Search

Public lands in the United States are primarily administered by four federal agencies that enjoy broad management discretion under both Chevron deference from courts and generous statutory mandates. While this discretion can promote flexibility and allow agencies to apply their expertise, deference to agencies is a double-edged sword. It also leads to policy whiplash. Whiplash occurs when agencies quickly reverse course on policy decisions, often in response to changing political tides. It has become ubiquitous in our modern political system, and land management agencies that must balance conflicting land use goals or follow multiple-use mandates are especially vulnerable to these policy swings. In the public lands context, whiplash appears in varied circumstances, from energy leasing on BLM lands, to road construction in National Forests, to snowmobile use in National Parks. This Note argues that frequent policy reversals are not a built-in requirement of democracy. Instead, whiplash harms both environmental and economic interests by making it more difficult to create stable public lands policy. The Note then explores potential solutions. It outlines some legislative options that could help limit whiplash despite current Congressional gridlock. Next, this Note suggests that courts may be able to mitigate policy whiplash. First, courts could make it harder for land management agencies to change their minds. Second, the major questions doctrine has a potential silver lining in this context; it could limit the agency discretion that creates whiplash, if the doctrine applies in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of wealth among the people of society is one of the most important subject in the economy, distribution and its methods keep the economic balance among the people of the society. Therefore, fair distribution of wealth leads to the welfare and comfort of all people in society. Distribution theory has been remained a hot discussion and argument among the different economic schools for a long time. Capitalism believes in the freedom of the individual in all areas, the general law in the capitalist system is that each production factor determines its part in wealth. The factors of production are land, workforce, capital and employment. The theory of capitalism in the domain of the division of wealth is that that the land gets lease or rent, the workforce gets wages, capital gains profit and the employer gains benefit. Socialists believe that the equal distribution of wealth is the key solution to all the problems of society and argue: Due to the lack of reasonable distribution of wealth, numerous major problems raised in society. According to socialists, in fact the unequal distribution of wealth in a society is the basic reason of all economic problems among the people of society. They suggest that all tools and factors of production should be taken from individuals and should be controlled by government. The people of society should have fair access to the wealth produced from it, and the government itself should have a mechanism for wealth distribution. However, the Islamic economic system has another theory. Its crux is: the variance in the wealth of the people of the society is a natural matter, all human beings are not equal in wealth. Distribution from the perspective of the Islamic economy has three stages: The first stage is possession of items, the second stage is the distribution based on the contribution of each production factor in wealth production and the third stage is the redistribution of wealth distribution by some distributing mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People in Assam's Barak Valley depend on agriculture for their daily survival. Tenancy is the most common kind of agricultural operation in the United States. The landowner frequently abuses the linguistic terms and conditions of tenancy agreements, putting the actual tillers of the soil at risk. Farmers, on the whole, are disadvantaged when it comes to adopting new technologies. It's as a result of this that the region's agricultural landscape is so underdeveloped. Assam's Barak Valley agriculture's cost-sharing arrangements under land leasing were examined in field survey data collected from the six (A.D.O) circles in the three district of Barak Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We evaluate determinants of participation in conservancy land leases in the Maasai Mara and how they impact household wealth. • Land ownership primarily determines who can participate and benefit from conservancies and by how much. • Conservancy land leases reinforce unequal historical land distribution systems, limiting participation of women and the poor. • After matching households on their observed characteristics, conservancy participation has little impact on household wealth. Understanding the impact of conservation interventions on local communities is important in determining their effects on livelihoods and wellbeing. However, impacts are often not uniform and there are important equity dimensions when evaluating interventions. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate determinants of participation in conservation land leases in the Mara Conservancies in southern Kenya and its impact on household wealth. We find that land ownership determines who can participate in and benefit from conservancy land lease payments, and by how much. The design of the land lease payment scheme therefore has the potential to reinforce and, in cases, amplify existing inequities as it is built upon a legacy of unequal historical land distribution processes that limit the participation of women and poor landless households. We observed significantly higher incomes amongst participant households compared to non-participants, but these differences disappeared after propensity score matching. These results suggest that the differences were not caused by participation in conservancies. Our findings suggest that the design and outcomes of land-based conservation or payment for ecosystem services schemes should consider historic and existing land tenure systems if they are to reduce inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: From the perspective of land mortgages, the purpose of this paper is to understand how farmers can be motivated to utilize environment-friendly formula fertilizers, thereby reducing the use of chemical fertilizers. Design/methodology/approach: Two hypotheses are empirically tested using questionnaire responses from 714 farmers across three provinces in China to establish the relationship and to determine the role land rent plays. Findings: This study finds that farmers who obtain land mortgages will be more willing to apply formula fertilizers in order to obtain higher value of their "own" land. This is because obtaining land mortgages can be considered as the process of titling land management rights. Farmers who have been transferred the land by verbal agreement no longer need to worry about losing it at any time. Hence, they are willing to apply formula fertilizers on their transferred land. Similarly, farmers who have been transferred the land by written contract to obtain more land mortgages will also be willing because the formula fertilizers can not only improve the quality of their transferred land, but also increase its value as collateral. This mechanism is clearer in the area where the average land rent is relatively lower. Originality/value: No study has yet linked the reform of land mortgages to environmentally friendly behavior. While other studies have focused on the way access to credit changes farmer investments and spending, this particular relationship has not yet been formalized, giving this study theoretical and empirical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study first analyzes how local governments' land-leasing behaviors affect Chinese cities' debt risk then examines the impact of officials' promotion mechanisms on debt risk in China's urban land bank system. The land-leasing behavior is reflected through three indicators, namely, land-leasing revenue, land-leasing scale, and land financial dependence level. Two new indicators are constructed to measure the local government' debt risk from the perspective of debt scale and debt repayment: the debt scale risk and debt burden risk. Empirical analyses are based on the data of 281 prefecture-level cities from 2006-2015. The main findings are twofold. First, the debt scale risk is positively affected by the land-leasing revenue, and officials' promotion pressure. The debt burden risk is positively affected by the land financial dependence and officials' promotion pressure. Second, the officials' promotion pressure significantly enhances the positive effect of land-leasing revenue on the debt scale risk. Local officials, who are under promotion pressure, are inclined to expand the size of urban investment bonds, which increases debt scale risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the formation of a democratic, social, and constitutional state, the institution of the right to land use constitutes a parallel plane of those social values that are organically combined with rights and legitimate interests, inalienable to the normal functioning of life, and therefore requiring objective and secured expression in legislation, especially in the context of legal protection during the exercise of the rights of participants in leasehold land relations. Currently, the topic of leased land use and the necessity of investigating the issue of the moment of conclusion of the land lease agreement is getting increasingly pressing and requires to align legislative texts with the practice of enforcement of the right. In the course of the research the following objectives were completed: 1) the issues of concluding the land lease agreement in Ukraine were found; 2) doctrinal and legislative approaches to determining the moment of conclusion of the land lease agreement were analysed; 3) the judicial practice of domestic judicial authorities was studied with regard to the above issue; 4) the author's definition of the concept of "the moment of conclusion of the land lease agreement" has been formed; 5) it was established that the moment of acquiring the right to use the land plot, including the resolution of the conflict between the two leases (registered and unregistered) depends on the moment of conclusion of the land lease agreement; 6) it is stated that, within a short period of time, the Supreme Court has repeatedly modified its conclusion regarding the determination of the date from which a lease of a land plot is concluded, becoming an instrument of legal uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landowners who lease property for shale gas development (i.e., "fracking") face the possibility of procedural disenfranchisement and risk. They also stand to benefit financially from bonus and royalty payments. This article evaluates the frequency with which these experiences occur and how they vary between landowners. Using a mixed‐methods approach, we combine surveys and interviews with northeastern Pennsylvania landowners with a content analysis of energy lease documents. We find that landowners generally experience relatively infrequent environmental harm, receive substantial financial benefits, and leverage their property rights to secure better lease conditions. However, our findings also demonstrate that procedural disenfranchisement does occur, environmental risks are infrequent but real, and outcomes tend to vary by firm‐specific rather than sociostructural factors. Accordingly, the advantages conferred by private property are not a panacea for the alleviation of risk and inequality in energy development. These findings inject considerable nuance into ongoing discussions of risk, inequality, and shale gas development: Rather than perceiving themselves as victims, landowners tend to see themselves as beneficiaries of industry activity, an experience structured directly by their ownership of property and mineral rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through processing the information on existing methods of lease, problematic situations on lease agreements of agricultural-purpose land held in shared ownership are studied in the article. The existing methods of rent under land lease agreements in case of joint lessor by the municipal districts of the Saratov region are considered thoroughly. It is established that the most common is the rent-in-kind. According to the study, it is advisable to use the monetary form of rent for improving the financial-and-economic results of agricultural production of business entities. The result of the study is the development of the method of differentiated rent. Using the SWOT-analysis the proposed method is scientifically substantiated, measures for threat manageability putting advantages of the method strengths, use of favorable opportunities to overcome its weaknesses, reduction of the adverse impact of the combination "weaknesses – threats" are determined. The recommended method reflects the land rent received in specific production conditions, taking into account the product yield, allows lessees and lessors to invest free funds. The method of calculating the differentiated rent is based on determining the anticipated net operating income depending on the level of agricultural crop productivity, land market price taking into account the discount rate. This method is focused on agricultural producers who are lessees and lessors of agricultural-purpose land held in shared ownership, executive authorities and managing bodies of agro-industrial complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decentralization of property rights is the focus of the forest tenure reforms in several developing countries. In China, it was achieved by the launch of a new round of collective forest tenure reform beginning in 2003, which provided farmers with more integrated and secure forestland rights. Drawing on household data collected in Jiangxi province in 2011 and 2013, this paper examines the impacts of households' recognition of property rights and improved tenure security on forestland rental activities. Our empirical results show that households with higher perceptions of more complete use rights and mortgage rights have a lower probability and intensity of renting‐in land, while households with lower expectations of future forestland redistribution or expropriation are more likely to rent in forestland and more of it. These results imply that the development of a forestland rental market leading to better forest management requires an integrated forestland management approach consisting of decentralization of property rights and village governance. In particular, the central government may further clarify the rights and obligations affiliated to forestland ownership, contractual rights, and management rights; while the village collective may shift from direct intervention in the integrity and security of forestland rights to the supervision and protection of decentralized forestland rights to increase efficiency from the decentralization of property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author explores the interconnections between the social and the material—as people move to a space on the land, coexisting with one another. By focusing in on one specific place—the Spirit Lake Dakota Indian Reservation (formerly called the Devils Lake Sioux Indian Reservation) in North Dakota—the author analyzes what happened when white immigrants came to homestead and live on land historically reserved for Dakotas. Against the backdrop of Native dispossession, this illustrative case reveals the ways everyday interactions created entanglements through landownership, the gendered division of paid work, neighboring practices, and leasing land. It challenges us to uncover gendered processes, probe denials, and interrogate silences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, the constitution of the private land ownership right was the main desideratum of the agrarian reforms of the last decades, while the present route aims to increase the size of the agricultural holdings by initiating the lease process regarded as a classic form of exploiters acting as a contractor for the Romanian agrarian relations. This objective necessity of restructuring the state units and of the performance of the agricultural activity resides in the wide range of activities on the land market that concentrates around the regime of the land property in order to correctly appreciate the transactions in the lease market. The present paper aims to analyze the role and importance of land leasing by studying the average size of the agricultural exploitation of the last decade, registered at the level of the development area South-Muntenia, especially in Calarasi county. The result of the present research serves to demonstrate the role of the lease, which the lack of agrarian policy cannot prove its effectiveness having a non-stimulatory character for the owner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the phenomenon of large-scale land leasing, or 'land grabbing', is the subject of increasing concern. At the heart of the criticism of this phenomenon is the debate over the most appropriate methods of achieving economic development within the context of a rapidly globalising world. This paper analyzes the process and outcomes of establishing an oil palm plantation on Bugala Island, Uganda. The author asserts that tensions over land use within Uganda reflect incompatible understandings of the relations between land and society and distrust amongst stakeholders. In this case, in spite of these incompatibilities and distrust, the plantation has resulted in positive results for both local land users and the national economy. Yet at the same time, it demonstrates a traditional approach to land use that ignores past injustice and does not recognise power differentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from a combination of archival and ethnographic evidence, this article examines historic and contemporary land tenure issues within a single county in southwestern Oklahoma. Specifically, we look at the way in which bureaucratic control has created a system that, while originally and ostensible intended to protect the "rights" of American Indian landowners, in fact functions to restrict, undermine, and redirect "access" to those lands, often to the economic benefit of non-Indian farmers and ranchers. We consider how the leasing system administered by the Anadarko Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs generates a "bundle of powers" that creates profound barriers to American Indian access to their own property. At work in the BIA's bundle of powers over access to this land are a host of actors and institutions, both contemporary and historic, that have worked together to shape the social relations that give rise to the current alienation from and dispossession of Oklahomás Native-owned lands from their intended beneficiaries. Indeed, this tenuous situation is reflective of complexities attending continual retrenchments and revisions of federal Indian land policy -- periodic reassertions of bureaucratic authority and control that reposition actors in perennially shifting sociolegal relationalities. We seek if not to disentangle these relationships, then to at least render them visible and thus open to debate and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current Chinese land administration system, two types of land ownership including state and collective ownership coexist and the industrial land use rights can be transferred between different land lease terms. Previous studies found the significant relationship between land ownerships and lease terms with agriculture land use efficiency, but it is still unclear for the industrial land use efficiency. This study researched the effects of China's dual land ownerships and land lease terms on rural town industrial land use efficiency. Questionnaires of 294 industrial enterprises in Hudai, Qianqiao, and Xibei in Wuxi City, East China, were studied using two multiple linear regression models. The results showed that collective land with incomplete property rights caused land use inefficiency of lower industrial enterprises' output per hectare of land. The industrial enterprises' outputs per hectare from collective land were 2.16 million Yuan (0.31 million US dollar) and 2.06 million Yuan (0.30 million US dollar) less than those from state land in these two models, respectively. Different land lease terms negatively correlated with the use efficiency of rural industrial land. The outputs per hectare of industrial enterprises using the long-term lease were 1.30 million Yuan (0.19 million US dollar) less than those using the short-term lease in model 2. Our results highlight the importance of the integrated urban-rural land system and tailored lease terms of industrial land to increase the utilization efficiency of industrial land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with current status and features of land-rental transactions and relations in domestic agricultural. The author has suggested an approach to the justification of the prospects of land-rental relations development in agriculture of Ukraine based on the definition of interconnection of this field with major factors of influence. This approach is based on the application of the method of analysis of the cross-influencing factors, the initial data for the use of which are the conclusions of experts involved in solving specific forecasting problems. This approach makes it possible to calculate the likely tendencies of development of the main parameters of land-rental transactions in agriculture, depending on changes in factors of impact. Taking into account the current state and peculiarities of rental relations in domestic agricultural land use, medium-term scenarios for the development of this element of the market turnover of land have been formed, which provide an opportunity to predict the development of land-rental transactions and relations depending on market conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rural Japan, the lack of successors for aging farmers has become a serious problem, given that these areas experience a population outflow as well. In response, national authorities have promoted reconsideration and strengthening of regional agricultural management systems. In order to achieve consensus for such a transition, it is important to streamline this agricultural management. In this study, we constructed an analytical simulation model based on multi-agent simulations to support such changes. With this model, we investigated the effectiveness of deliberate organization of agricultural management. First, we collected data on farmer behavioral patterns and intentions. In addition, we gathered data at individual farm level with a field survey, and predicted an initial trend (Trend_Simulation). In order to compare simulations with the Trend_Simulation, we assumed that the future labor force in the model settlement was centralized and performed the work as an agricultural organization (Systematic_Simulation). The results from Trend_Simulation predicted that farmland degradation would occur from 2010 onwards, after which the amount of abandoned cultivated and fallow land would increase rapidly. In contrast, for the Systematic_Simulation, as a result of increased management efficiency through labor force accumulation and joint use of agricultural machines, abandonment of cultivated land would not occur for at least 20 more years. Finally, expansion of management scale per individual farm through land leasing between farms was predicted to decrease gradually in the Trend_Simulation, but to increase in the Systematic_Simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use data from the complete computerization of agricultural leases in Malawi, a georeferenced farm survey, and satellite imagery to document challenges and opportunities of land-based investment in novel ways. Covering some 1.35 million hectares or about 25% of the country’s arable area, agricultural estates are an important part of Malawi’s rural economy. However, the analysis shows that 70% of these estates have expired leases, reducing government revenue from ground rent by up to US$35 million or 5% of the total public spending annually. The low quality of spatial records, as indicated by the fact that some 140,000 hectares under estates are subject to overlapping claims could preclude the land market participation, especially under longer-term contracts. Data from a 2006/07 survey suggest that estates’ yield, productivity, and intensity of land use are below those of small farms. While the recently passed land laws create a basis for low-cost systematic demarcation and registration of rights to customary land, our analysis suggests that, to maximize their likely contribution to increasing productivity and welfare rather than conflict, such efforts need to be preceded by a clarification of boundaries and lease status of existing estates and ideally a more detailed study of the reasons underpinning the low productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on interviews with 44 urban growers in New Orleans, this study examines their experiences of establishing urban agriculture (UA) projects on publicly and privately owned lots, either through purchase or lease. Publicly owned lots are easier to identify, but bureaucratic application processes and unpredictable policy changes made access less predictable and insecure, especially in terms of purchasing. Leasing privately owned lots is often a straightforward procedure, but these lots are difficult to identify without a comprehensive list, and were rarely available for purchase. Ultimately, neither type of vacant space produces significantly more security in land tenure for UA projects. The findings indicate that availability of vacancy does not equal initial or long-term access to the growers, and the current system of making vacant properties available for UA raises concerns about the long-term sustainability of UA projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ghana, chieftaincy institutions act as custodians for about 80% of the total land area, and are responsible for leasing or allocating land while official planning institutions determine and manage its use. Yet, the extent to which chieftaincy institutions impede or contribute to sustainable urban land use planning in Ghana has received limited research attention. The scholarship on urban land use planning in Ghana has instead focused largely on rapid urbanisation, limited personnel and logistical capacity of planning institutions, and mainstream political interference. This paper addresses this gap by examining the chieftaincy-land use planning nexus in the Yendi municipality, Ghana. It explores the extent to which chieftaincy institutions limit or support sustainable urban land use planning in the municipality. Household and physical surveys, expert interviews, telephone conversations, and document reviews were used. Findings indicate that while chieftaincy's role as custodian of land is central to land development, it has assumed the role of planning institutions in terms of land use determination and management. Negative perception of planning officials among residents has also overshadowed the visibility of professional planning practice in the municipality, contributing to poor land use planning. Residents continue to use chieftaincy institutions and other traditional approaches rather than formal planning agencies because the former is convenient, more effective, and yields rapid decisions. Further research is needed to explore whether land use planning under chieftaincy institutions leads to positive social and environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is wide engagement with large-scale land deals in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from the perspectives of development and international political economy. Recently, scholars have increasingly pointed to a gendered lacuna in this literature. Engagement with gender tends to focus on potential differential impacts for men and women, and it also flags the need for more detailed empirical research of specific land deals. This paper draws from ethnographic data collected in Northern Sierra Leone to support the claim that the impacts of land deals are highly gendered, but it also argues that lineage in a land-owning family and patronage intersect with these gendered impacts. This data supports my claim that analysis of land deals should start from an understanding of the context-dependent, complex arrays of power and marginality. Such a starting point allows for a wider and ‘messier’ range of impacts and experiences to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Land displacement, which is the use of land in one country for consumption purposes in another country, has increasingly become a global phenomenon with the growth of international food markets, global trade and low transportation costs. Large-scale land acquisitions occur when land is bought or leased by an investing party for export production, sometimes on terms that do not serve local people living off this land. Land acquisitions often occur in developing countries with a large share of undernourishment, possibly impacting local food availability. The goal of this research is to investigate global undernourishment and agricultural land displacement, using multi-regional input-output analysis to quantify the amount of agricultural land used for the production of crops traded between 133 countries and regions. The findings show that undernourished regions are more likely to export more embodied agricultural land, which is land used in the production of agricultural commodities, than they import. On the other hand, regions not suffering from undernourishment generally have higher imports of embodied land. Agricultural land availability per capita is lower in undernourished regions and shows a negative relationship with the share of undernourishment. Land acquisitions are found to take place mainly in countries characterized by undernourishment and net export of embodied agricultural land. This implies that land acquisitions reduce the local agricultural land availability per capita and could potentially affect local food security. Further research is needed to investigate local impacts of land deals on food security and to establish policy implications for governments of vulnerable regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the influence of various types of taxes on changes in differential (Ricardian) land rent, and the economic performance of agricultural producers. Labour and capital taxes lead to higher prices for agricultural products, causing a decrease in consumer demand and lower income for agricultural producers (mostly utilizing marginal land). A polynomial single-product model has been used to demonstrate that reducing the tax burden on agricultural producers - specifically taxes on labour and capital - will result in increases in differential land rents on the average and relatively better plots, and/or the emergence of the rent on the marginal land. Thus, substituting labour and capital taxes for land/property taxes reduces the overall tax burden of agricultural producers on marginal lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land is an important tool for local governments to attract investments and promote local economic growth in China. Based on panel data of Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2012, this paper employs spatial panel data models to examine the strategic interaction among local governments in industrial land supply and to indentify its possible sources. The empirical results show that there exists strategic interaction among local governments in industrial land leasing price. Local governments’ industrial land leasing price is significantly impacted by the action of neighbouring cities. They mimic each other – in terms of industrial land leasing price to attract outside investments. Empirical evidence reveals that the strategic interaction comes from both yardstick competition and resource flow effects. Local governments react more to their neighbours’ industrial land leasing price during political cycle periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of customary land into leasehold tenure has sparked intense debates in Zambia and beyond. Growing interest in land in the last decade and half has led to a spike in demand for land across Africa, especially land adjacent to major cities, towns and developed infrastructure. This growing demand for land is gradually being directed at customary land, which well-resourced urban and local elites, as well as foreign investors, are converting from customary to private tenure, raising serious questions about the future of customary land in Africa. This paper discusses the emerging dynamics around customary land conversion drawing from a case study conducted in Chongwe and Chibombo districts in Zambia. Evidence gathered in this study suggest that while the conversion of customary land to leasehold tenure is generating opportunities for the urban elite, a few traditional leaders and international investors, it is, at the same time, creating serious challenges for the majority of the people in the local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong government intervention exists in China's land market compared to other countries. This paper examines the effects of government intervention on land misallocation and identifies its source, based on Chinese prefecture-level cities' panel data from 2003 to 2012. The empirical results show that local government's distorted land-leasing price policy, by which it leases out industrial land at a lower price, and leases out commercial and residential land at a higher price, leads to land misallocation between the industrial and service sectors. Local governments' revenue and political incentives also cause land misallocation. More land is leased to the industrial sector when local governments intervene more in land prices and rely more on investments, and when local officials have an incentive to signal performance in the early years of their tenure. The distorted land-leasing policy results from local governments' attracting investments and land-financing incentives, which leads them to lower industrial land prices to attract investments, and to push up commercial and residential land prices in order to pursue revenue. Political cycles foster the effects of land price distortion on land misallocation. Reforms of China's land-leasing system and central-local fiscal institutional arrangements are needed to reshape local governments' land-leasing incentives and remove land price distortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses what the author refers to as the general failure of current law to ensure the decommissioning of wind farms in the U.S. as of 2016, and it mentions the aesthetic and environmental harms that are associated with abandoned wind farms, as well as the costs that are associated with removing wind farms. Decommissioning laws across America are examined, along with land leases in Texas and the production of wind energy in Great Britain and the U.S.

Recently, large-scale opencast mining activities in India have led not only to the increased generation of large volumes of overburden (OB) dump materials, but also to the transportation of huge volumes of loose geo-materials from coal faces to areas specifically designated for storing these materials in the form of external or internal dumps. The preparation of large-sized dumps is becoming a challenging task for the mining administration from two important perspectives, namely the limited availability of surface leasehold land for dumping geo-materials, and the associated problems of managing the increasing heights of these geo-structures. Normally, the assessment of stability, and taking proper steps to stabilise these external OB dumps, is a trivial task, but because of the increased risks involved with geo-hazards, the design and monitoring of such dumps is currently becoming critical for the production/operation of any mining organisation. Thus, a knowledge and awareness of the detailed nature and mechanical properties of the selected geo-materials present at these sites is becoming more important for stability assessment of OB dumps. In this study, the collected geo-materials (which are agglomerates of broken rocks and loose soil) were tested to evaluate their geotechnical parameters such as grain size distribution, soil permeability, compaction parameters, shear and normal strength characteristics, etc. These tests show that testing of geo-materials from one site is not sufficient for complete and proper site characterisation that would allow these values to be used subsequently in numerical modelling to quantify the stability of OB dumps. Therefor, it was decided that a geotechnical database for groups of geo-materials needs to be generated for the complete evaluation of OB dump stability for all mine sites in the areas of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 20 years the ratio of cash rent to cropshare land leases across the US has more than doubled. We test different theories that might explain this, and conclude that the shift is mostly the result of revolutionary changes in cultivation practices. The switch from conventional to conservation tillage brought about by changes in herbicide technologies, genetically modified seeds, increased fuel costs, and knowledge of the benefits of soil micro-organisms, has reduced a tenant-farmer's ability to exploit a landowner's soil. This removes a major incentive to cropshare and makes cash renting more attractive. Using USDA field-level data from across the US, we find strong support for this hypothesis, and some evidence that increased corporate structure also influences cash renting. Alternatively, we cannot find evidence that changes in risk, risk-aversion or insurance coverage explain the growth in cash renting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines a articulated and pluralistic account of the urban commons than currently exists in legal scholarship. It discusses how pluralistic conception of the commons also captures the ways that one can conceive of the city itself as a commons. It reports that commons framework can provide a bridge between the normative claim to the city, and its resources.

Setting a price for leasing non-public-use land is flexibility available to government authorities. Therefore, this study employs a stochastic optimization model incorporating relevant parameters of pricing strategies for leasing non-public-use land based on real option analysis (ROA). This pricing model is distinct from existing literature, which is not based on the developer's perspective. In particular, the exercise prices of “option to lease” are land ownership values under similar conditions. Among the 12 cases in which superficies rights of commercial lands were awarded in Taiwan, this empirical investigation found that the leasing of seven cases was more valuable than land ownership values. This study also suggests pricing strategies for leasing superficies rights under different scenarios and provides new insights for leasing non-public-use land from the perspective of the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Godshillwood and Woodgreen were extra-parochial squatter settlements probably established in the 1640s, and consisting of a dozen or so households in 1730. Three periods of rapid expansion occurred, during 1730-50 (the start of UK sustained population growth), 1790-1810 (during the agricultural boom of the French wars) and 1830-40 (a period of rural distress). By 1841 the total population was 485. The livelihood of the squatters depended on a range of activities, including maintaining orchards and gardens, farming, legal and illegal exploitation of New Forest resources, trades (notably shoemaking), agricultural labour (mostly for employers in neighbouring parishes) and leasing out of lands and cottages. A gradual pauperisation of the community between 1801 and 1841 is suggested. The settlement's extra-parochial status is explored, through its relationship with Breamore Overseers and its role in the illegitimate birth traffic. The colony's level of prosperity is assessed through examination of some key families and a study of settlement examinations and 40 or so surviving wills. The social range of the community is indicated by the presence of labourers and of gentlemen, with total bequests ranging from a few shillings to £700. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use the real option theory to examine the critical factors affecting the decision of farmers to quit agriculture production and lease the land, model the optimal leasing decision as a perpetual American put option, and derive a partial differential complementary problem for the option value, which is solved by a power penalty approach. In addition, a finite difference method is employed to discretize the resulting nonlinear partial differential equation, and it is studied that when to lease the land is optimal for farmers. We also empirically compute and analyse the optimal exercise boundary to provide the assistance for the decision making and highlight the key details of the numerical implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• I analyze the relationship between land rental activity and the allocation of labor between agriculture and non-agriculture. • Reducing transaction costs for land rentals creates short run incentives to join agriculture but also long run incentives to quit agriculture. • In most countries the reallocation of labor to be expected from this policy is small. • Yet production efficiency and welfare increase considerably in low and middle income countries. • A redistribution of land brings similar results and is also predicted to reduce income inequality. Recent econometric work suggests that there is a positive link between the development of land rental markets and the migration of workers out of agriculture in the developing world. I investigate this claim using a two-sector model of structural transformation that takes into account the well-known inverse relationship between farm size and farm productivity. The model studies how the allocation of employment between agricultural and non-agricultural activities is affected by the presence of transaction costs in the land rental market, as well as by the initial distribution of land ownership. Theoretically, a reduction in transaction costs induces outmigration from agriculture if agricultural prices are sufficiently flexible, while rigid agricultural prices may lead to the reverse phenomenon of immigration in agriculture. Practically, the model predicts that for most of the countries tested, a reduction in transaction costs causes little labor movement between sectors. This is equally true concerning the effect of a land redistribution. In spite of this, these reforms are found to increase substantially the production efficiency and welfare of farmers. These results suggest that the main benefit of stimulating land rentals is not in fostering structural transformation, but in improving the livelihoods of farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although leasing hunting rights increases landowner income and provides incentives to improve wildlife habitat, few landowners lease their lands. In this article, landowner attitudes about potential problems associated with fee hunting leases were explored based on a mail survey of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners. Responses to questions eliciting landowner levels of concern with 17 potential issues associated with hunting leases were aggregated into four categories: concerns about property damage and liability, customer relations, impacts on personal use, and impacts on habitat, wildlife and safety. Landowners were grouped into five subgroups based on their attitudes to these four categories. These groups were significant predictors of landowner willingness to allow hunting access in conjunction with public land hunting lease rate, property characteristics, and landowner demographics. These results provided insights into problems facing hunters and land managers attempting to improve access to NIPF lands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 2004, two auction mechanisms – listing auctions and tender auctions – have played a dominant role in land lease arrangements for real estate development in Beijing. Listing auctions in land markets are similar to general English auctions, where bidders offer the highest price to win. However, in tender auctions, winners are determined by the bidding price and the bidder’s financial capability and reputation. Based on granted land parcels from 2006 to 2012 in Beijing, this paper attempts to examine the price differences between the two auctions and the role of land auction in urban development and price stabilisation. We find that land policy in Beijing, which aims to stabilise land prices and to provide low-price residences, has been integrated with urban development planning in terms of spatial and density pattern. Land leasing in Beijing is not only a land policy but also a part of the strategy framework of local development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses urban center retailing as of 2015, and it mentions the impact of Internet consumerism on physical retailing, as well as information about retail leasing practices, land use planning, and zoning strategies in places such as the U.S. Consumers' preferences are mentioned, along with the impacts of technology challenges on consumer behavior. Loyalty pricing, retail landlord opportunities, and local ordinances are also examined.

In the context of the rapid development of the cultivation of genetically modified soybeans in Argentina, we conduct a hedonic analysis of agricultural land values. The main objective is to evaluate the impact of land tenure systems and agricultural practices on these values. Data on 338 parcels, located in the Pampas region, are analyzed. The tenure appears to be a particularly important variable. We find that plots rented either by physical persons or by companies are negatively valued in relation to plots owned. Results also highlight the importance, though not to a large degree, of a diversified cropping pattern compared to soybean monoculture. Soil quality, location of the plots, distance to markets, as well as to the nearest city, were also found to affect land values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article has been to identify and evaluate main factors which influence the land-lease market in Poland. Statistical data from two institutions, namely the Agricultural Property Agency (APA) and the Central Statistical Office, as well as the author's own research have been used. The time horizon of the analysis covered 1992-2012. At the beginning of the system transformation in Poland, the APA faced a low demand for land acquisition. Formally, the domestic land lease market in Poland mostly consists of the Stock of the State Treasury because land leases between neighbour farmers typically involve small acreage and the vast majority of land-lease contracts on the private market are informal. In line with the current policy governing the management of farmland in Poland, sale is a preferred solution to lease, as a result of which the number of new land-lease contracts is relatively small, for example in 2012 they covered in total about 11.6 thousand ha. The total number of binding land-lease contracts was 68.9 thousand, which covered 1.3 million ha of farmland from the Stock of the State Treasure (about 28%). The growing interest in leasing land on the private market can be associated with both a small supply of land offered for sale and the fact that the land lots offered for lease by the ANR are fewer less attractive than previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a resurgence of interest in the impacts of agricultural productivity on land use and the environment. At the center of this debate is the assertion that agricultural innovation is land sparing. However, numerous case studies and global empirical studies have found little evidence of higher yields being accompanied by reduced area. We find that these studies overlook two crucial factors: estimation of a true counterfactual scenario and a tendency to adopt a regional, rather than a global, perspective. This paper introduces a general framework for analyzing the impacts of regional and global innovation on long run crop output, prices, land rents, land use, and associated CO2 emissions. In so doing, it facilitates a reconciliation of the apparently conflicting views of the impacts of agricultural productivity growth on global land use and environmental quality. Our historical analysis demonstrates that the Green Revolution in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East was unambiguously land and emissions sparing, compared with a counterfac-tual world without these innovations. In contrast, we find that the environmental impacts of a prospective African Green Revolution are potentially ambiguous. We trace these divergent outcomes to relative differences between the innovating region and the rest of the world in yields, emissions efficiencies, cropland supply response, and intensification potential. Globalization of agriculture raises the potential for adverse environmental consequences. However, if sustained for several decades, an African Green Revolution will eventually become land sparing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the scientific paper was to find correlation between total utilized agricultural land and leased farmland by agricultural holdings in Slovakia. The evaluation was realized by using the method of regression analysis to verify the hypotheses and correlation. Based on the research we can conclude that was confirmed by 48% correlation between the total utilized land and acreage of leased land only by small individual farmers. Based on the research we came to the conclusion that, the correlation between the area of agricultural land leased from individuals and the amount of the rent for one hectare is quite strong, accounting for 60%.In Slovakia the agricultural holdings and farmers are farming on leased land and the fact is that the rent is relatively low. Amount of rent for agricultural land in Slovakia in 2012 ranged from 6.50 to 120.00 EUR.ha-1. The low amount of rent for agricultural land in Slovakia compared to EU countries is directly related to a lower level of agricultural production and also revenues, up about 30 to 40% per hectare of agricultural land. By comparing the rent per 1 ha of agricultural land in Slovakia with selected EU countries shows that in Slovakia is the rent 14 to 55 times lower. We can assume that the interest in rent of agricultural land will have a growing trend due to revenue arising from the implementation of direct payments under the CAP of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2009, Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, put forward a set of 11 principles to address ‘the human rights challenge’ of large-scale acquisitions and leases of land. This article briefly outlines the main elements of the Minimum Principles, their objective, as well as the context in which they were released. It also presents a critical analysis of their impact, based on the controversies that they sparked among various stakeholders. En junio de 2009, Oliver de Schutter, el ponente especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre el derecho al alimento, propuso una serie de once principios para tratar sobre “el desafío a los derechos humanos” de las adquisiciones a gran escala y los contratos de arrendamiento de tierra. La llamada por el ponente especial para disciplinar el acaparamiento de tierras, vino en un momento en que no había ninguna directriz clara de la comunidad internacional, en cómo tratar el fenómeno naciente de acaparamiento de tierras. También estaba poco claro si se necesitaban las normas, o si las leyes nacionales existentes y los estándares internacionales, eran suficientes para regular lo que algunos observadores veían como un simple resurgimiento típico de inversiones de la era colonial. 2009年6月，联合国粮食权利特别报告员Olivier De Schutte提出了有十一项原则，来强调大规模购并和租赁土地带来的“人权挑战”。用于规范土地掠夺的此项特别报告员呼吁发生在国际社会尚未存在治理正在出现的土地掠夺现象的清晰指针。同样不清楚的是，是否需要新的规范，或者现存的国际法与国际标准是否足够管理一些观察者所视为的殖民地时代投资典型的一种简单再现。 في عام 2009، طرح أوليفر دي شوتر، مقرر الأمم المتحدة الخاص المعني بالحق في الغذاء، قائمة تتضمن أحد عشر مبدأً تعالج "تحدي حقوق الإنسان" الذي تمثله عمليات الاستحواذ والإيجار واسعة النطاق للأراضي. وقد جاءت دعوة المقرر الخاص إلى ضبط عمليات الاستيلاء على الأراضي في وقت كان يشهد الافتقار إلى مبادئ توجيهية واضحة من جانب المجتمع الدولي بشأن معالجة هذه الظاهرة الناشئة. كما لم يكن واضحاً مدى الاحتياج إلى القواعد الجديدة، وما إذا كانت القوانين الوطنية والمعايير الدولية القائمة كافية لتنظيم ما يعتبره بعض المراقبين مجردة استعادة لنمط الاستثمارات في الحقبة الاستعمارية. 2009년 유엔 식량권 특별 보고관 올리비에 드 슈터는 대규모 토지 매임과 임차가 지니는 “인권 도전”을 다루기 위해서 11개의 원칙을 제시했다. 당시 토지 매임을 규제하기 위하여 특별 보고관의 요구는 새로운 토지 매입 현상을 다루기 위한 국제 사회의 분명한 가이드라인이 없던 때였다. 또한 새로운 규범이 필요한지 혹은 일부는 식민지 시대 전형적이었던 단순한 투자의 부활로 보았던 것을 규제하는데 기존의 국가 법률과 국제법 기준이 충분한지 불분명했었다. В июне 2009 года Оливье де Шуттер, Специальный докладчик ООН по праву на питание, выдвинул ряд из одиннадцати принципов для решения «проблем в области прав человека» в крупномасштабных приобретениях и аренде земли. Призыв Специального докладчика упорядочить захват земель прозвучал в тот момент, когда еще не было четкого руководства со стороны международного сообщества в решении возникающего явления захвата земель. Было также неясно, необходимы ли новые нормы, или существующих национальных законов и международных стандартов было достаточно, чтобы регулировать то, что некоторые наблюдатели рассматривают как простое возобновление инвестиций типичное д&#x4 [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The fact that local governments rely heavily on land finance has fostered the emergence of "land lease price champion" in many cities across the country through land auctions and land auctions are most likely to cause excessive land auction premium. This paper focuses on residential and commercial land lease transactions in Beijing for a period from 2003 to 2010 and studies the driving forces of the observed land auction premium using hedonic pricing methodology. Results show that land use purpose, floor-to-site ratio, location, the type of land bidder and distance to city center significantly impact the land auction premium. Comparing with private real estate companies, state-owned real estate firms exert more impact on land auction premium. Another finding is that part of the stimulus package released in 2009 to cope with the economic crisis has been directed to land market through state-owned real estate firms that pushes up the land prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses emerging issues related to urban agriculture in the U.S. Topics covered include zoning and urban agriculture issues, processes related to animal keeping as well as soil testing. Also mentioned are problems and concerns in relation to land acquisition, land trusts, creative leasing and publicly operated community gardens.

• Reforms helped the state to control agricultural land leading to land concentration. • Land reforms did not improve the efficiency of land allocation. • Owned land facilitated access to credit but the reforms did not help. • Bolder land reforms may improve land's allocative efficiency and access to credit. This study analyses the effect of Kazakhstan's 2003–2005 agricultural land reform on land rental and credit market participation. Although the reform declared an intention to facilitate efficient land allocation, we observe a major land concentration. We analyze whether new land relations stimulated land sales and rental markets and made credit more accessible. Utilizing data from two independent surveys before and after private land ownership was introduced, we demonstrate that the reform did not affect the land sales market but reorganized the land-rental market in a top-down fashion with the state remaining the principal landlord. The reform did not achieve the goal of providing access to land for the more skilled producers and did little to facilitate the use of owned land as collateral. The reform achievements are modest and bolder steps will be necessary to improve the functioning of Kazakhstan's agricultural land markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]