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Ghana's Land Administration Project (LAP), initiated in 2003, aimed to enhance certainty regarding land rights. What has been achieved since then? We explore landowners' perceptions of tenure security in Ghana using micro-level data from two waves of the Ghanaian Living Standards Surveys: GLSS5+ (2008) and GLSS7 (2017). This data allows us to study the linkages between land title formality and perceptions of tenure security, measured by landowners' perceived ability to sell or use their land as collateral. This is complemented by analysing government policy documents and appraisal reports from independent organisations, making our study a valuable contribution to ongoing research on the formalisation-security link in Ghana and other African countries. The results indicate that those with formal titles are more likely to perceive their land ownership secure. However, in some regions customary systems persist in parallel with perceived security. These regional nuances highlight the complex factors influencing perception of tenure security. For policy, these findings emphasise the need to consider contextual peculiarities and expertise when assessing the compatibility of customary traditions with formal titles and finding solutions for potential coexistence. • In Ghana, formal titles yield higher perceptions of security than customary ownership. • The observed regional nuances highlight the complex factors influencing tenure security. • Inclusive land administration requires trust-building among stakeholders. • Land reforms should incorporate local expertise to avoid sub-optimal outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analyze 12,000 parcels in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado biomes. • Scraped weekly, our data come from online advertisements of land sale offers. • Hedonic analysis reveals low net benefits from formal private property rights. • Environmental compliance with the Forest Code does not alter parcel prices. • Results highlight challenges to property entitlement and environmental compliance. Lack of property rights is associated with lower investment, development, and welfare. In the Brazilian Amazon, insecure property rights have historically led to civil conflicts and deforestation, which would be expected to provide incentives for landowners to seek formal title. In this paper, we construct a novel database of land prices in Brazil to measure the market value of formal title to land and compliance with environmental regulation. Using online advertisements of land sale offers scraped from a widely used seller's platform, we first estimate a hedonic model that regresses the last offer price on property attributes such as farm-level agricultural production, land characteristics, structure amenities, and capital equipment included in the offer, as well as spatial and temporal fixed effects. We use this hedonic model to examine how property rights and environmental compliance capitalize into land prices across the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. Our main results imply low net benefits from property rights and low net benefits from compliance with the central Brazilian regulation that aims to maintain forest cover, the Forest Code. Finally, we estimate a duration model that follows the sequence of weekly offers for a specific property until it sells. Our findings show that parcels compliant with the Forest Code sell 46 % faster in the Amazon, while entitled properties in the Cerrado sell 9 % faster, unless they are compliant with the Forest Code, which requires a substantial portion of the property to be under native vegetation cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of construction liens in the U.S. Topics include the existence of secret liens in the land title registration system, critical dates of construction liens including recording date and lien priority date and comparison of construction liens of Arkansas with liens of other surrounding states.

This article examines the ways in which the writings of the great Victorian man of letters Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) were appropriated by land reformers in Australia and New Zealand. Carlyle argued that the land had been created by God for the benefit of the whole people, and that its possessors thus had a duty to put it to the best possible use. In this sense, work was the sole legitimate title to land. On these grounds, Carlyle was highly critical of the landowners of his era, whom he considered to be grossly remiss in their duties, living a life of idleness and luxury at the expense of their tenants. However, Carlyle did not go so far as to recommend the expropriation of the landlords, leaving open the possibility that they might still reform their behaviour. Ignoring this qualification, land reformers in Australia and New Zealand appropriated Carlyle's writings, extending his denunciations of the hereditary nobility of Britain to the capitalist sheep-farmers and 'squattocrats' of the Antipodes, as well as adducing Carlyle in support of their own proposals for radical reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh is a small country with a large population. Its increasingly developing economy further makes land a lucrative source of fixed capital. On the other hand, land titling is a cumbersome and lengthy process, where different government bodies process different sets of documents, and bureaucratic loopholes encourage fraudulent activities by organized people. As a result, the current model suffers from good governance. In this paper, we propose a Blockchain-based solution that offers data synchronization and transparency, ease of access, immutable records management, a faster and cheaper solution. Considering the technological knowledge and capacity of the people and the government, we introduced a phase by phase Blockchain adoption model that starts with a public Blockchain ledger and later gradually incorporates two levels of Hybrid Blockchain. We provide detailed smart contracts design of the public Blockchain and implement a prototype system using Ethereum. Our experimental setup uses local and live Ethereum test networks to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system. Our analysis shows that the proposed model reduces the number of required travels, the overall cost of information processing as well as provide easy access to vital information. As a result, Blockchain adoption can improve the land title digitization effort of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a model of optimal land allocation in a developing economy that features three possible land uses: agriculture, primary and secondary forests. The distinction between those forest types reflects their different contributions in terms of public goods. In our model, reforestation is costly because it undermines land title security. Using the forest transition concept, we study long-term land-use change and explain important features of cumulative deforestation across countries. Our results shed light on the speed at which net deforestation ends, on the effect of tenure costs in this process, and on composition in steady state. We also present a policy analysis that emphasizes the critical role of institutional reforms addressing the costs of both deforestation and tenure in order to promote a transition. We find that focusing only on net forest losses can be misleading since late transitions may yield, upon given conditions, a higher level of environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1990s, as peace was consolidated in Cambodia, land conflicts started to replace the Khmer Rouge as the main threat to peace and the social order. Beban's book provides a valuable and detailed account of Hun Sen's Order 01 land-titling initiative. Alice Beban's new book I Unwritten Rule i is an actor-oriented analysis of a land-titling initiative by Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen. [Extracted from the article]

How does the recognition of collective self-governance rights for indigenous communities affect national unity and state consolidation? In recent decades, many states have recognized such rights, devolving de jure control over land and local governance to indigenous institutions. Prominent perspectives in the state-building literature suggest that these policies are likely to threaten state consolidation by strengthening nonstate authorities at the expense of state authority and subnational identities at the expense of a national identity. Yet few studies have tested whether these policies have the consequences their critics claim. I address this gap, leveraging spatial and temporal variation in the granting of communal land titles to indigenous communities in the Philippines. Using difference-in-differences and panel designs, I find that titling increases both indigenous self-identification and compliance with the state. Results from an original survey experiment suggest that recognizing collective self-governance rights increases identification with the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Total farmland value exceeds its value in agriculture but is not directly perceptible to villagers in China. Thus, the exceeded part is often neglected when discussing farmer's land transaction decision. This study aims to revisit the question about how land titling project affects farmer's land renting-out and investigate how this unobservable land value would distort the intentional effects of land titling. Design/methodology/approach: This paper first modifies a two-period model by incorporating the unobservable part of land value into the farmers' leasing decision problem. Following the implications from the theoretical analysis, this study then exploits the difference-in-differences and the triple-differences approach to confirm the distorting effects that are resulted from the unobservable land value. Findings: The modified theoretical model of this study reveals that land titling would encourage farmers to rent out land when the unobservable land value is predicted to be low but discourage farmers' willingness to rent-out when this value is predicted to be high. The core reason for this significant conclusion lands in the uncertainty of the unobservable land value. Empirical analysis then provided two evidences for this presumption. Furthermore, this study also gave a disproof of the argument that the uncovered discouraging effect is due to a stronger endowment effect. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the unobservable land value in the farmers' land-related decisions. This part of land value is always neglected in previous discussions about the land tenure system, but it would cause distorting effects especially in regions without private land ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use household survey data to investigate the relationship between formal, private property rights to agricultural land and agricultural investment, land valuation and access to credit in Tanzania. Results show that landownership documents are associated with substantial increases in the market value of land (more than 25%). One reason appears to be that well‐documented private property rights facilitate the use of land as collateral for loans and therefore ease access to credit. The findings suggest that there are potentially significant, economic returns to systematic land titling in Tanzania and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Productivity Commission's review of Australia's productivity performance and its implications. It highlights the lack of controversy surrounding the report's recommendations for promoting productivity, which reflects the diminishing relevance of neoliberalism as an economic policy. It mentions the history of the Productivity Commission is discussed, tracing its origins during the neoliberal period and its role in analyzing the impact of economic reforms.

This article is about Indigenous territorial title and land rights, and specifically those of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. In 1983, the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn, residing in the province of Ontario, petitioned the Crown to recognize Algonquin territorial title and rights to 36,000 square kilometres of their natal homelands in the Ottawa River watershed. With negotiations beginning in the early 1990s, an Agreement-in-Principle was developed and ratified in 2016, the penultimate step to the largest modern treaty in Ontario's history. In this article, we examine the argument for moral rights to territory, not in terms of the Canadian or international legal order, nor even through examining the documents and voice of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg, but through the lens of an argument that has been advanced as the basis of the international territorial rights of states. We argue that the justifications for state rights territory—grounded in the considerations that ensue from an analysis of occupancy groups—provides a stronger claim to territorial jurisdiction and title in the case of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation than the competing claim by the Canadian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing land-use intensity in developing-country cities necessitates land markets supported by active land titling. The study of land titling patronage is critical in a developing country like Nigeria, where the state of development necessitates determining who has rights to lands, for what purposes, and for how long on the available relatively scarce expanse of land. Data for the study was obtained from the Ondo State Ministry of Lands and Housing and the household heads of the purposive selected private layouts/estates within the study area. Data were analyzed using both the Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope estimates as well as discriminant function analysis. The findings revealed a monotonously decreasing trend in the demand for titling in the study area which was statistically significant at 0.01 in decreasing order from 2009 to 2018. Further analysis showed that the education level of the head of the household as well as propensity to obtain loan/engage in the subsequent transactions were the most important determinant as to whether a landowner would title land or not. The study will be useful for public enlightenment, policy formulation, policy implementation, professionals and scholars, as well as in academic debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Hong Kong, a transaction for the sale and purchase of land imposes a duty on the vendor to supply original title deeds upon completion. If this duty is breached, the purchaser would be entitled to refuse completion. Yet, much confusion has arisen over the precise requirements of this duty, given that it is thought to originate from two distinct sources: the common law, and s.13A of the Conveyancing and Property Ordinance (Cap.219). It is suggested that the current common law position is based on a misunderstanding of s.13A, and that the current statutory position under s.13A is not aligned with the normative rationale of the duty. As such, it is necessary to amend s.13A. When considering the substance of the amendment, the Hong Kong Legislative Council ("LegCo") ought to ensure that the scope of the duty is aligned with its normative rationale, that the law is sufficiently certain, and that vendors who have relied on the current position would not be retrospectively prejudiced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the proclamation of the Indigenous People's Rights Act in 1997, the government of the Philippines has started to issue ancestral domain land titles, in an attempt to outline within its own legal framework how indigenous peoples should deal with land claims, disputes and ownership. Drawing on eleven months of fieldwork (2015–2019), this article describes the notions of ownership (fun) and occupancy (mnè) among the Blaan of Malbulen, and discusses whether their own views of the land are compatible with those proposed by the government. In fact, Blaan do not consider themselves to be the first inhabitants of the land. This status belongs to the fun spirits, its true owners, whose approval is needed to be accepted as an occupant, i.e. to build a house, to hunt, to cut down a tree or to cross a river. Humans are here believed to be mere occupants of the land. Places, humans and nonhuman beings are interwoven in ways that we have investigated through participatory and digital cartography. Mapping these beings reveals an interactive landscape. Its epistemology allows the anthropologist to question their own views and representations of space, and to understand how they may differ from local perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Blockchain is a trending technology that has paved way to solving various challenges in different sectors. It has received much interest from researchers over the years, as it is known to be a transparent, secured, no third party and tamper-proof public records repository system for documents, contracts, properties and assets. Land title has been a major challenge in Nigeria due to the fact that existing system, digital archives, used to manage the sector is not effective, thus brought about issues such as, double spending, possibility of tampering, third party interference and non-transparency of operations. Hence the need for blockchain technology. Blockchain has characteristics, such as decentralization, security, immutability, smart contract, it is therefore expected to improve land title management. This paper applies a content-analysis based literature review blockchain technology and existing method of land title in Nigeria. This paper propose five benefits. Blockchain can help to improve proper land record keeping, information transparency, accountability, anonymity and avoidance of double spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new, extremely small land snail species, Angustopila coprologos Páll-Gergely, Jochum & Hunyadi n. sp. and Angustopila psammion Páll-Gergely, Vermeulen & Anker n. sp. are described from northern Vietnam and northern Laos, respectively. The former is characterized by a rough surface sculpture and bears tiny mud granules arranged in a pattern of radial lines on its shell surface. The latter species is the new global record-holder of the tiniest land snail title, with a shell width of 0.6-0.68 mm and a shell height of 0.46-0.57 mm. These measurements surpass the former records of Angustopila pallgergelyi and Acmella nana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with a historiographical review focused on primordial titles elaborated in the viceregal period, as inexhaustible sources in understanding the historical reality of the Indians towns. Likewise, it presents an analysis of the content of the primordial title of Xicalco, which is integrated by pictographs and writing. It has been problematized about the circumstances of its elaboration, based on the historical memory of the ancient foundation and its long-term significance. The originality of this work lies in the fact that the content of this manuscript has not been studied, a discourse that seeks to demonstrate and corroborate the ancestral origin of this third-generation population. The latter forms the narrative that emphasizes the recognition of the space of the people and of the patron saint, both as an instrument of identity and legitimation of its existence as a political corporation. Thus, we have verified that the inhabitants of Xicalco, through the primordial title, dated 1640, and the 2018 Declaration, recovered the historical memory to ensure their power over their land. During the viceroyalty they had to face the advance of the Spanish farmers, on the territory of ancestral inheritance; in the 20th century they faced intra-urban immigration, the sale of land and communal assets that threatened the customs of the inhabitants of Xicalco. For this article we have consulted two primary sources, one of them located in the General Archive of the Nation (agn), the primary title of San Miguel Xicalco, which is part of the branch Collection of Documents and Land Titles that were transferred to this site from the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform of Mexico; the second is the Declaration of the original towns of San Miguel Xicalco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the expansion of informal property rights documents through the case of chiefs' titles in Zambia. Entrepreneurial chiefs have created written land rights for citizens on customary land in the form of letters, signed maps, and certificates. These documents are an alternative to state land titling that allows chiefs to maintain their control over land. However, chiefs' titles are extra-legal: they are enforced by the same traditional leaders who govern unwritten customary rights, raising doubt about whether written land rights can strengthen citizens' land claims without changing the existing power structures. Evidence from 121 interviews with chiefs, bureaucrats, and smallholder farmers and a survey of over 5,500 citizens shows that, despite their flaws, chiefs' titles do increase citizens' perceptions of tenure security. This suggests that informal property rights documents can be a powerful tool in a citizen's arsenal. Further, these findings illustrate a process of adaptation and change within customary land institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some communities in Indonesia’s margins have adopted indigenous identities to overcome stigmatization as 'backward'. Following recent government efforts to develop Indonesia’s peripheral areas, these communities can also identify as entrepreneurs because they can now apply for land titles – a change that government officials hope will boost local economies. The question of who is 'indigenous' has thus become an area of political controversy that the state must address. Through analysis of legal documents and political processes, this paper focuses on state-indigenous relations in Indonesia, with an emphasis on economic processes. Participatory observations and interviews have been carried out to gain better insights into ongoing recognition of indigenous communities. Preliminary findings suggest that indigenous activists are disappointed, as the government is not pushing forward crucial legislation, and recognition of land titles is slow. Therefore, activists have instead turned their attention to means of rec- ognition in the regencies. The example of Enrekang, South Sulawesi, provides insights into these developments and into the current relations between the state and indigenous peoples.

This document is an erratum for an article titled "SDG 2 - ending hunger: the effect of Nigeria's land titling on production output and food security of farming households." The erratum acknowledges a production error in the original article, specifically in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The graphic for Figure 1 was mistakenly excluded, resulting in a duplication of Figure 2. The corrected Figure 1 has been provided, and the publisher apologizes for the mistake. [Extracted from the article]

Galen D. Greaser's book, "That They May Possess the Land: The Spanish and Mexican Land Commissioners of Texas, 1720–1836," explores the history of land grants in Texas during the Spanish and Mexican eras. The book highlights the importance of land ownership in early Texas history and the role of commissioners in transferring land to individuals. Greaser, as the curator and translator of the Spanish collection of the General Land Office, provides a well-documented and readable account of the complex and often conflicting processes involved in granting land titles. The book also touches on the political and social implications of land ownership, which contributed to the tensions that eventually led to rebellion in Texas. [Extracted from the article]

The 'urbanising village' is a uniquely Chinese urban form that emerged during the period of rapid urbanisation in the reform era. The absence of state governance in rural areas relegates considerable decision-making power to village collectives, and the social capital inherited from traditional rural villages may remain in place after villages are urbanised. To explore the role of social capital and its mobilisation in solving the land use challenges posed by the urbanisation of rural settlements, we analysed the growth processes of Huanggang village as a typical example of a 'collective-led' self-organised urbanising village in Shenzhen. Qualitative analysis using semi-structured interviews and abundant secondary data provides credible evidence that defining property rights through land titling is not the only way to achieve orderly development, safe and sanitary living conditions and efficient land use in informal settlements. Social capital, measured by networks, norms and trust passed down among long-term acquaintances in rural villages, plays an important role in the development of communities. Village collectives can unite villagers and mobilise their social, cultural and material capital to compensate for the absence of formal governance institutions and government-provided community services. The implications of these findings suggest a new strategic pathway for managing urbanising villages in China and informal settlements in other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land acquisition is currently one of the main topics African Governments must handle. Land belongs generally to the first residents of the area. To claim ownership of a land, the owner must register their land and obtain the land title in urban areas or be recognized by rural community managers as the rightful owner. In the land acquisition process, land buyers face ownership and integrity challenges. Many people have been victims in the acquisition of a land by notoriously evil practice of multiple sale of the same land, falsified land title, false owner identification. In this paper, a Generic and Reliable Land Acquisition Architecture in Sub-Saharan Africa countries context is proposed. The platform keeps relevant land transaction information for administrators, managers, buyers, sellers, or for people consultation purpose. This information will be used in village, city, department, region, or country for land management decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal and formal institutions coexist, interacting in a complex and dynamic manner. We examine whether informal institutions can still function without official recognition and how they impact formal institutions. Drawing on a quasi-natural experiment involving the private land system in rural China known as "ancestral land", and using trust change to represent institutional outcomes, this paper discusses the dilemma of informal institutions. The results indicate that ancestral land induces the transition of rural residents' interpersonal trust to contract-based trust and increases the marketization of land rentals, which is one goal of China's current land reforms. However, ancestral land reduces rural residents' institutional trust and perceived security of tenure, and even hinders the new round of land titling. Our analysis implies that, although induced institutional innovations optimize the governance of the commons and increase the efficient allocation of production factors, the lack of official recognition is an obstacle to its potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing urbanization being experienced in African countries exacerbates their current housing needs and tenure insecurity. Despite the strictness of the formal land market in Ibadan, Nigeria, urban residents find it easier to access land from informal land market in the city, which results in incremental housing development. Based on the Self-help Theory, the study examined the contribution of tenure insecurity to the development of incremental housing in peri-urban Ibadan. A cross-sectional research design (relying on quantitative and qualitative data) was employed in the study. A total of 248 heads of household were selected from six Local Government Areas of Ibadan and each one of them was administered a structured questionnaire. Ethical protocols were followed and informed consent was obtained. The study revealed that the majority of these incremental developers was illiterate. Factors that accounted for the incremental development included fear of eviction (which is associated with tenure insecurity), high rent costs and lack of funds (as associated with income poverty). The study recommended enhancing access to secure land titles as this has multiplier-effects on housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samoa's 2020 Land and Titles Court reforms, which contributed to the Human Rights Protection Party losing support at the April 2021 elections after almost 40 years of government, have recentred attention on the tensions of legal pluralism in the South Pacific. Although Samoa maintains a system of English common law, 81 per cent of Samoan land falls under the traditional matai titles system, giving a central role to the customary Land and Titles Court (LTC). In December 2020, the Samoan parliament passed three Acts - the Constitution Amendment Act 2020, the Land and Titles Act 2020 and the Judicature Act 2020 - establishing the LTC in a parallel court hierarchy with equivalent status to the Samoan Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. This proposal has prompted debate between those favouring incorporation and promotion of Samoan custom over Western legal norms, and others who argue the amendments undermine human rights protections and the rule of law. This article evaluates the effects of these changes on the role and administration of custom in Samoa, contextualising them within broader socio-legal debates around customary legal systems. It first analyses the effect of the three Acts with regard to the bifurcation of the court system, procedural reforms in the LTC hierarchy and the introduction of a judicial guidance clause. This leads into a critical evaluation of these changes, highlighting impacts upon judicial coherence; constitutional human rights; consistency between customary and common law procedures; and resourcing constraints. The article concludes by providing broad options for future reform. It does not focus on issues which have received attention elsewhere, such as the amendments' potential impacts on judicial independence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]