Social-ecological landscapes comprise multiple ecological niches and land uses, as well as diverse, and often overlapping, jurisdictions for land and resource management which can pose particular challenges for land governance and property rights.
The complex constellation of rights and various degrees of security to those rights that exist can be confusing. This confusion makes planning difficult. Expanded investment in ILM, therefore, requires more nuanced understanding of the contextual factors, evolving practices, and policy mechanisms by which tenure security can be assured and by which sets of rights can be negotiated and renegotiated among stakeholders.
There is little guidance available to help leaders of landscape initiatives evaluate property rights issues, facilitate productive dialogue and negotiations on rights among stakeholders, design innovative strategies, or maneuver political challenges. To help address this gap, we undertook this scoping study to explore key issues in property rights and tenure which may affect prospects for the practice of ILM.
This study lays the foundation for a framework to more rigorously analyze issues and opportunities related to integrated landscape governance and property rights. It offers insight into innovative strategies that key actors are pursuing to address landscape governance issues in the context of overlapping and often competing claims and interests. And it evaluates their subsequent outcomes, including successes, tradeoffs and unintended consequences. The experience and cases reviewed draw broadly from the experience of different types of integrated landscape management initiatives, such as landscape and forest restoration, REDD+, biological corridors, integrated watershed management and integrated urban landscapes.
Featuring 5 diverse case studies
- The win-win promise of enterprise-based conservation: a case study of Makame Wildlife Management Area, Tanzania
- Green grabbing in biodiversity hotspots: a case study in Quito’s Andean Bear Corridor, Ecuador
- Contrasting models of urban farming: a case study of Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Commodity market influence on ejido land tenure regimes and the impact on forest cover across Yucatán, México
- Land tenure in times of crisis: a case study of post-earthquake Nepal
Pointing to 5 succinct next steps
- Refine analytical frameworks for evaluating property rights within multi-level landscape governance.
- Organize in-depth case studies in integrated landscape initiatives that focus on interactions among stakeholders and across land uses.
- Incorporate knowledge about property rights challenges and solutions in complex landscape mosaics into practical tools for ILM at all stages.
- Disseminate existing tools more widely to ILM leaders.
- Develop new models for ethical collaboration between indigenous/local communities and international companies/ investors.
