the role of property rights in natural resource management, good ...

Secure property rights are an important element of rural empowerment. Where property rights are weak ornonexistent, rural populations may be displaced or customary access and control over resources may bechallenged by outside interest groups. On the other hand, secure property rights that are protected by law canempower rural communities, ensuring participation in critical decision-making processes related to themanagement of land and natural resources, and other social political processes.Given the importance of property rights in providing critical incentive for sustainable management of landand natural resources, and potential for subsistence livelihoods and income generation as well as ruralempowerment, the nature of property rights, what constitutes these rights, and what makes for secure rightsneeds to be clearly understood. Conversely, a better understanding is needed of how insecure, unclear, limitedor short-term rights to land and natural resources provide disincentives for sustainable use and managementof resources. Indeed, failure to take into consideration land and property rights at the outset of the programmay inadvertently eliminate individual or collective property rights, fostering poverty, inequity, socialinstability, or in some cases, conflict. In other words, failure to grasp the incentive structures inherent in landand property rights arrangements may lead to unsustainable outcomes (FAO, 2002a).2 ROLE OF PROPERTY RIGHTS IN NRM: GOOD GOVERNANCE AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE RURAL POOR