 Land tenure security and deforestation: Evidence from a framed field experiment in UgandaSarah Walker, Jennifer Alix-García, Anne Bartlett and Alice Calder Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2025, vol. 131, issue C Abstract: We conduct a framed field experiment with Ugandan forest users to elucidate the impact of land tenure security on deforestation. One-third of participants faced a threat of eviction, one-third had the option to secure tenure through costly certification, and one-third had secure tenure. The results show that insecure tenure increases tree extraction by 23%, while certification reduces that effect by half. The conservation effects of certification are intensified for participants with a lived experience of land tenure insecurity generated by overlapping land rights. Our findings demonstrate that land certification can improve environmental outcomes and that these effects may be amplified by historical legacies of insecurity. Keywords: Land tenure security; Overlapping land rights; Deforestation; Land certification; Field experiments; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:131:y:2025:i:c:s009506962500021x DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103137 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier |
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