Thanks but no thanks: A new policy to reduce land conflict

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Land conflicts in developing countries are costly. An important policy goal is to create respect for borders. This often involves mandatory, expensive interventions. We propose a new policy design, which in theory promotes neighborly relations at low cost. A salient feature is the option to by-pass regulation through consensus. The key idea combines the insight that social preferences transform social dilemmas into coordination problems with the logic of forward induction. As a first, low-cost pass at empirical evaluation, we conduct an experiment among farmers in the Ethiopian highlands, a region exhibiting features typical of countries where borders are often disputed. Our results suggest that a low-cost land delimitation based on neighborly recognition of borders could deliver a desired low-conflict situation if accompanied by an optional higher cost demarcation process. JEL-Code: C780, C930, D630, Q150. Terms of use: Documents inKeywords: conflict, land-conflict game, social preferences, forward induction, Ethiopia, experiment, land reform. Martin Dufwenberg

Transaction costs, communication and spatial coordination in Payment for Ecosystem Services Schemes

“…Forward induction involves making an inference about the future play in a subgame based on information about play leading up to the subgame(Van Huyck et al 1993;Cooper et al 1994;Cachon and Camerer 1996;Plott and Williamson 2000;Dufwenberg et al 2016) …”

The Role of Communication as Agrarian Conflicts Resolution (Systematic Literature Review

“…Negotiation can be chosen as conflict resolution. In this case, it must start from awareness to jointly interpret the function of the land (Vos, 2016), adhere to the consensus that has been made (Dufwenberg et al, 2016), awareness of equitable distribution of land that is not monopolized by certain parties (Petrescu-Mag et al, 2018), compromise (van Leeuwen et al, 2020, comply with collective agreements ( (Riyadi., 2017), and all parties are willing to accommodate their respective interests ( Putri., 2017). Negotiations by bringing together conflicting parties will make it easier to convey views and interests.…”

Land Tenure Disputes and Resolution Mechanisms: Evidence from Peri-Urban and Nearby Rural Kebeles of Debre Markos Town, Ethiopia

“…Group invasions or evictions of entire settlements are common examples of these types of land disputes [10,47]. Land disputes in rural areas are often found between different interest groups, e.g., between farmers and investors and/or the state, as well as between farmers themselves [48].…”

“…Although land issues are amongst the most prominent causes and driving factors for the outbreak of armed conflicts, there is a lack of adequate attention to address those issues with appropriate approaches and strategies in a timely manner [13,30,48]. Presently, due to growing competition over diminishing land resources, many developing states have found the resolution and management of land disputes to be some of their most critical challenges.…”