Fair Land Governance. How to Legalise Land Rights for Rural Development

Abstract

The 'project' may be large-scale agriculture, industry, bio fuels, forest conservation, urban sprawl, or transnational land-grabbing by countries insecure in food and energy resources. Can such peasants be empowered with 'papers'? Individual land titling has not been a 'silver bullet', as Hernando de Soto once suggested. So, if not private property, then what? Five legal experts who believe in adaptation to local conditions share their experiences and work with local people, take their needs seriously, respect their ways of managing land, make good use of the legal system and opt for simple but robust registration systems.