Analysis of the Technical Efficiency of the Programme of Modernisation of the Land Tenure Services in a Developing Country

ABSTRACT

This paper measures the technical efficiency of land tenure services in Cameroon. From the method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we decompose the efficiency of the land tenure administration into pure technical efficiency and technical efficiency of scale. The data used is for a period of 8 years and it is from MINDLT and CAHF (2018). We obtain the following results: i) - the land tenure administration of Cameroon is suboptimal. ii) - the inefficiency observed is mostly due to inefficiency of scale. The results suggest that the rational management of human resources intervenes in habilitation procedures, the reinforcement of human capacities and the introduction of innovating technologies in the registration of land certificates.     

Challenges and methodological flaws in reporting the global land rush: observations from Tanzania

Since international awareness of a global rush for land has grown from 2008 onward, various databases and reports have attempted to provide an overview of the situation by compiling information on individual land deals. While providing such an overview is challenging owing to the dynamic and untransparent nature of the investments, flawed methods of using and citing data are aggravating that challenge and allowing dissemination of inaccurate information. The consequences are an unnecessarily blurred picture of the land deal situation and thus an inadequate basis for related political decisions or social actions and a misleading starting point for new research projects. In this article we demonstrate some of the flaws in the use of data and their consequences, with examples from fieldwork and literature on Tanzania. The paper illustrates and contributes to the evolving debate on appropriate research methodologies for studying the global land rush.     

Land,development and contract farming on the Guatemalan oil palm frontier

Integration of smallholder agriculture into oil palm production schemes has been advocated as a strategy for rural poverty reduction in the global South, including Guatemala, where the crop had been promoted through a contentious government programme. This study, set in Guatemala’s northern lowlands, challenges the official narrative that smallholder oil palm cultivation catalyses rural development and deters peasant land sales. Results indicate that oil palm expansion is accelerating land sales and provides minimal benefits, namely non-inclusive and precarious jobs. The host community is becoming increasingly susceptible to global market volatility, as oil palm puts pressure on subsistence farming and eliminates other livelihood options.     

Weaponization of the Land and Property Rights system in the Syrian civil war: facilitating restitution?

The Syrian civil war has seen the weaponization of its land and property rights system by the primary combatant groups in the country. The government is the most robust in its use of the tenure system to locate, target, destroy, confiscate, cleanse and gain revenue by way of the institutions and attributes comprising the system. Based on fieldwork with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, this article describes seven ways the Syrian government is currently using the land and property rights system in its military-on-civilian engagements. While the objective of such use is presumably to permanently prevail over opposition civilian constituencies, the article describes how this actually creates evidence usable for effective restitution of lands and properties subsequent to the war.     

地利分配秩序中的农民维权及政府回应研究——以珠三角地区征地农民上访为例

进入新世纪以来,珠三角地区因征地历史遗留问题而导致的农民集体维权事件处于高发态势。尽管不少征地案件存在程序不规范等问题,但支撑农民的集体维权行动的根本动力,实际上是他们对地权增值的再分配主张。在维权过程中,农民以宗族为动员基础,以重新分配地利为主要目标,并采取了“挟”“闹”“诉”和“谋”等行动策略。地方政府则采用了“开口子”“给票子”“定调子”和“补漏子”等回应性治理策略。农民和村集体与地方政府之间的矛盾原本属于利益博弈的问题,但是农民通过维权方式将利益博弈问题转化为民生问题和权利话语。村庄微观政治通过信访渠道进入宏观政治领域。     

Community forest concessionaires: resisting green grabs and producing political subjects in Guatemala

In 2005, Guatemalan community forest concessionaires achieved a remarkable legislative victory that reversed a green land grab in the Maya Biosphere. The fight over this space, the Mirador Basin, provides valuable contributions to analyses of global land grabs, grassroots politics and power relations underpinning environmental governance. First, the fight for the Mirador Basin illustrates how green land grabs create new natures, rather than simply enclosing existing green spaces. Second, it contributes to recent scholarship detailing land-grabbing practices of resistance, acquiescence and incorporation ‘from below’ by describing how Maya Biosphere community forest concessionaires were able to reverse a green grab. Lastly, I argue this successful reversal largely rests on the articulation and mobilization of a new rights-bearing subject – the forest concessionaire. Struggles for land in the Maya Biosphere illustrate that practices and relations of green governance do not always create disciplined, neo-liberal, green subjects. Rather, community forestry has provided a political platform turning reserve residents into influential actors participating in the re-territorialization of power in contemporary Guatemala.     

征地群体性事件应急管理探讨——以广州市S镇为例

征地过程中,由于征地补偿制度不健全、征收过程不规范、农民安置不合理等诸多因素,农民利益遭受侵害。而与此相伴产生的土地纠纷问题,已成为社会矛盾的一个焦点。本文以广州市H区S镇农村征地群体性事件应急管理作为研究对象,在问卷调查和深度访谈的基础上,分析了S镇征地群体性事件应急管理的现状及存在的问题,提出了改善S镇基层政府征地群体性事件应急管理的对策建议。     

大都市区的土地整治应以“三化”同步为导向——以上海市为例

上海市土地整治通过建设设施良田和实施菜田、村庄改造,建立涉地信息综合监管服务平台等,实现了合理配置和利用农用地资源、大幅提高土地资源利用效率、多渠道增加农民收入,在助推工业化、城市化、农业现代化三化同步健康发展方面发挥了很重要的作用。该文对上海市土地整治取得的成就进行了归纳总结,并提出了相应的对策与建议。     

中国资源枯竭型城市土地复垦研究

资源枯竭型城市在产业转型的同时也面临着空间转型和生态恢复的艰巨任务,土地复垦是统筹生产建设活动和土地资源保护的最有效途径之一。该文详细介绍了当前废弃工矿土地复垦的现状,并阐述了当前资源枯竭型城市土地复垦存在的主要问题,解读了全国土地整治规划中土地复垦的布局重点,最后提出了资源枯竭型城市土地复垦的相关对策。     

促进农地经营权流转的财税政策探讨——基于新制度经济学视角

我国农地经营权流转规模不断扩大,但总体水平较低。基于流转制度的变迁及流转动因进行新制度经济学分析,可以明确从降低流转中的交易成本和提高流转后的预期收益角度去探索政府财税政策的制定和实施是比较合理的思路。因而应尽快完善农村社会保障体系,削弱土地保障功能;加大财政投入农业产业化的力度,为农地规模化流转铺平道路;积极引导农村土地流转市场及流转中介组织的建立;支持农村剩余劳动力的有效转移。