Land Titles and Agricultural Intensification at Forest Margins in Indonesia
Christoph Kubitza, Vijesh Krishna, Kira Urban & Matin Qaim
This study examines the potential of property rights to enhance land-sparing agricultural intensification in Sumatra, Indonesia, using data from a panel survey of farm households and satellite imageries. Provision of land titles is found contributing to significant increases in the use of farm inputs and to higher crop yields. However, we show that farmers located at the forest margins are less likely to hold land titles due to government restrictions. Without land titles, farmers are constrained to intensify production. In order to increase agricultural output, they can instead expand their farm to surrounding forestland. Tolerating deforestation by farmers while denying formal titles for land at the forest margins can, therefore, contribute to economic marginalization and increased deforestation. Besides increasing farmer?s access to land titles over non-forest land, policy responses could include a better recognition of farmers? customary land rights and simultaneously protecting forest land without recognized claims.
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