Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. People and Forests
Volume 7 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2024.1487898

Land Tenure Security and Forest Cover in the Colombian Amazon

Provisionally accepted
Kelly W Jones Kelly W Jones 1*Nicolás Cabra–Ruiz Nicolás Cabra–Ruiz 2Natalia Correa Sánchez Natalia Correa Sánchez 3Eduardo Molina González Eduardo Molina González 4Maria Alejandra Vélez Maria Alejandra Vélez 5
  • 1 Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, United States
  • 2 Research Program in Development Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, United States
  • 3 Department of Global Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States
  • 4 Fundación Puerto Rastrojo, Bogotá, Colombia
  • 5 School of Economics, University of Los Andes, Colombia, Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Colombia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Land tenure security (LTS) is important for achieving many sustainable development goals but its influence on forest cover is mixed. The uncertain relationship between LTS and forests is driven, in part, by the moderating influence of other drivers of deforestation. In this paper we illustrate this complex relationship between LTS and forest cover for individual private landholders in the Colombian Amazon. We use household surveys and econometric analysis with matching techniques to examine whether formal land titles and perceptions of LTS influence forest cover. We explore how the effect of a land title on forest cover is moderated by perceptions of LTS, time to markets, and participation in a conservation program. We find that more secure land tenure, on average, has a statistically significant and negative influence on forest cover in our sample. The negative association between LTS and forest cover is stronger when landholders perceive they have secure tenure and are closer to markets. However, we find the negative relationship between land title and forest cover goes away when a landholder participates in a conservation program. While our cross-sectional data and quasi-experimental methods cannot lead to causal statements, our results are in line with many recent studies in the Amazon region, and our household-level data provides important insight regarding drivers of deforestation that moderate the relationship between land title and forest cover. Our results inform the design of future LTS interventions and conservation efforts.

    Keywords: Amazon basin, Colombia, conservation, deforestation, Forest, Land title, Land tenure

    Received: 28 Aug 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Jones, Cabra–Ruiz, Correa Sánchez, Molina González and Vélez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kelly W Jones, Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.