IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v75y2018icp327-339.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discrepancies between paper and practice in policy implementation: Tajikistan’s property rights and customary claims to land and water

Author

Listed:
  • Klümper, Frederike
  • Theesfeld, Insa
  • Herzfeld, Thomas

Abstract

Property rights granted by land and water policies are not always identical with the claims – meaning perceived rights - people base their actions on. A high discrepancy between both resembles an ineffective policy implementation and bears the risk of unsustainable decision-making. Furthermore, perceived rights to land and its corresponding resource water can vary significantly. In this paper, we operationalize the property rights concepts and empirically assess, by specifying and quantifying, the difference between property rights and farmers’ customary claims to both, land and water resources. With regard to land, actors tend to base their decisions on customary claims, and override property rights. In contrast, regarding water, we find that the full benefits of property rights granted by a policy reform are often not recognized. Whereas in the first case political control and monitoring mechanisms seems to fail, in the latter a lack of information sharing let the farmers not exploit their full investment potential.

Suggested Citation

  • Klümper, Frederike & Theesfeld, Insa & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2018. "Discrepancies between paper and practice in policy implementation: Tajikistan’s property rights and customary claims to land and water," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 327-339.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:75:y:2018:i:c:p:327-339
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717312735
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.030?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth, 2014. "Property rights and sustainable irrigation: A developing country perspective," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 23-31.
    2. Klaus Deininger, 2003. "Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15125.
    3. Klümper, Frederike & Herzfeld, Thomas & Theesfeld, Insa, 2017. "Can water abundance compensate for weak water governance? Determining and comparing dimensions of irrigation water security in Tajikistan," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20.
    4. World Bank, 2012. "Farmer and Farm Worker Perceptions of Land Reform and Sustainable Agriculture in Tajikistan," World Bank Publications - Reports 11897, The World Bank Group.
    5. Chris D. Arnot & Martin K. Luckert & Peter C. Boxall, 2011. "What Is Tenure Security? Conceptual Implications for Empirical Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 87(2), pages 297-311.
    6. Smith, Robert E., 2004. "Land Tenure, Fixed Investment, and Farm Productivity: Evidence from Zambia's Southern Province," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1641-1661, October.
    7. Clark C. Gibson & Fabrice E. Lehoucq & John T. Williams, 2002. "Does Privatization Protect Natural Resources? Property Rights and Forests in Guatemala," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 83(1), pages 206-225, March.
    8. Lee J. Alston & Bernardo Mueller, 2008. "Property Rights and the State," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, chapter 22, pages 573-590, Springer.
    9. Lerman, Zvi & Sedik, David J., 2008. "The Economic Effects of Land Reform in Central Asia: The Case of Tajikistan," Discussion Papers 46249, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
    10. Lee J. Alston & Edwyna Harris & Bernardo Mueller, 2009. "De Facto and De Jure Property Rights: Land Settlement and Land Conflict on the Australian, Brazilian and U.S. Frontiers," CEPR Discussion Papers 607, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    11. Christopher S. Galik & Pamela Jagger, 2015. "Bundles, Duties, and Rights: A Revised Framework for Analysis of Natural Resource Property Rights Regimes," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 91(1), pages 76-90.
    12. Hayes, Tanya & Persha, Lauren, 2010. "Nesting local forestry initiatives: Revisiting community forest management in a REDD+ world," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(8), pages 545-553, October.
    13. Alston, Lee J & Libecap, Gary D & Schneider, Robert, 1996. "The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian Frontier," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 25-61, April.
    14. Jagger, Pamela, 2014. "Confusion vs. clarity: Property rights and forest use in Uganda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 32-41.
    15. Clemens Greiner, 2017. "Pastoralism and Land-Tenure Change in Kenya: The Failure of Customary Institutions," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 48(1), pages 78-97, January.
    16. Dinar, Ariel, 2012. "Economy-wide implications of direct and indirect policy interventions in the water sector: lessons from recent work and future research needs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6068, The World Bank.
    17. Theesfeld, Insa, 2011. "Perceived power resources in situations of collective action," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(1), pages 86-103.
    18. Ryan Bubb, 2013. "The Evolution of Property Rights: State Law or Informal Norms?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 555-594.
    19. Edella Schlager & Elinor Ostrom, 1992. "Property-Rights Regimes and Natural Resources: A Conceptual Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 68(3), pages 249-262.
    20. Laurence Roudart & Benoît Dave, 2017. "Land policy, family farms, food production and livelihoods in the Office du Niger area, Mali," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/242230, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    21. Frederike Klümper & Insa Theesfeld, 2017. "The Land–Water–Food Nexus: Expanding the Social–Ecological System Framework to Link Land and Water Governance," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, July.
    22. Zwarteveen, Margreet Z., 1997. "Water: From basic need to commodity: A discussion on gender and water rights in the context of irrigation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1335-1349, August.
    23. Daniel Bromley, 1992. "The commons, common property, and environmental policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17, January.
    24. Alchian, Armen A. & Demsetz, Harold, 1973. "The Property Right Paradigm," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 16-27, March.
    25. Akramov, Kamiljon T. & Shreedhar, Ganga, 2012. "Economic development, external shocks, and food security in Tajikistan:," IFPRI discussion papers 1163, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    26. Garrick, Dustin & Whitten, Stuart M. & Coggan, Anthea, 2013. "Understanding the evolution and performance of water markets and allocation policy: A transaction costs analysis framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 195-205.
    27. Klümper, Frederike & Theesfeld, Insa, 2017. "The land-water-food nexus: expanding the social-ecological system framework to link land and water governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16.
    28. Marc F. Bellemare, 2013. "The Productivity Impacts of Formal and Informal Land Rights: Evidence from Madagascar," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(2), pages 272-290.
    29. Besley, Timothy, 1995. "Property Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(5), pages 903-937, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hofman, Irna & Visser, Oane, 2021. "Towards a geography of window dressing and benign neglect: The state, donors and elites in Tajikistan’s trajectories of post-Soviet agrarian change," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    2. Akhmadiyeva, Zarema & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2021. "Understanding the Role of Perceived Land Rights in the Formation of Farmers’ Intentions: Evidence from Central Asia," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315076, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Lingling Hou & Pengfei Liu & Xiaohui Tian, 2023. "Grassland tenure reform and grassland quality in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1388-1404, October.
    4. Jayanath Ananda & Mohamed Aheeyar, 2020. "An evaluation of groundwater institutions in India: a property rights perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 5731-5749, August.
    5. Akhmadiyeva, Zarema & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2021. "How does practice matches land laws in Central Asia?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    6. Buisson, M.-C. & Balasubramanya, Soumya, 2019. "The effect of irrigation service delivery and training in agronomy on crop choice in Tajikistan," Papers published in Journals (Open Access), International Water Management Institute, pages 81:175-184..
    7. Niyazmetov, Davron & Soliev, Ilkhom & Theesfeld, Insa, 2021. "Ordered to volunteer? Institutional compatibility assessment of establishing agricultural cooperatives in Uzbekistan," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    8. Theesfeld, Insa, 2018. "From Land to Water Grabbing: A Property Rights Perspective on Linked Natural Resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 62-70.
    9. Van Assche, Kristof & Gruezmacher, Monica & Deacon, Leith, 2020. "Land use tools for tempering boom and bust: Strategy and capacity building in governance," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Klümper, Frederike & Theesfeld, Insa, 2017. "The land-water-food nexus: expanding the social-ecological system framework to link land and water governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16.
    2. Addiswork Tilahun Teklemariam & Logan Cochrane, 2021. "The Rush to the Peripheries: Land Rights and Tenure Security in Peri-Urban Ethiopia," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Frederike Klümper & Insa Theesfeld, 2017. "The Land–Water–Food Nexus: Expanding the Social–Ecological System Framework to Link Land and Water Governance," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Akhmadiyeva, Zarema & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2021. "How does practice matches land laws in Central Asia?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    5. Yiwen, Zhang & Kant, Shashi, 2022. "Secure tenure or equal access? Farmers’ preferences for reallocating the property rights of collective farmland and forestland in Southeast China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Jongwook Kim & Joseph T. Mahoney, 2002. "Resource-based and property rights perspectives on value creation: the case of oil field unitization," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4-5), pages 225-245.
    7. Gwendoline Promsopha, 2018. "Risk†Coping, Land Tenure And Land Markets: An Overview Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 176-193, February.
    8. Cao, Yueming & Bai, Yunli & Zhang, Linxiu, 2020. "The impact of farmland property rights security on the farmland investment in rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    9. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Doss, Cheryl R. & Theis, Sophie, 2017. "Women’s land rights as a pathway to poverty reduction: A framework and review of available evidence," IFPRI discussion papers 1663, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    10. Alain de Janvry & Kyle Emerick & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2015. "Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3125-3149, October.
    11. Séogo, Windinkonté & Zahonogo, Pam, 2023. "Do land property rights matter for stimulating agricultural productivity? Empirical evidence from Burkina Faso," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. Kotchikpa Gabriel Lawin & Lota Tamini, 2018. "Droits de propriété foncière et performance des petits producteurs agricoles des pays en développement : une synthèse de la littérature empirique," CIRANO Working Papers 2018s-05, CIRANO.
    13. Walker, Kendra L., 2021. "Effect of land tenure on forest cover and the paradox of private titling in Panama," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    14. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Quisumbing, Agnes & Doss, Cheryl & Theis, Sophie, 2019. "Women's land rights as a pathway to poverty reduction: Framework and review of available evidence," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 72-82.
    15. Krul, Kees & Ho, Peter & Yang, Xiuyun, 2020. "Incentivizing household forest management in China's forest reform: Limitations to rights-based approaches in Southwest China," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    16. Hagos, Hosaena Ghebru, 2012. "Tenure (in)security and agricultural investment of smallholder farmers in Mozambique:," MSSP working papers 5, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Thomas Vendryes, 2014. "Peasants Against Private Property Rights: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 971-995, December.
    18. Olegas Beriozovas & Dalia Perkumienė & Mindaugas Škėma & Abdellah Saoualih & Larbi Safaa & Marius Aleinikovas, 2024. "Research Advancement in Forest Property Rights: A Thematic Review over Half a Decade Using Natural Language Processing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-28, September.
    19. Jagger, Pamela, 2014. "Confusion vs. clarity: Property rights and forest use in Uganda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 32-41.
    20. Deininger, Klaus & Chamorro, Juan Sebastian, 2004. "Investment and equity effects of land regularisation: the case of Nicaragua," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 101-116, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:75:y:2018:i:c:p:327-339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.