree, build soil conservation especially in countries where almost 70% of what is
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31 structures, re-seed a rangeland, eradicate an invasive produced is consumed locally, such as Peru and Bolivia.
32 species or protect a forest without expecting some return The rights of people to land and natural resources are
33 from that investment. Many property theorists and natural overridden in the name of a greater common benefit:
34 resource practitioners would argue that clear and secure economic growth. Nevertheless, the final consequence is
35 property rights systems are a strong basis for the activities peasants ending up co-opted by a system that is supposed
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36 described in the previous sentence; activities that are to empower them.

37 beneficial both to people and the environment. This top-down approach development model is resisted
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38 An enduring puzzle for researchers and policy makers in many places across the globe. The Brazilian peasant
39 relates to the social and ecological conditions under which organizations “Landless Movement” and La Vía Campesina
40 a form or type of property arrangement can foster advocate for the “recovery” of unoccupied land which,
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41 environment and livelihoods sustainability. A large number according to the Brazilian Constitution, should be used for
42 of ‘experiments’ have been conducted over the years. a “larger social function”, demanding an agrarian reform
43 Maasai communities in Kenya, for example, have borne the that distributes land as well as resources, to allow
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44 brunt of these experiments. Property systems there have sustainable production through the continuity of sub-
45 been in flux for close to 100 years — moving from an open sistence and local economies.
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46 rangeland under broad community control, through

47 restricted corporate control in the form of titled group Lya Mainé Astonitas
48 ranches, down to individual control of titled parcels. In a Member, Think Tank 30 of the Club of Rome
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49 rangeland environment where environmental conditions are Lima, Peru

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© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 United Nations.
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