By applying a unified framework, this book examines the impact of land tenure reforms on poverty reduction and natural resource management in countries in Africa and Asia with highly diverse historical contexts. These land tenure reforms include Land-to-the-tiller policies, Market assisted land redistribution reforms, Tenure security enhancing low-cost reforms, Forest tenure reforms and the Needed future reforms related to the recent sharp increase in demand for agricultural land in Africa. The Land-to-the-tiller reforms did not produce the intended impacts but rather enhanced tenure insecurity, undermined the efficiency of land rental markets and access to land for land-poor households. Market-assisted land redistribution reforms face many design and political challenges and have in many cases not been scaled up in a good way. Low-cost tenure security enhancing reforms have recently been scaled up in a number of countries with positive initial impacts. Individual ownership of forestland is preferred in some contexts while communal tenure manages forest resources effectively in other contexts.

Table of Contents:
1. Land Tenure Reforms, Poverty and Natural Resource Management: Conceptual Framework; Stein Holden, Keijiro Otsuka and Klaus Deininger PART I: LAND REDISTRIBUTION REFORMS 2. Land Reforms, Caste Discrimination, and Land Market Performance in Nepal; Jeetendra P. Aryal and Stein Holden 3. Does Sharecropping Affect Productivity and Long-term Investment? Evidence from West Bengal's Tenancy Reforms; Klaus Deininger, Songqing Jin and Vandana Yadav 4. Would Small Be Beautiful in the South African Land Reform?; Henrik Wiig and Henning Oien 5. The Economic Effects of Land Redistribution: The Case of Community-Based Rural Land Development Project in Malawi; Franklin Simtowe, Mariapia Mendola, Julius Mangisoni, Hardwick Tchali and Clement Nyirongo PART II: TENURE SECURITY AND TRANSFER RIGHTS ENHANCING REFORMS 6. Welfare Impacts of Land Certification in Tigray, Ethiopia; Stein Holden and Hosaena Ghebru 7. Access to Land: Market and Non-market Land Transactions in Rural Vietnam; Luu Duc Khai, Thomas Markussen, Simon McCoy and Finn Tarp 8. Land Tenure Reforms, Land Market Participation and the Farm Size Productivity Relationship in Uganda; Alex Tatwangire and Stein Holden PART III: FOREST TENURE REFORMS 9. Forest Use Rights and Community Management in Inner Tarai Region of Nepal; Nayayan Poudel, Nobuhiko Fuwa and Keijiro Otsuka 10. Tenure and Forest Management in India: Impacts on Equity and Efficiency of Van Panchayats in Uttarakhand; Ashokankur Datta and Gunnar Kohlin 11. Tenure Security and Investment Effects of Forest Tenure Reform in China; Stein Holden, Yuanyuan Yi, Xuemei Jiang and Jintao Xu 12. Community Forest Management and Tree Planting on Farms in Kakamega, Kenya; Maurice Juma Ogada, Wilfred Nyangena and Geophrey Sikei 13. Impact of Land Certification on Tree Growing on Private Plots of Rural Households: Evidence from Ethiopia; Alemu Mekonnen, Hosaena Ghebru, Stein Holden and Menale Kassie PART IV: NEW CHALLENGES AND FUTURE OF LAND TENURE REFORM 14. The Rise of Large Farms in Land Abundant Countries: Do They Have a Future?; Derek Byerlee and Klaus Deininger 15. Using the Land Governance Assessment Framework to Help Secure Rural Land Rights: Framework and Experience Thus Far; Klaus Deininger 16. Conclusions; Stein Holden, Keijiro Otsuka and Klaus Deininger