View/Open - Sokoine University of Agriculture

There are many examples of rules that consider access and interaction, however,access rights are typically formed as property rights or use rights since it is central toany clear understanding of institutions and economic interests (Bromley 1989; Vatn2011). It defines who has access to the resource and under what circumstances.Property rights is a specific type of right of fundamental importance to resourceallocation issues (Vatn 2005), and thus for REDD+, extremely important. A right is asocial defined relation or “institution, offering individuals or collectives an assurancethat other people will behave in a specific way towards them” (Vatn 2005, p.253). InTanzania and Kilosa, such rights are not always clear and disputes over the right overaccess to resources occur frequently, especially over scarce and valuable resourcessuch as access to water. In this sense, adding value by REDD to land with formerlylittle value can potentially create what can be characterized as a race for rights overresources. To have property is to have a claim to a benefit stream and is not an objectsuch as land, it is rather a social relation that defines the property holder with respectto something of value (Bromley 1992). Hence, in the case with REDD, it is not theforest in itself that is of interest, but the services it provides.As clarified by Bromley (1991), property rights can be divided into four differentproperty regimes, characterizing different structures of rights and duties.State property is where the ownership is in the hands of the state and where agencieshave the right to determine the use and access of the resource with individual duties toobserve.Private property is where individuals own the land and have the rights to undertakesocially acceptable uses, and refrain from socially unacceptable uses.Common property is similar to private property, but the owners are a managementgroup of individuals that has the rights to exclude non-members.Non-property/open access is where no defined groups of users or benefit stream isavailable to anyone.Since different property regimes can be seen as social instruments, particular propertyregimes are typically chosen for different social purposes (Bromley 1991), each withspecific characters regarding transaction costs, legitimacy and motivation structures,25