Tenure insecurity can have important consequences for the conservation of natural resources. Land tiling is often considered a solution to the problem of weak investment incentives under tenure insecurity. Using a large plot-level database from Malawi, this paper shows that land tiling alone might not induce greater investment in soil conservation under the exisiting customary inheritance systems and that a reform of the rental market is in order. The paper focuses on two main sources of tenure insecurity: informal short-term tenancy contracts and customary gender-biased inheritance practices. Both sources of insecurity matter for soil conservation investments and are likely to be unaffected by the introduction of land tiling alone. Further evidence suggests that soil erosion can have adverse distributional effects and that tenure insecurity accounts for one-third of the long-term loss in land productivity.
This report contains a fairly comprehensive analysis of the current situation of energy and gender issues in ECOWAS Member States.
Land degradation has not been comprehensively addressed at the global level or in developing countries. A suitable economic framework that could guide investments and institutional action is lacking.