Drivers of Households’ Land-Use Decisions: A Critical Review of Micro-Level Studies in Tropical Regions

Abstract

This paper reviews 91 recent empirical and theoretical studies that analyzed land-use change at the farm-household level. The review builds on a conceptual framework of land-use change drivers and conducts a meta-analysis. Results show that the conversion of forests into cultivated land or grassland, mainly used for agriculture or ranching, are most frequently analyzed. Only a small number of studies consider the transition of wetlands for agriculture and few cases deal with the conversion from agriculture into protected zones. Moreover, interactions between drivers add to the complexity of land-use change processes. These interrelationships are conditioned by institutions and policies. In particular, the market-oriented reforms adopted by many developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s seem to have had an important role in altering land use, while impacts of more recent policies need to be better explored. Many studies rely on small samples and face problems of internal validity. Despite these weaknesses, the literature points at micro-level economic growth, for example in income and capital endowments, as a strong catalyst of human induced land-use change. However, the review suggests that-across the different studies and cases-there is considerable heterogeneity in the relationship between these factors and land-use change.

Modeling peat- and forestland conversion by oil palm smallholders in Indonesian Borneo

“…In popular discourse and literature, it is widely claimed that blanket interventions to address smallholder sustainability challenges are likely to be ineffective because they fail to adequately account for smallholders' tremendous heterogeneity [17,18,20]. For example, deforestation and/or peatland conversion is frequently attributed to migrants and entrepreneurial elites that are better resourced, possess greater risk tolerance and are more inclined to operate under shorter planning horizons than indigenous smallholders [15,16,21,22]. This article seeks to establish such associations.…”

A multiscale gaming approach to understand farmer’s decision making in the boom of maize cultivation in Laos

“…First, it covers a sequence of decisions that influence each other and are path dependent. In a recent metastudy, Hettig et al (2016) found that most studies investigating household decision making in the tropics only covered one decision situation in isolation. Multiscale gaming offers new opportunities to take path dependency and a whole narrative of decision making into account.…”

“…Furthermore, meta-analyses are synthesis methods for uncovering insights over larger regions and/or specific land-change processes , Hettig et al 2016. The multiscale methodology offers several advantages over these methods.…”

Estate Crops More Attractive than Community Forests in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

“…However, while conservationists lament the rapidly increasing pressures on tropical landscapes from increasing global agricultural needs, agricultural investment is often the only opportunity available to meet rising development aspirations of rural forest dwellers [9,22,23]. Agricultural innovation at the landscape scale must benefit smallholders for inclusive development, a pre-requisite to achieving long-term conservation goals if they are to remain living there [24,25]. In West Kalimantan, local management of resources includes both indigenous management and community-based management.…”