ABSTRACT
Around half the world’s countries are engaging in some form of land tenure reform in the wake of unprecedented pressures on land and natural resources (Wily, 2012). Human population growth, economic growth and large-scale investments in mining, food and biofuels, as well as rapid urbanization, climatic instability and space needed for post-confl ict reconstruction and community mobilization, are just some of the powerful forces spurring the competition for land and catalyzing tenure reforms across the world. Among the latter are new comprehensive land policies and land laws, including customary codifi cations in some countries; guidelines and codes of conduct for new commercial land-based investments; new systems of registration and land administration; new programs for land titling, and post-confl ict resettlement and redistribution efforts.
