Security of tenure, access, and user rights are central to achieving sustainable livelihoods for the rural poor, particularly in providing them with appropriate incentives to manage environmental assets for long-term productivity and income growth. Most PRSPs mention tenure and access to land and other productive resources; however, some treat the subject in only a cursory manner, while others present detailed discussions of tenure-related problems or plans for reform.
PRSPs should clearly identify the role of property and user rights as important factors shaping investments in agricultural productivity and the prospects for expanding rural incomes. More importantly, PRSPs must then indicate how they plan to deal with the nation’s particular tenure challenges.
Zambia’s PRSP points out that nearly 97 percent of Zambian farmers have no title to the land they cultivate, reducing incentives to invest in land improvements and agriculture- related infrastructure, preventing farmers from having access to credit, and depressing land productivity within a system where smallholders contribute about 60 percent of agricultural output (Zambia 2002:44). The PRSP also links the lack of secure title to disincentives for development of infrastructure for expanded tourism and eco-tourism opportunities (Zambia 2002:67). However, Zambia acknowledges that it has made little progress to date in setting up a land administration system, titling communally owned or state lands, or developing a market for land. The proposed remedy—a review of existing land law and tenure arrangements as well as discussions with traditional communities regarding incentives to open unused land for investment—may be realistic given political and budgetary constraints, but seems unlikely to bring about substantial progress in the foreseeable future (Zambia 2002:58).
On the other hand, Sri Lanka’s PRSP presents detailed proposals for far-reaching land reform to provide the poor with greater access to land. The government plans to test a new land titling program, designed to be fairer and more efficient, which is expected to reduce the cost of titling a parcel of land from US$110 to under $40. Proposed legal reforms would consolidate 25 different laws that directly affect land titling, and alternative dispute mechanisms will be used to resolve issues that prevent titling. Advanced information technologies, including digital mapping and integrated data management, will be used to accelerate land titling and registration and make the land-management system more transparent and accessible (Sri Lanka 2002:62).
Honduras outlines very specific actions, with associated budgets and deadlines, that will be carried out to improve equity and security in the poor’s access to land. Key elements include completing a nationwide cadastre (survey) of forest and agricultural lands to strengthen the legal basis for land ownership, modernizing the rural property registry to provide a modern tool for guaranteeing the accuracy of land tenure arrangements and land transactions, and an expanded program for titling rural properties for small farmers, ethnic groups, and independent campesinos (Honduras 2001:70).
Bolivia plans to regularize the titles to all rural land by 2006, including measures to simplify the procedures for registering land titles and property rights by merging the systems for physical and legal registration of property (Bolivia 2001:110).
