Fair Land Governance: How to Legalize Land Rights for Rural Development

Across the globe, farmers whose families have tilled the land for generations are being evicted from their homes because they do not have proper identification papers. The interests of large-scale agriculture, forest conservation, and urban sprawl threaten the fates of rural smallholders around the world. Five legal experts weigh in on this phenomenon in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, parsing local and international laws while finding possible solutions for this troubling trend through the empowerment and enfranchisement of local populations. An important survey of this a much overlooked subject, Fair Land Governance moves the debate over property rights into fresh territory.