Understanding land ownership and environmental conservation from perspectives of enviro-capitalism and enviro-socialism

Enviro-capitalism and enviro-socialism address natural resource management and environmental conservation from the different perspectives regarding property rights, roles of free market and governments. The case studies of land ownership evolution in United States and P.R. China illustrate that mandatory administrative order from government failed in P.R. China, while the private owned land and managerial ways also cause the problems in the United States. The understanding about land values and functions changes over time. The concern is getting more and more focused on exploring the efficient ways to get land resources yielded perpetually, as well maintaining economic, social and political sustainability. We learn the lessons from the past. The land management depends on rationally identifying and measuring the roles of individual, mass and government in social-economic-ecological system by using the market dimensions and indexes. The case studies indicate that the owners of the land property will be able to engage in negotiated contracts with those seeking environmental protection through the free market. It also requires the governments to take the responsibilities to identify property rights and help build up the capacities to make the policies and laws based on the land ecosystem processing features, as well considering the cultural and economic status within the different spatial units. The governments should help to develop the enforcement technology for policy implementation at local, regional, national and international levels. The big challenge is that we lack knowledge and information to determine the processes and functions of social-economic-ecological system and measure the comprehensive values of land in large geographic units.     

New investment,old challenges. Land deals and the water constraint in African agriculture

Foreign investment in agricultural land acquisition in sub-Saharan Africa has been viewed primarily as driven by a set of linked ‘crises’: in financial capital markets, in security of energy and food supply, and in global environmental governance. This paper argues that a focus on the ‘buyers’ of land risks overlooking the dynamics that operate on the side of the land ‘sellers’. Accordingly, the first part of the paper argues that it is important to view the current ‘land grab’ as the latest stage in a longer historical process of competition for control of land and other natural resources by different ‘domestic’ economic and political actors within African countries. While such struggles are often characterised as the ‘state versus the peasantry’, with the state acting on behalf of ‘urban elites’, the paper argues that processes of accumulation and associated enclosure of natural resources need to be examined more critically in specific contexts if the role and impact of foreign capital investment are to be understood. The second part of the paper seeks to identify the ways in which questions of scale (in the sense of greater capital intensity) can be considered to be constraints to the development of African agriculture. Particularly, it considers the extent to which the production models most frequently mentioned in connection with foreign investment (large-scale mechanised farms and small-scale outgrower contract farming) respond to current productivity constraints. The paper argues that current debates about foreign investment in agricultural land underplay the importance of water resources needed to overcome production risks associated with irregular rainfall. Bringing the water dimension of land deals more clearly into focus is necessary if the scope for positive and negative impacts of new investment on existing land users is to be fully understood. The paper concludes by considering the implications of such challenges in the current context of foreign investment in agriculture in Africa.     

驻朝苏联军管机构与北朝鲜土地改革刍议

北朝鲜1946年土地改革是驻朝鲜苏联军事管制机构与北朝鲜临时人民委员会共同努力的结果。这次改革具有政治、经济双重意义。它推动了北朝鲜战后经济重建,巩固了当地民主化的基础。     

宅基地使用权涵义之法律分析

关于宅基地使用权的涵义的理解存在分歧。宅基地使用权的涵义,包括主体、客体、内容以及法律性质等方面的要素。宅基地使用权的涵义界定为:宅基地使用权是指农村居民及部分城镇居民,在农村集体所有的土地上,对分配或通过其他合法途径得来的农村宅基地,依法享有的占有、使用、收益以及有限制地处分的用益物权。     

中国石油储备法的立法理念

我国未来制定《石油储备法》的立法基础应包括：立法理念、法律制度、规则体系等内容以及相关的技术体系,核心将是立法理念。安全理念、经济理念与人本化理念将贯穿我国石油储备立法目的、原则、储备模式的选择、储备规模的选择之中,为立法提供宏观指导,亦应成为我国未来石油储备立法的主导理念。     

当前失地农民的现状与分析

近年来，随着工业化和城市化进程的加快，大量农村集体土地被征用，失地农民越来越多。如何保护务农无地、就业无岗、低保无份的“三无农民”的合法权益，解除失地农民的后顾之忧，保证农民安居乐业，是各级政府和社会各界普遍关注的敏感话题。该文重点关注农民在部分或完全失去土地以后一段时期内的生存现状，将之与非失地农民的生存情况进行对比，重在分析农民因失地带来的收益以及负面影响，提出相应的政策建议。     

土地征收中的被征收人知情权保护

为了避免和化解土地征收引发的社会纠纷,加强被征收人的知情权保护研究非常有必要。西方国家非常注重被征收人的知情权保护,根据本国的国情,设置了不同的制度。我们有必要借鉴西方国家的规定,加强被征收人的知情权保护,具体的对策是：要求告知义务人将相关信息直接通知被征收人;进一步明确规定告知义务人公告征地信息的地点;允许被征收人查阅征收申请人和征收审批机关的所有材料;扩大需要被告知的权利人的范围;规定征收申请人不将征收审批机关的决定告知被征收人的,征收申请人不能执行该决定。     

Why green grabs don't work in Papua New Guinea

In recent years, private companies have acquired long-term leasehold titles to more than five million hectares of what was formerly customary land in Papua New Guinea (PNG), but hardly any of this land has been devoted to production of the four green commodities in which PNG might have some comparative advantage – sustainable palm oil, bio-ethanol, biodiversity and carbon credits. Nearly all of it is dedicated to so-called ‘agro forestry’ projects that appear to be short-term salvage logging projects justified by the promise of a purely virtual form of large-scale agricultural production. I argue that the ‘agro foresters’ have been more successful than the green investors because of a set of political and institutional factors that distinguish PNG from many of the other countries where land grabbing has become the order of the day.     

Political Bases for the Dissolution of a Public Corporation: A Nigérian Case

All social theory emphasises that institutions universally play a crucial role in organising the ways in which people live together. At the same time the concept is vaguely defined and used in different ways. Inspired by the pragmatic sociology of critique, we emphasise how institutions enable people and things to hold together and provide important references for action in settings with limited predictability for everyday life. We first analyse how the concept of institutions has been used in scholarship on land tenure in Sudan. We then suggest, using a case study, that increased attention to the different ways in which actors validate or challenge institutions helps to examine the precariousness of institutional orders in the Sudans. This can move Sudan Studies beyond some of the limitations of previous scholarship, such as a tendency towards interpretations that reiterate institutions as timeless, discrete and immutable units such as “traditional” or “modern”.     

近些年粮食生产的效益与补贴分析

粮食安全不能建立在农民粮食种植的超低收入上,也就是不能由农民来承担粮食安全的成本,但建立在国家高额的资金补贴上同样没有出路。当粮食种植的效率收益已经远远大于其原有的社保福利收益的时候,国家就可以考虑用低价收购土地福利。方法是＂地租赎买＂。