Towards transparency in land ownership: A framework to research beneficial land ownership

Caitlin J. Pierce, Nick Tagliarino, Megan MacInnes, Poppea Daniel, Jean Brice Tetka, Leon Verstappen, Maira Martini, Annette Maria Jaitner

In many countries, unidentified private individuals and legal entities retain significant economic benefits from land. This lack of transparency can make it harder for affected communities and or governments to hold legal entities accountable for land use decision-making and any sort of violation they commit. Building on methodology used to investigate beneficial ownership of legal entities, this paper proposes a methodology to use to investigate beneficial ownership in large (greater than 200 ha) land holdings. The methodology was tested using field research in Scotland and desk-based research in Sierra Leone.

Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018

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Document type:Towards transparency in land ownership: A framework to research beneficial land ownership (523 kB - pdf)