Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Land tenure Economic aspects Ecuador'

Bibliography: leaves 651-699. "Through case studies of three emerging economies - Ecuador, Nigeria and Russia - this thesis analyses the factors present to a greater or lesser degree in emerging economies, such as severe foreign indebtedness and the absence of the rule of law, that undermine the effectiveness of the legal system in protecting indigenous peoples from oil exploitation. Having identified these factors, I propose that a dual approach to the protection of indigenous peoples' traditional lands and their environment be adopted, whereby international laws that set out the rights of indigenous peoples and place duties on states in this regard, are reinforced and translated into practice through the self-regulation of the international oil industry through a voluntary code of conduct for oil companies seeking to operate on indigenous peoples' traditional lands."

In surveying the literature on land tenure reform in Africa, what can readily be observed is that much of that body of work has comprised a markedly econometric and technical focus, to the neglect of evidently contiguous political factors. As a result, fundamental structural impediments to reform efforts have largely been ignored - a fact that may be reflected in the failure of many titling interventions. In light of this omission, the nature of political economy in both Ethiopia and Africa more generally is delineated in this thesis, in order to construct a more rounded conceptual framework through which the issue of land tenure can be deciphered. In so doing, the model of the ‘neopatrimonial’/anti-developmental state is utilised as a benchmark against which twentieth century Ethiopian regimes, and in particular the incumbent EPRDF Government, are assessed. Considerable evidence is uncovered to support the view that, despite its unique historical experience of independence, contemporary Ethiopia nevertheless fits with many key aspects of the neopatrimonial model – most notably in the Government’s pursuit of political survival and revenue to the neglect of long-term sustainable development. It is therefore argued that political imperatives have undermined the establishment of a progressive economic agenda in the country, and the ways in which this has affected land tenure are delineated. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the contemporary debate on tenure reform in Ethiopia has taken a form that is somewhat myopic and circuitous, possibly in an attempt to circumvent discussion of controversial political issues. It is argued that this apolitical stance has undermined not only the debate itself, but also the practical intervention strategies that have emerged from it, such as the recent land titling and administration project in Ethiopia. It is therefore concluded that the only means of escape from this theoretical and practical impasse is to reintegrate politics into the analysis.

In 1982 the governments of Honduras and the United States signed a contract that established the Proyecto de Titulación de Tierras, or land titling project. This project was initiated primarily to provide titles to small coffee farmers on State-owned land. Among the expected consequences of the project were increased access to resources, especially credit, for small farmers and increased on-farm investment due to this access to credit and increased security. It was hoped that a greater use of credit and investment would increase farm production and therefore the income and well-being of the farmers involved. In this dissertation, the land titling project is placed within the context of the history of agrarian reform in Honduras. The titling project called for a baseline study and final evaluation. These were carried out in 1983 and 1988, respectively. The author was able to obtain these data and re-interview the same farmers in 1993. These farmers are from two regions, one of which was titled and another which was not. The interviews gathered data on production, credit, use of inputs, investments, income and general socio-economic indicators. These data are used to determine the extent to which the goals of the tiding project have been met. A stochastic frontier production function is used to estimate farm-level technical efficiency. Following this, these technical efficiency scores are regressed on various factors such as education, credit and technical assistance to estimate their possible effects on technical efficiency. Finally, simultaneous equations are used to estimate the relationships among these variables. In general, ten years after the start of the project, the original goals have not been achieved. This analysis found that titling does not affect technical efficiency, access to credit, or the use of inputs. Education and technical assistance are the two factors that are consistently the most significant in meeting the project's stated goals. This analysis suggests that basic education and technical assistance, rather than expensive land titling projects, should be promoted to enhance access to credit, the use of inputs and increased technical efficiency.

Legislation in various jurisdictions alters the common law right to control access to one???s land by allowing the imposition of rights of access in favour of one landowner over the land of another. The relevant legislation can be divided into two categories. The first-generation legislation (s 88K, Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) and s 180, Property Law Act 1974 (Qld)) permits the creation of easements over servient land to facilitate the development of dominant land. The second-generation legislation (the Access to Neighbouring Land Act of New South Wales, Tasmania and the United Kingdom) permits the creation of temporary rights of access over servient land to facilitate work on dominant land. This thesis examines the extent to which this change in the law can be justified by three modes of ethical discourse: right-based, duty-based, and goal-based reasoning. An examination of the first-generation legislation and the cases in which it has been applied suggests that a form of goal-based reasoning can be used to justify its enactment. The legislation is needed to facilitate the efficient use of land where the existence of a bilateral monopoly and the possibility of strategic bargaining puts at risk the conclusion of a mutually beneficial agreement regarding access. A review of the second-generation legislation and the law reform reports and parliamentary debate that preceded its enactment indicates that the legislation can be justified by a form of duty-based reasoning. The legislation is needed to bring about a proper social ordering by imposing access rights where this would be consistent with the ideal of good neighbourliness. The thesis concludes that although these goal-based and duty-based discourses make an arguable case for the enactment of both generations of the legislation, neither of them, in an unadulterated form, provides a conclusive justification. Rather, an eclectic approach that draws on both discourses is required. It proposes that the legislation???s compensation provisions be amended to reflect the commingling of the ideas of efficiency, a properly ordered society and intensive land use, and to allow the servient owner to share in the benefits generated by the imposition of access.

South Africa’s land redistribution policy (1994-2008) has been widely publicised, and has come under scrutiny of late from the public, private and government spheres, highlighting a need for research in this area. The research examines progress in South Africa’s land redistribution programme in two of KwaZulu-Natal’s district municipalities, Uthungulu and iLembe. Specifically the research investigates whether the government has paid above market prices when purchasing sugarcane farmland for redistribution in these districts. Moreover, it is illustrated how productivity on redistributed farms has been affected with the changes in ownership. To investigate the research questions, reviews of theories pertaining to property rights, land reform and market structures were conducted. Moreover, two cases studies were conducted in the districts of Uthungulu and iLembe, with assistance from the Department of Land Affairs, Inkezo Land Company and the South African Cane Growers Association. The case study data indicate that above ordinary market prices have been paid (2004-2006) by the government for sugarcane farmland in the districts concerned, and further that productivity has been negatively impacted ‘during’ and ‘post‘ transfer, in the majority of cases.

South Africa is a new democracy that has had to deal with many historical remnants of apartheid. One of the main remnants has been land dispossession and massive inequalities along racial lines of access to land for agricultural purposes. In countering this, the post-apartheid state has pursued land redistribution programmes since the end of apartheid in 1994, as part of a broader land reform project. Simultaneously, post-apartheid South Africa has been marked by significant state restructuring notably a process of state de-centralisation including the positioning of municipalities as development agents. Amongst other goals, this is designed to democratise the state given the authoritarian and exclusive character of the apartheid state, and thereby to democratise development initiatives and programmes. Land redistribution and state decentralisation in South Africa are different political processes with their own specific dynamics. They have though become interlinked and intertwined but not necessarily in a coherent and integrated manner. Within broader global developments pertaining to state decentralisation and land redistribution, the thesis examines the complex relations between these two processes in South Africa. In particular, I analyse critically the decentralised character of the land redistribution programme in South Africa. In order to concretise and illustrate key themes and points, I discuss a particular land redistribution project called Masizakhe located in Makana Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province.

This study critically analyzed land redistribution and economic empowerment of farm workers in the Stellenbosch agricultural area. Past socio-economic and political policies have resulted in a racially skewed and inequitable distribution of land as well as overcrowding, overstocking and poverty in the countryside. It has become imperative that fundamental change is brought about in order to improve economical opportunities of all South Africans to access land for beneficial and productive use. Land reform, as the central thrust of land policy, is not only part of the effort towards the creation of equitable land distribution, but also of national reconciliation and stability. This study analyzed the notion of economic empowerment of farm workers. It looked at historical overview of the evolution of politics in South Africa and contemporary legislative framework pertaining to land redistribution and farm workers in the Western Cape. A case study of Bouwland farm in the Stellenbosch agricultural area was used as an example of how land redistribution can contribute to economically empower farm workers.

Loss and degradation of wetlands across Canada's prairie pothole region in Canada is severe and accelerating as on-going intensification and expansion of the agricultural land base continues to exert pressure on the remaining wetland resource. Traditionally wetlands have been regarded as unexploited wastelands to be converted to more productive agricultural uses. Although wetlands are now recognized as providing vital functions of a hydrological, ecological and social nature which have economic and social value as well as intrinsic value, difficulties in quantifying these benefits, coupled with readily calculated and realized benefits from agricultural production, result in continuing wetland losses. As well, because wetland benefits accrue to the general public rather than the private land holders who dominate the pothole region, individual owners cannot capture payment for these benefits and thus favor agricultural production over wetland retention. The primary objective of the thesis is to evaluate nonregulatory approaches to encouraging private landowner stewardship on the prairies with respect to wetland retention. From the literature, it is established that a nonregulatory approach to preserving wetlands on private lands is preferable to police power regulation from both a landowner and general public perspective. Several benefits associated with using nonregulatory tools to promote changes in landowner behavior are identified and developed into an analytical framework. Using this framework, six market and moral suasion nonregulatory tools commonly used to encourage landowners to retain wetlands are assessed for their apparent advantages and disadvantages in supporting the primary concerns of landowners faced with a decision whether to enter into a stewardship program. From this assessment, conclusions regarding probable owner acceptability of the mechanisms are drawn, acceptability being a measure for how successful the nonregulatory tools will be in promoting private stewardship of wetlands. The expected landowner appeal of the mechanisms is tested by evaluating their actual owner appeal as implemented in three on-going Canadian stewardship programs. Actual appeal is found to be fairly consistent with results from the literature analysis and conclusions from these results indicate that the mechanisms do vary in their effectiveness to encourage landowners to retain wetlands and thus vary in their ability to secure wetland acreage for protection. Data limitations are encountered in the case studies due to the infancy of stewardship programs in Canada and thus it is concluded that it will take time to demonstrate the effectiveness of nonregulatory mechanisms in promoting private landowner stewardship of wetlands. The evaluation of nonregulatory tools allows a number of recommendations to be drawn with regard to improving stewardship programs in order to effectively encourage landowner participation, the type of data base that needs to be established in order to effectively monitor the success of nonregulatory mechanisms, and opportunities for further investigation in this area of study.
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Graduate

The land reform that has unfolded in Zimbabwe since 1980 used different models and had diverse consequences. Since the implementation of the fast tract land reform programme in 2000, Zimbabwe experienced heavy reduction in yield and output at farm level that led to a 70% shortfall in production to meet annual food requirements (Richardson, 2005). The economic crisis in Zimbabwe has been characterized by worsening food insecurity especially in the rural areas where harvests continue to be poor. In the beef sector, Zimbabwe has failed to meet its export quota to the EU. The shortfall in production to meet annual food requirements shows a very grim situation but do not tell us about the performance of resettled farmers who now occupy much of the productive land. The broad objective of the study was to determine and compare the production efficiency of resettled farmers in Zimbabwe across land reform models. In addition, the study determined land use intensity. The study was conducted in the Mashonaland Central Province of Zimbabwe mainly because a wide variety of field crops were grown by resettled farmers. The respondents were stratified into three groups. These were: beneficiaries of land reform before 2000 (resettle scheme), fast track A1 model and fast track A2 model. The three models differ on how they were implemented and supported and this might result in different efficiencies of the models. A total of 245 copies structured questionnaire were administered on the resettled farmers from June to September 2010. Descriptive statistics was applied to the basic characteristics of the sampled households. The effect of model of land reform, gender of the household head, marital status, age of the household head, education, household size, religion, dependence ratio, whether the farmer was fulltime or part-time in farming, experience of the farmers in farming at that environment, total land size owned by the farmers and soil type on revenue per hectare and land use rate were determined using the GLM procedure of SAS (2003). Significance differences between least-square group means were compared using the PDIFF test of SAS (2003). The relationship between Revenue and land utilization was examined using the Pearson‟s correlations analysis. Dependance between response variables that had an effect on either revenue per hectare or land utilization with all the other response variables was tested using the Chi-square test for dependance. To find the effect of arable land used and herd size on revenue per hectare and land use the RSREG Procedure of SAS (2003) was used. Input oriented DEA model under the assumption of constant return to scale was used to estimate efficiency in this study. To identify factors that influence efficiency, a Tobit model censored at zero was selected. The mean land use rate varied significantly (p<0.05) with the land reform model with A2 having highest land use rate of 67%. The A1 and old resettlement households had land use rates of 53% and 46%, respectively. Sex, marital status, age of the household head, education and household size significantly affected land use (P<0.05). Revenue per hectare was not affected by any the factors that were inputted in the model. Results from the DEA approach showed that A2 farmers (large land owners) had an average technical efficiency score of 0.839, while the lowest ranking model (A1) had an average score of 0.618. Small land holders (A1 and the old resettled farmers) are on average less cost-efficient than large land owners, with a score of 0.29 for the former compared with 0.45 for the latter. From the factors that were entered in the Tobit model, age of household head, excellent production knowledge and farmer status affected technical efficiency whereas allocative efficiency was only affected by good production knowledge, farm size, arable land owned and area under cultivation. Factors which affected economic efficiency of the resettled farmers are secondary education, household size, farm size, cultivated area and arable land owned. None of the included socio-economic variables has significant effects on the allocative and economic efficiency of the resettled farmers. Thus, the allocative and economic inefficiencies of the farmers might be accounted for by other natural and environmental factors which were not captured in the model.

By using ethnographic methods based on extensive participant observation, this thesis explores the role of pastoralism and rural work as a medium of social reproduction for families in rural Mongolia. This work is reported in four articles, which examine herder household management, decision making, and the spatial aspects of household social and economic production. As standalone pieces and as a united work, the articles make a case for understanding social change through the lens of spatialized performative relations. Pastoralism as a form of work and social system is one aspect of these relations. I contend that people consciously engage with herding as a form of work, which is an important reference point in political subjectivities and administrative practices that idealize the state. The policies and practices of government institutions, including non-state agencies, play powerful roles in the particular forms through which relations are spatialized. By taking this approach and prioritizing herder critical reflections on their own lives, I argue against the dual claim that herders exist outside the state and are bound to local environments. I show, in contrast, how herder efforts to access resources beyond local environments, such as formal schooling for children, spatially transform the labour, finance, and mobility systems of households. My work presents three key arguments with reference to these concepts. The first is that patron-client relations continue to play a strong role in family hierarchies and wider social alliances used to gain access to needed resources and services. Secondly, I argue that pastoralist work is an integral part of governance and the propagation of the moral authority of the state. Pastoralism as a form of work should be seen as a political enterprise as much as an economic or cultural one. Finally, attention to the spatial organisation of household economies, including household splitting and new types of mobility, reiterates the significance of place in human agency.

Lesotho has a land area of about 30.340 square kilometers and is completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Much of the country is mountainous. Its agricultural sector is characterized by low productivity due to erratic climatic conditions, limited arable land and fragile soils with a low water holding capacity. These conditions have proved very detrimental to crop production, rendering agriculture a risky economic activity. Numerous efforts have been made over the years to address the technical constraints confronting the sector, but nothing seems to be changing. The implication is that the technical/climatic factors mentioned above may be only part of the problem. The current situation whereby Lesotho imports nearly 95% of its domestic food requirements is unsustainable, but this desperate picture looks set to worsen with the continuing threats of contracting farm sizes and further declines in farmer participation rates. But this sector has continued to be an important source of household survival and existence. A study was designed and conducted during 2008 and 2009 to identify the institutional constraints to horticulture production in Lesotho, looking specifically at the obstacles to effective production and marketing of horticultural products. A total of 100 farming households were enumerated in four districts of the country, namely Butha Buthe, Berea, Mafeteng, and Thaba-Tseka. A range of institutional and non-price factors in the farming and marketing environment were incorporated in a binary choice model to investigate the degree of satisfaction of the farming households with their previous year’s farming results. To avoid selection bias in the sample, a probit model was chosen, and the Stata-10 software was used to estimate probit coefficients. The results provide indications that property rights, the agricultural extension service, the condition of the physical infrastructure, and distance to markets may be crucial elements threatening the existence of this sector in Lesotho. The difficulties in accessing markets and land remain important institutional constraints to horticulture production and marketing in Lesotho. Recommendations made on these issues include providing more policy support to homestead gardening and for these issues to be incorporated into the Vision 2020 process. Also to be included is the issue of addressing the growing national food insecurity and enhancing Basotho livelihoods in general.

To redress past discrepancies in land tenure, the ANC government acknowledged that land needs to be made accessible to the previously disadvantaged, announcing that commonage would be a pillar of their land reform programme. Municipal commonage is land granted by the state to municipalities for urban households to use. Presently many urbanites in South Africa seek a livelihood from commonage. However, there has been no livelihood valuation of the contribution commonage makes to previously disadvantaged households. Thus there is a need to calculate the benefits of the commonage programme. Through a two phase approach, this thesis investigated firstly, the proportion of township households which use commonage; and the main characteristics of those households. Secondly, the thesis looks at the extent to which commonage contributes to users' livelihoods and the dominant livelihood strategies pursued by user households. Data was collected for three towns in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa; Bathurst, Fort Beaufort, and Grahamstown. Firstly it was found that between 27-70% of households used commonage, with the largest town having the lowest proportion of users, and vice versa for the smallest town. In terms of household characteristics, each study town was unique. Both Bathurst and Grahamstown user households were poorer than non-using households, however all Fort Beaufort households were considered poor. To assess the benefits of the commonage programme, the marketed and non-marketed consumptive direct-use values of land-based livelihoods on commonage were calculated via the 'own reported values' method. Commonage contributions to total livelihoods ranged between 14-20%. If the contributors from commonage were excluded, over 10% of households in each study town would drop to living below the poverty line. Additionally, commonage was being used productively, with the productivity at each study town being worth over R1 000 per hectare and over R4.7 million per commonage. Finally, a typology of subsistence/survivalist commonage users is presented, with four types being identified. Overall, results suggest that commonage use has increased over the last decade. Moreover, due to food inflation and urbanisation the use of commonage is expected to increase further, highlighting the need for holistic commonage management plans to be created, which should include strategies such as sustainable grazing regimes and natural resource management.

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Environmental and Life Sciences, Department of Human Geography, 2007.
"November 2006".
Bibliography: p. 352-398.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
xvi, 399 p. ill., maps

This study attempts to identify factors responsible for determining differences in the productivity of cattle managed by communal and private livestock farmers in the southern region of Botswana during 1999/2000. It is hypothesised that herd productivity and investment in southern Botswana are higher on private ranches than on open access communal grazing land. This study is important because livestock, especially cattle, contribute significantly to the livelihood of farmers in Botswana. Cattle are a major source of meat, milk and draught power, and provide a store of wealth that protects against inflation and which can easily be converted into cash. Cattle production is also an important source of employment in the rural economy of Botswana. Furthermore, the export of beef is a major source of foreign exchange earnings, and cattle account for 80 percent of agriculture's contribution to Botswana's gross domestic product. A stratified random sample survey of communal and private livestock farmers was conducted in the southern region of Botswana from August 1999 to May 2000 with the assistance of four enumerators. The sample survey data were used to compute descriptive statistics and to estimate the parameters of a block recursive regression model. The model postulated relationships between agricultural credit, investment in fixed improvement, investment in operating inputs and herd productivity. Some of the equations are estimated with Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and some with Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) to account for likely correlation between endogenous explanatory variables and the error term. Descriptive statistics show that levels of investment and herd productivity are higher on private farms than on open-access communal grazing. Private farmers are also better educated, more liquid, and have larger herd sizes, but do not differ from their communal counterparts in terms of age, gender, race or household size. The regression results show that (a) respondents with secure tenure and larger herds use more agricultural credit than those who rely on open access communal grazing land to raise cattle; (b) secure land tenure, higher levels of liquidity and use of long-term credit promote investment in fixed improvements to land; (c) liquidity from short-term credit and wage remittances supports expenditure on operating inputs; and (d) herd productivity increases with greater investment in fixed improvement and operating inputs. Herd productivity is therefore positively (but indirectly) influenced by secure land tenure. It can therefore be inferred that government should (a) uphold private property rights to land where they already exists; (b) privatise open access grazing to individual owner operators where this is politically, socially, and economically feasible; and (c) where privatisation to individuals is not feasible, government should encourage users to convert the grazing into common property by subsidising the costs of defining user groups and the boundaries of their resources, and enforcing rules limiting individual use of common property. This first-step in a gradual shift towards more secure tenure should be followed by the conversion of user groups to non-user groups organized along the lines of investor-owned firms where members exchange use rights for benefit and voting rights in a joint venture managed by an expert.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

A Research to the Development Studies Department, Faculty of Humanities of the University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master’s Degree (M.A) in Development Studies. 27 AUGUST, 2015
The relationship between farmers and farm workers in South Africa in one steeped in controversy, yet this area of study has received little attention. Agrarian history in South Africa is topical especially when considering the interaction between farmers (predominantly white) and farm workers (almost entirely black) in a capitalist economy. Farm workers current social and economic situation is a product of colonialism, segregationist and apartheid policies, as well as capitalist development and post-apartheid development strategy. This study hence analyses the social cohesion within the commercial farming community, placed against the backdrop of the Land Reform Programme – tenure reform. The social relations and labour are highly shaped by the capitalist mode of production and through the control of capital. Total institutions, domestic governance, and paternalism, impedes successful tenure reform. The study reveals a mutual cohesion between farmer and their employees based on a variety of reasons ranging from mutual understanding, good communication, good working relationship, and treating such other fairly. Nonetheless, this does not mean that farm workers are not being maltreated as other studies on farm relations have shown. Without a doubt, land reform particularly tenure reform has clearly tested the patience of farmers. The study further acknowledges that the current land reform programme (especially tenure reform) is deficient, and has not benefited those for whom it was intended. Despite the legislation that have been passed in order to protect the rights of those living on farms, and to secure the labour right of those who work on them, there has been little improvement in securing tenure rights as well as the poverty level of many farm dwellers. Successful implementations of recent interventions to tenure security are the preconditions necessary for the broader land reform programme to reduce poverty levels among farm workers. Hence, securing tenure rights for farm workers must therefore be tired to programmes which aim to reduce poverty level among farm dwellers in general. Tenure reform by itself cannot alleviate rural poverty unless the government take a decisive action to stimulate the rural economy. Equally, farm dwellers (including farm workers and labour tenants) have felt the harshest consequence of the crises facing post-apartheid South Africa’s agriculture sector. This historical process has left its legacy in post-apartheid South Africa, characterised not only by a bimodal agricultural system but also by an unequal relation within (white) commercial farms where farm workers and labour tenants are faced with the harshest reality of poverty in the mist of agrarian wealth. This study therefore explores the disputed labour regime in the farming sector – the mechanisation and casualization of farm labour, as well as farm consolidation, both leading to a drop in rural/farm employment as an immediate consequence; and low unionisation of farm workers.

MA, Development Studies Research report University of the Witwatersrand Final submission 2 November 2016
This study explores the land restitution experience of the Amangcolosi Community Trust, to understand what factors have allowed them to build a thriving land reform project in a terrain riddled with dysfunctional community property institutions and under-utilised land. The case of the neighbouring Gayede Trust, with a shared history, is used as a secondary case for comparison. The research considers what factors contribute to effective communal property management, as well as the role of government, the traditional authority, and commercial partners in contributing to or hindering success. It also explores what factors have allowed for alleged co-option of resources by elites, and the role of corruption and mismanagement by government in jeopardising the community’s success. Finally, it discusses the importance of accountability from both the top-down and bottom-up if land reform is to avoid ongoing repetitions of the tragedy of the commons.
GR2017

Previous studies by Thomson (1996) and Crookes (2002) in land rental markets of rural KwaZulu-Natal were based on the premise that rental markets brought about efficiency and equity gains. Indeed these gains were proven by econometric analyses in both studies. Poor households that lacked the labour, time and other resources to farm land prior to the introduction of the rental market, tended to leave their arable land idle. In participating in rental transactions, land transferred from these poor households to households with the resources and the willingness to farm; and rental income was earned by the poor households. The current 2003/4 survey sought to evaluate the gains in two new areas, Mhlungwini in the Estcourt District and Duduza in the Bergville District, not covered in previous studies. Institutional interventions, related to the land rental market, in Mhlungwini and Duduza, had started in 2000 and 1993 respectively. Equity and efficiency gains were again proven as Lyne (2004) reports. While Chapter 2 provides an in-depth review of literature related to the theory of economic institutions, Chapter 3 applies this knowledge to Thomson's (1996) pilot project on institutional reform. This project, in terms of its action research that bore the ex ante transaction costs of willing participants, set in motion a process of institutional change leading to the development of the land rental market. The introduction of a formal contract, approved by the tribal authorities, served to give credence to rental transactions. In addition, institutional changes were made to reduce the likelihood of crop damage by stray cattle on arable land, in order to encourage willingness of households to lease in land. Recommendations were made by Thomson (1996) to further increase the exclusivity of arable land property rights. Options were evaluated by the author for institutional reform of communal grazing resources. This is to prevent degradation of grazing land caused by overstocking. Recommendations were made to promote sustainable use of the land. Chapter 4, apart from briefly analyzing the current survey results, provides two comparative studies of institutional reform, the first related to Australian water resources and the second related to land registration experiences in Africa. The last section of the Chapter evaluates a proposal for introduction of formal financial services to rural farmers.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

This thesis investigates the design of a model, methods and guidelines that may assist government agencies in South Africa to find a balance between the objective of biodiversity conservation and increased local economic development in cases of land restitution in protected areas. The data collection that was needed for this study took place from 2007 to 2009 and was limited to seven priority protected areas in Mpumalanga Province. The general model design was established via an extensive literature review and analysis of the legal background and formed the theoretical concept of this thesis. The general model design was used to devise the guidelines for co-management to be used by government agencies in South Africa for the possible implementation of the biodiversity conservation and local economic development mandates in cases of land restitution in protected areas, within their financial and institutional limitations. From the results, it is clear that a consolidated government position, agreed upon by all relevant government stakeholders, assists in keeping the land restitution process in protected areas within the legal framework. Through the analysis of the model design in the seven priority protected areas it was identified that additional information is needed to reach the preferred land claim settlement option per protected area such as the actual tourism record, a socio-economic assessment of the environment in which each protected area is embedded, and financial figures to make projections on current and future net profit calculations. Government should support all the land claim settlement options, as elaborated in the model design, which is not the case at the moment, and most alternative options, other than co-management, are currently still unclear and/or not feasible. This might have serious negative implications for the conservation agency, with the risk of compromising its mandate to manage areas of high biodiversity effectively. The methods that were developed to workshop the generic agreement frameworks with the land claimant representatives proved to assist in the land claimants making an informed choice within the legal framework and to tailor the land claim settlement option and agreements to their specific situation.
Development Studies
Ph. D. (Development Studies)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration: Peace Studies, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017.
This study was conducted between November 2015 and March 2016 in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, one of the oldest and largest refugee settlements in Africa. The objectives of the study were to determine the forms and causes of land conflicts in the refugee settlement; to establish the relationship between land conflicts and food security in the Settlement; to identify the strategies refugees adopt to cope with land shortage and food insecurity problems in the Settlement; to establish the residents’ perceptions of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at mitigating land conflicts and enhancing food security in the Settlement and its host communities. Interest in the study arose out of the reported persistence of food insecurity and land conflicts despite efforts to ensure food security and restore peace and security in the refugee settlement and the host communities. The study used exploratory, analytical and descriptive research designs to obtain qualitative primary data. Secondary data was obtained through documentary review. Primary data was collected using interviews, focus group discussion and observation. The study found that land conflicts involve the destruction of crops, livestock and even human lives and they sometimes culminate in costly legal battles in courts of law. They pit the Settlement Commandant against Ugandans in the Settlement, pastoralists against cultivators, pastoralists against pastoralists, cultivators against cultivators, refugees against Ugandans and refugees against refugees. The conflicts also oppose host communities against refugees, conservationists against encroachers on protected land and Ugandans in the Settlement against the government. The study also found the causes to be land-grabbing and fraudulent acquisition of, or claims on, land by unscrupulous people, encroachment on others’ land and protected land, high population growth, the presence of vacant land in the Settlement, competition over increasingly scarce land by cultivators and pastoralists, ambiguous settlement boundaries, contested land ownership, jealousy and antipathy. The study further established that there is a strong positive relationship between land conflicts and food insecurity. Violent land conflicts lead to the maiming and death of farmers, destruction of crops and livestock and deterrence of potential agricultural investors from investing in agriculture, thus lowering food production and increasing food insecurity. Land conflicts also render disputed land idle and therefore unproductive, leading to reduced food production; and, within families, land conflicts lead to land fragmentation which leads to reduced food production and increased food scarcity. Regarding refugee coping mechanisms, the study found that refugees in Nakivale resorted to both positive and negative coping mechanisms. Positive coping mechanisms include establishing small businesses, rural-urban migration, farming, education and resettlement, intermarriage, paid employment, and psychosocial support. Others were: borrowing money, casual labour, networking, remittances, spirituality and religion. Negative mechanisms include: cheating the system and self-integration, prostitution, early marriage, drug abuse, theft and robbery. The study also found that interventions in land conflicts in the Settlement were unsuccessful due to corruption and limited involvement of the beneficiaries. The challenges of implementing refugee policy in the Settlement were identified as limited funding, inadequate coordination and consultation between the district and settlement authorities, xenophobia and an increasing refugee population with insatiable demands. The study recommends the following: demarcation of the boundaries of the Settlement; relocation of some refugees to other settlements in the country; housing scheme for both refugees and nationals in the Settlement to enable everyone to live decently; affordable loans for both refugees and Nationals in the Settlement; introduction of plot numbers to resolve land conflicts among refugees; a structural plan for the Settlement; mechanization of agriculture in the Settlement and increased provision of farming inputs, such as fertilisers to all farmers in the Settlement; coordinated and participatory planning between settlement and district authorities, involving refugees and Nationals.
D

Processes of dispossession led to the deconstructing and reconstructing of new forms of citizenship through new political identities. Concepts of citizenship and identity are now re - emerging with the reconstruction of a new political order post 1994. Who farm dweller families are in the newly constructed polity, or how their identities are understood by the new state, will have bearing on what they can rightfully access as part of the programmes of redress and transformation. Making the argument that farm dwellers are neither ‘peasant’ nor ‘labour’ or ‘worker’ in the dominant theoretical sense the research sets out to contextualise the farm dwellers’ development dilemma. This research attempts to situate farm dweller families in a dynamic and his torically fraught political economy so that a more accurate consideration is given to the impact of future settlement options on their households’ economy. This study evaluates the relationship between farm dweller settlement patterns and their household f ood security. in the Amajuba District of KwaZulu - Natal, South Africa. The situation of the farm dweller families in the Amajuba district tells a story of extreme vulnerability. The vulnerability is a product of their dependent relationship on the owners of the land for permission to access these basic but critical livelihood needs. Their continued dependence on natural resources, rather than the cash economy, is also a product of this decades’ long relationship which has perpetuated levels of generational chronic poverty. The cycle of this level of poverty is clearly vicious and without directed targeted intervention might take generations to overcome, if it is ever broken. The political economic context of an aggressive global food industry fed by industrial forms of agriculture, the levels of vulnerability, dependency and lack of agency in the farm dweller household economy and the incredibly uncertain government settlement and agricultural policy environment, makes the feasibility of new rural settlemen ts with new forms of economic and social functionality almost unimaginable. What the research finds is that in presenting the farm dweller perspective a good motivation can be made for developing a specific targeted state intervention that has short, medium and long term trajectories to provide farm dwellers with redress, and economic development opportunities.
Thesis (M.U.R.D.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This research was undertaken to determine the extent to which share equity schemes have been successful. The research also investigated the possible causes of failure of the established share equity projects and sought to determine the feasibility requirements that may be put in place to ensure success and sustainability of the ventures in support of land reform. The methodology used involved comparing the data gathered from business plans, valuation reports and other project documents from the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) with the information gathered through interviews and observations. The results revealed causes of failure to include the fact that beneficiaries of the investigated equity schemes did not participate in business plan development or implementation and therefore had no sense of ownership in the intended joint ventures. It was also found that none of the business plans included any form of training for capacity building and therefore no mechanism for empowering beneficiaries existed to participate effectively at all levels of the farming enterprise. Furthermore, original farm owners as the majority shareholders tended to re-invest profits into farm assets rather than paying dividends. It was concluded that the inclusion of a training programme in every business plan is crucial to the success of farm share equity ventures as this may enable beneficiaries to be sufficiently empowered to participate effectively at all levels of the business.
Thesis (M.Env.Dev.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

This thesis explores questions of gender equality in social welfare theory; methodologies; approaches and policymaking in the Global South in the context of land reforms. This stems from the realisation that gender equality issues in social welfare are increasingly receiving greater attention in the context of the Global North and less in the South. By adopting a Transformative Social Policy framework, the research departs from hegemonic livelihoods, poverty reduction and the ‘classical models’ of land reforms often designed from the mould of the neoliberal discourse of individual tenure to focus on land reform as a relational question. Empirical data was gathered using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach involving survey questionnaires; in-depths interviews; focus group discussions; key informant interviews and field observations. A total of 105 randomly selected households, comprising 56 male-headed households (MHHs) and 49 female-headed households (FHHs) participated in the quantitative component of the study, comprising a control group of nonland reform beneficiaries. Additionally, 30 purposively selected in-depths interviews comprising 20 FHHs and 10 MHHs were conducted in resettlement study sites. Findings from this this study indicates that despite the country’s depressed economic environment and the effects of climate change, transfer of land enhanced the productive capacities of individuals and rural households, including those headed by females. At micro-level, in-kind transfer of land to rural households proved to be a more superior social protection measure compared to either food or cash transfer. However, social relations and institutions proved resistant to change, posing a greater obstacle to social transformation. And more importantly, from a social reproductive perspective, the same land reform that enhanced the productive capacities of women, inadvertently, increased their social reproductive work with implications on the welfare of women relative to men. The thesis makes a contribution to social policy debates in Africa, which hitherto have been dominated by the introduction of cash transfers as witnessed in many countries across the continent. The transformative social policy approach brings novelty to the study of land reforms. By Conceptualising gender as a relational and social construct, the study adds knowledge on the nexus between gender, land reform and welfare using the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) as reference. With the FTLRP––as a leftist policy in a liberalised economy––there is a need for the government to re-align its social and economic policies to avoid inconsistencies in the country’s development path. On the gender front there is need to legislate resettlement areas as outside the jurisdiction of traditional structures; promulgate statutory instruments dealing with land and setting up designated land claims courts linked right up to the Constitutional Court. Specifically, for Chiredzi, there is a need to establish a corporate body to administer the affairs of Mkwasine following the pulling out of the Estate. Keywords: gender, land reforms, water reforms, transformative
Sociology
Ph. D. (Sociology)