Land allocation policy and conservation practices in the mountains of Northern Vietnam
2009
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Details
Title
Land allocation policy and conservation practices in the mountains of Northern Vietnam
Keywords
Subject(s)
Issue Date
2009
Publication Type
Conference Paper/ Presentation
DOI and Other Identifiers
10.22004/ag.econ.51763
Record Identifier
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/51763
PURL Identifier
http://purl.umn.edu/51763
Language
English
Total Pages
16
JEL Codes
O13
Q24
Q56
Q24
Q56
Note
In Vietnam, a quasi-private property regime has been established in 1993, with the issuance exchangeable and mortgageable land use right certificates. Using primary qualitative and quantitative data, this paper investigates the role of the titling policy in fostering the use of soil conservation practices by upland farmers in the northern mountains region. There, population growth and growing market demands have induced farmers to intensify agricultural production onto steep slopes. While poverty has been reduced, environmental
16 problems such as soil erosion, landslides, and declining soil fertility have become severe over the past years. Our findings suggest that soil conservation technologies although relatively well known are perceived as being economically unattractive. Focusing on agroforestry, we estimate household and plot level econometric models to empirically assess the determinants of adoption. We find that the possession of a formal land title influences adoption, but that the threat of land re-allocations in villages creates uncertainty and discourages this type of
investment. We conclude that more efforts are needed from decision-makers to promote and support the adoption of conservation practices and also to clarify objectives of the land policy in order to secure land tenure and initiate a more sustainable development in fragile areas.
Series Statement
Contributed Paper
667
667