Land tenure and land conflictLand tenure insecurity, conflicting property claims and unequal distribution of land lead to conflict in many rural areas of the developing world and tend to be aggravated in situations characterized by political, economic and social inequity. Land is a key source of livelihood for the majority of rural populations in developing countries and therefore, in view of rising levels of rural impoverishment (Lund et al., 2006), ensuring poor people’s access to and control over land is a central element in poverty reduction. This is also why one of the indicators under the Millennium Development Goal 7 is the ‘proportion of the population with access to secure tenure’ (http://www.unfpa.org/icpd/about.htm). Land issues in Africa are at the forefront of the policy agendas of governments and international donor agencies, while in Asia, land allocation and tenure continues to be a central issue in agrarian reform debates and policies. In Latin America land has re-appeared as an important policy issue. The response has been a series of land titling and land administration projects, partly inspired from the de Soto commission. Titling and land administration projects often focus narrowly on the state system for recognizing rights. Unquestionably, there is an important role for the state as a provider of law and order, and at least in theory as a provider of a juridical system that could ensure that agreements are kept, and land transfers take place according to established rules. However, many findings from legal anthropological research stress the fact that plural authorities can be involved in recognition of property rights (see for example Benda-Beckmann, 2003; Berry, 1993; Long, 2001; Lund, 2001; and Nuijten, 2003a & 2003b). Essentially, therefore, property relationships must be regarded as social institutions. Consequently, tenure security is best understood as a result of multiple legal, social, economic and power-related elements and their interplay, as well as their specific historic context. Insecurity is thus created not only by the lack of formal tenure documents, but by poverty and inequity, e.g. unequal enforcement of rights in case of land conflicts, power abuse and threats and use of violence. Inequality matters for people’s ability to defend their property (and other) rights. People are in different positions to seek endorsements for their land claims. As Peters shows (2004:270), “processes of exclusion, deepening social divisions and class formation” are at play in competition and conflict over land, in which land reform and titling programmes are elements. This is why it is so necessary to ask ”more precise questions about the type of social and political relations in which land is situated, particularly with reference to relations of inequality…” (ibid.: 278) to assess the extent to which land titling and administration will provide tenure security to the rural poor. Based on fieldwork undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa and Central America, research within this theme analyses land tenure security and land conflicts and the influence of inequity. The theme currently embraces the following activities:
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