Home Institution
Vassar College
Publication Date
Fall 2014
Abstract
In Madagascar, legal systems of land tenure have been inaccessible for the vast majority of the rural population. This has stranded millions of subsistence farmers in a sense of insecurity, as they lack legal rights for the property that they have farmed for generations. Madagascar’s land reform, launched in 2005, attempted to change these exclusionary tenure practices. This reform —known as the Plan National Foncier—created land certificates and local land offices in an attempt to make legal land tenure financially, geographically, and logistically accessible to the local population. This study discusses the successes, failures, and unforeseen consequences of Madagascar’s land reform within the agrarian community of Betafo. Through an examination of theoretical contexts and various findings, this study concludes that land certificates are increasingly approachable to a rural population and provide a valuable form of tenure security. However, large swaths of land remain unclaimed, marginalized members of society continue to be excluded, “official” systems of tenure are encumbered by confusion, bureaucratic frailty plagues land institutions, and many “development” goals not been achieved.
Disciplines
Growth and Development | Inequality and Stratification | Natural Resources and Conservation | Politics and Social Change | Rural Sociology | Urban Studies and Planning
Recommended Citation
Crowl, Taylor, "Land Rights Among Subsistence Farmers: An Examination of Madagascar’s Land Reform and Prevailing Systems of Land Tenure in Betafo" (2014). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1896.
https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1896
Included in
Growth and Development Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Rural Sociology Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons
Program Name
Madagascar: Urbanization and Rural Development