Can market design be used to improve agricultural rental markets and facilitate welfare-enhancing trades? To explore this question, we map ownership of agriculture land in Uganda and identify rental swaps that can consolidate agricultural land. We elicit the prices at which farmers are willing to participate in these swaps using an incentive compatible trading mechanism that, in some cases, induces real trades. We find that on average, farmers are willing to pay 8.5% of the rental price to farm consolidated plots. Further, we find a positive expected surplus in 40% of the swaps that we offer. Our results suggest that small-cycle swaps can improve welfare outcomes in locations where land is fragmented, and we use our data to evaluate potential larger market redesigns. Simple matching algorithms that use fixed prices can capture 52% of the surplus identified, while more complicated designs that incorporate farmer-reported prices can capture about 70%.

By registering land in villages’ habitation (abadi) area using drone imagery and issuing property cards (PCs), India’s SVAMITVA aims to improve local planning, land market activity, and credit access. Data for all mutations and charges registered in more than 40,000 Madhya Pradesh villages during 2018-25 and heterogeneity-robust dynamic DID estimators are used to assess if these objectives were achieved. We show that PC issuance, but not drone survey, triggered significant increases in residential but not in (unaffected) agricultural land and mortgage market activity. Credit effects materialized even in villages far from banks, plausibly due to digital connectivity, but were muted in scheduled areas where lack of regulatory clarity on the scope for transferring PC created friction. SVAMITVA’s demonstrated impact on credit supply suggests it provides a basis for improving economic conditions and local self-governance in India’s rural areas. ways to build on these foundations are discussed.

As land demand rises in developing economies, reallocating land across uses often requires subdividing existing parcels into smaller units that can be separately transferred, developed, or occupied. We study land subdivision and its institutional determinants using granular administrative land registry data from Uganda, combined with high-resolution satellite imagery. We first document that subdivision is widespread and increasing over time. We then use event-study designs to trace how land use evolves around subdivision events, showing sharp shifts away from crop cultivation and toward built-up land. Additional analysis suggests that ownership change---rather than the reduction in parcel size---is a key driver of these dynamics. Leveraging the coexistence of multiple tenure systems within narrowly defined geographic areas, we show that subdivision rates differ systematically across tenure regimes, with higher rates under dual ownership and occupancy rights than under single-owner title systems.

When active, agricultural factor markets in developing countries should reduce misallocation, but do not; factor trade must be between the “wrong” farmers. We use a novel transaction-level panel dataset to examine who trades with whom in Rwandan villages. Within villages, physical distance and social connections are more important than productivity in predicting factor trade. We develop and estimate a model of factor trade in networks to characterize the frictions resolved by physical and social distance. We find social connections increase the elasticity of land rentals by reducing the cost of sustaining productive trades, and 39% of efficiency gains from land rentals are attributable to this effect. Evidence from an RCT suggests the land market frictions alleviated by social connections are not easily resolved through policy.

This paper develops a growth model with two social classes—capitalists, who invest in productive assets and housing, and workers, who supply labor and invest only in housing—while distinguishing residential land, residential structures, and productive capital. The model shows that the relative price of land grows with GDP in the long run, while the quantity and price of housing services rise more slowly. The results indicate that shifting taxation toward land property increases long-run GDP growth and produces more egalitarian income and wealth distributions. Allowing a larger share of residential investment to be tax deductible reduces inequality, whereas giving greater utility weight to housing services leads to long-run distributions more favorable to capitalists. Policies or preference shifts that increase investment in residential rather than productive assets generate balanced-growth paths with higher wealth-income ratios. Finally, endogenous fluctuations may arise along the equilibrium path to balanced growth in a model driven solely by fundamentals.

As artificial intelligence accelerates demand for data centers, digital transformation is becoming a land, grid, and governance problem. This paper examines whether countries’ ability to accumulate data-center-related infrastructure depends on land and property governance, infrastructure reliability, and middle-income structural positioning. Using a country-year panel from UN Comtrade, World Development Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators, and the World Bank Doing Business historical archive, the analysis distinguishes two layers of digital infrastructure: hardware-related inflows, proxied by HS 847150 imports, and hosting-related footprint, proxied by secure internet servers. Fixed-effects models show that property registration cost and grid loss are negatively associated with hardware-related inflows, while hosting footprint is more closely tied to broader development level. Middle-income countries face weaker baseline land, grid, and governance conditions, but weaker marginal responsiveness to property-cost changes. The paper proposes infrastructural poverty as a conceptual frame for understanding digital infrastructure absorption constraints in structural transformation.

This study examines the impact of agricultural productivity and governance on structural transformation in selected Sub-Saharan African economies from 2000 to 2023. Using a balanced macro-panel of 12 countries and fixed-effects models with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, the analysis assesses how productivity gains and institutional quality affect the shares of agricultural employment. Descriptive patterns indicate a steady decline in agricultural employment, accompanied by modest increases in cereal yields, food production, and governance indicators. Empirical results show that higher agricultural productivity, particularly in food production, significantly reduces agricultural employment, consistent with the theory of structural transformation. Governance exerts a negative effect on agricultural labor shares once cross-sectional dependence is accounted for, suggesting that stronger institutions facilitate labor movement out of agriculture by improving incentives and market functioning. The findings highlight the importance of productivity improvements and governance reforms in accelerating structural transformation and supporting policies that strengthen land governance and economic opportunities.

Creating socially and economically developed societies is the ultimate aim of socioeconomic policy, and for nearly 70 years European countries have promoted social innovation (SI) as a primary means of achieving it. Yet whether this investment translates into economic growth remains an open empirical question, largely due to the absence of a proper macroeconomic conceptualization. We address this gap through three contributions. First, we develop a macro SI conceptual framework grounded in Sen and Nussbaum's capabilities approach. Second, we construct a Social Innovation Capabilities Index for 78 countries over 2009–2018 using a Bayesian spatial factor model. Third, using System GMM and sequential G-estimation, we show that SI capabilities drive sustained economic growth — measured by economic complexity — rather than short-run income. We further identify inclusive human capital accumulation as the key mechanism. SI's path to sustained growth is a matter of inclusion and technique, and persists across diverse spatiotemporal contexts.

Indigenous peoples worldwide experience substantially poorer mental health than non-Indigenous populations, yet the causal mechanisms behind this disparity remain poorly understood. This paper provides the first causal evidence that large-scale land-use change—specifically, deforestation driven by oil palm expansion—adversely affects the mental health of Indigenous peoples through spiritual–cultural displacement. Focusing on the Dayak of Borneo, whose cultural identity and spiritual practices are deeply tied to primary rainforest, we combine quasi-experimental variation in village-level exposure to deforestation with a lab-in-the-field experiment involving 2,700 individuals in rural Indonesia. We find that greater exposure to forest loss significantly increases anxiety and depression among Dayak respondents, but not among non-Indigenous groups. Complementary priming experiments show that reminders of rapid environmental change temporarily heighten distress, particularly for Dayaks in highly exposed villages. Our findings highlight the overlooked psychological costs of tropical deforestation and the centrality of land in Indigenous well-being.

Bolivia has undertaken one of the world’s most extensive land titling and regularization efforts, significantly reshaping the institutional foundations of rural land governance. Despite the scale and policy significance of these reforms, their effects have not been systematically evaluated. In addition to its sheer scale, a key feature of Bolivia’s titling program is its dual approach: the simultaneous implementation of private titling for individual citizens and agribusiness firms, and collective titling for Indigenous and campesino communities. These two modalities correspond to fundamentally different land-governance structures and, as a result, may influence economic behavior through distinct mechanisms. We investigate the impact of Bolivia’s large-scale land governance reform on several dimensions of local economic development, distinguishing between the effects of collective and private titling efforts, and assessing the heterogeneous impacts these programs may have across different types of households and individuals.

This paper evaluates a centrally-planned resettlement policy in rural Laos intended to modernize livelihoods and reduce poverty among ethnic groups traditionally practicing swidden agriculture. By relocating villages from mountain slopes to valleys, the policy aimed to transition societies toward wet-rice cultivation, considered more technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable. Using staggered treatment timing, I find the policy reduced village swidden plots by 30–40% five to ten years post-resettlement. However, ethnographic studies reveal how swidden practices are deeply interwoven with kinship ties and ethnic identities. Using a triple-difference strategy comparing swidden and wet-rice societies across regions with varying treatment intensity, I find evidence of decreased well-being among those impacted: lower schooling attainment, increased child mortality, lower child health outcomes, and reduced household wealth. Exploring mechanisms, I find the policy had negligible impact on the share of farmers practicing swidden agriculture, suggesting it only reduced plots without generating structural change, thus lowering per-capita inputs.

Agroforestry improves agricultural productivity and climate adaptation while also potentially boosting farmer incomes and resilience. However, obtaining widespread adoption among vulnerable populations has been a persisting challenge. Strengthening farmers’ tenure security is commonly hypothesized to lower barriers, particularly in customary land systems, but evidence of its effectiveness is limited. This nexus has considerable import in Zambia where climate variability exacerbates yield-gaps and food insecurity, and land reforms seek to harmonize customary and state systems and strengthen tenure security for sustainable development. We draw on panel household survey and qualitative data to report longer-term results from a cluster-randomized control trial of a USAID initiative that piloted customary land certification and agroforestry support in Zambia. We report positive tenure security, land governance and agroforestry impacts, with some caveats, seven years on. Results also explore landholder context associated with uptake and tree survival, refine impact pathways and timeframes, and highlight ongoing challenges.

Women and vulnerable groups across Africa face persistent barriers to securing legal land titles due to cultural norms, high costs, limited credit access, and unclear land-administration processes. Without formal rights, they are less able to invest in climate-resilient agriculture or participate in economic development. Medici Land addresses these challenges through systematic land titling programs that integrate technology, community engagement, and gender-inclusive practices. MLG trains female data collectors, conducts participatory verification, and works closely with governments to ensure transparent, multi-step adjudication and approval. Results in Zambia show significant gains in women’s land ownership, with female or joint ownership rising from 22% to 58% in some districts. Remaining barriers particularly the inability to pay title fees still prevent many from securing final rights. Addressing this gap would unlock economic opportunities, expand financial inclusion, and strengthen climate resilience across Africa.

The inheritance is the first cause of co-ownership in Morocco. The needs to exploit land and to have financial incomes pushes to claim separation between co-owners. Faced with this situation, ending co-ownership remains the solution to resolving disputes arising from inheritance. The Judicial resolution is chosen by co-owners to end this situation. This study aims to analyse how the share solution and distribution method resulting from judicial resolution process of inheritance land disputes in registered land, allows co-owners to meet their economic needs and overcome legal and social constraints in the Gharb region of Morocco. The methodological approach consists on a documentary analysis, data collection and analysis of 114 cases of inheritance land disputes during the period 2023-2024 and the collection of expert opinions. The judicial resolution much with economic needs of financial income in 96% and in 12 % of cases the legal restrictions limited the fragmentation of land.

In Ethiopia we assume 50 million land parcels are existed in the high land part of the country of which above 32 million of them have registered and certified with cadastral maps in Second-level Land Certification (SLLC). The National Rural Land Information system (NRLAIS) is one of the largest governance focused information system and the largest LIS in Ethiopia.(lunched in January 2018) the focus is on support administration of rural land holdings through digital record keeping and computerized process of land holding related transactions. From 32 million certified parcels already managed to have about 31 million land records in the cadastral data base from 1000 districts in the country we able to roll out the system in to 516 Districts due to shortage of resources. The study shows the importance of land transaction using second level land certification on economic empowerment and livelihood improvement in the rural land holders particularly women.

Women in Senegal constitute 70% of the agricultural labor force yet own less than 7% of farmland, a disparity that heightens their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change. Using administrative data from 2010–2023, satellite imagery (Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2), and field evidence from 89 participants across Fatick, Tambacounda, and Matam, this study quantifies how institutional and ecological factors interact to constrain women’s land rights. Results show that over 72% of land allocations still occur under customary systems, with only 18% formally documented for women. Spatial analysis reveals that 64% of women’s plots lie in degraded or saline zones, where vegetation cover declined by 23% over the past decade. Conversely, regions with gender-inclusive land commissions record 28% higher documentation rates and 22% fewer disputes. The findings underscore that gender-responsive governance and climate-informed land-use planning are critical to Senegal’s National Land Policy (2026–2035).

This paper examines the fiscal and extra-fiscal effects of decentralizing the collection of Brazil’s rural land tax from the federal level to local governments. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we assess the impact of local tax enforcement on revenue, land use, and environmental outcomes. Decentralization led to sustained revenue gains, increased agricultural production, expanded reported environmental protection areas, and slightly decreased land concentration. Our findings highlight the role of property taxation as a policy instrument for environmental conservation and sustainable development.

We study whether strengthening the link between property taxes and public service delivery improves tax compliance and citizen perceptions of the state. In many low-capacity settings, a weak social compact—where citizens neither trust the state nor see taxes as funding services—constrains development. We test three interventions in a RCT with 100,000 property taxpayers in Pakistan. In the first (“Local Allocation”), property tax revenues are earmarked for neighborhood services. In the second (“Voice”), tax collectors solicit citizen preferences for local services during tax collection. The third (“Voice-based Local Allocation”) combines both approaches. The interventions were repeated over five years, supported by information campaigns, and evaluated using administrative and survey data. We find positive effects on tax compliance in the early years of Local Allocation. Earmarking revenue, delivering services, and informing taxpayers had a greater impact on compliance than pairing service provision with participatory preference elicitation.

This paper examines the introduction of progressive property taxation in a large Congolese city through a citywide field experiment. Neighborhoods were randomly assigned to one of three systems: a progressive schedule, a proportional schedule, or the status quo flat fee. The progressive system increased revenue by 55% compared to both alternatives, with gains observed across the property value distribution. At the top end, higher statutory rates outweighed modest compliance losses, while at the bottom, lower rates drove substantial compliance improvements. Cross-randomized information treatments reveal that taxpayers responded primarily to their own rates rather than perceptions of fairness. We also analyze how statutory progressivity translates into effective tax rates (ETRs), finding that ETRs decline with property value under all systems, steepest under the progressive schedule. An enforcement intervention targeting high-value properties mitigated this regressivity, highlighting the role of enforcement capacity in aligning statutory and effective progressivity.

Stamp duty is a significant yet often underexamined factor influencing land market performance in developing countries. In Uganda, it constitutes a major transaction cost in formal land transfers and may affect both property valuation and the volume of registered transactions. Leveraging newly digitized records from the Uganda National Land Information System (UgNLIS) and the Land Valuation Management Information System (LaVMIS), this study analyzes the economic effects of stamp duty using high-resolution administrative data on payments, title transfers, and valuation reports. Through descriptive statistics, elasticity modeling, hedonic pricing, and spatial analysis, the study evaluates how varying stamp duty levels influence market liquidity, valuation outcomes, and transaction efficiency. Findings aim to clarify whether high stamp duty discourages formalization, suppresses transfer activity, or contributes to valuation distortions. Results will support policy reforms to optimize stamp duty, enhance revenue generation, and strengthen the transparency and performance of Uganda’s land market.

Fertility rates remain high in sub-Saharan Africa, and men usually desire more children than women and have greater bargaining power. Strengthening women’s property rights can shift intrahousehold bargaining, giving women control over reproductive choices. We analyze the effect of the Rural Land Governance project- a gender neutral land documentation reform- on fertility outcomes in Burkina Faso. We leverage the randomized rollout of land offices across 47 matched commune pairs, merging treatment with 2021 Demographic and Health Survey clusters to estimate the causal impact on fertility. We find that while men report higher landownership, women report significantly less. Consistent with strategic responses to safeguard access to land, women in treated areas have more births, particularly after the program is fully implemented. Men's ideal number of children is lower, although women's does not change. We find women are more likely to use modern contraception, suggesting spacing children rather than limiting fertility.

This paper aims at investigating how the difference types of polygamy present in Nigeria (Muslim polygamy versus Christian polygamy) shape households’ choices when it comes to the intergenerational transmission of assets and investments in human capital of children in complex household structures. Using detailed information of resident, non-resident and passed away female spouses, allows us to shed a light on the distribution of resources, fertility patterns, and relative say of women in polygamous households. Understanding better how informal institutions and the economic environment shape intra-household resource allocation will contribute to design better policies aiming at reducing inequality between genders (such as, inheritance reforms and land titling programs) and provide more equal opportunities for women and children within the household.

We estimate the causal impact of the 2005 Hindu Succession Amendment Act on daughters’ agricultural land ownership in India using a difference-in-differences design that exploits variation in the law’s applicability across religious groups. The reform granted equal inheritance rights to Hindu, Sikh, and Jain women, while Muslims and Christians were unaffected. We analyze 1.36 million digitized land records from Haryana spanning 2001–2023, using natural language processing to infer landowners’ gender and religion and to match siblings. We find that the reform increased daughters’ inclusion on land records, but the effects were modest and fell short of parity. The number of sisters per plot rose by 0.18 (142% from a 0.131 baseline), and the probability of any sister ownership increased by 1.4 percentage points (13%). However, proportional ownership gains were limited, suggesting strategic compliance without meaningful redistribution of land control.

De jure reforms to improve women’s legal rights are often not enforced in practice. In this study, we examine the effects of a land records reform in Punjab, Pakistan on de facto land rights of females, who are legally entitled to a share of parental land. This reform digitized and centralized land records and created a biometric verification requirement. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the reform across Punjab as well as the quasi-random timing of father/husband deaths, we find that it significantly increased the probability of female inheritance from 13% to 22%. However, we also find evidence of unintended consequences for younger women, potentially due to intrahousehold resource reallocation away from daughters in response to a forced inheritance transfer.

This paper examines the impact of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) using granular geospatial and household data spanning the pre- and post-reform period. Using a difference-in-difference framework, we compare outcomes on resettled A1/A2 land with communal areas that remained outside the scope of the reform. We also compare Zimbabwe’s agricultural outcomes with those of Zambia, a neighbouring country that shares a similar colonial history, climate, and agro-ecological conditions but did not implement large-scale land reforms during this period. Our results show substantial declines in agricultural performance for most major crops, a slight decline in the household wealth index, and an increase in the share of stunted children. Together, these results suggest that the land reform worsened agricultural productivity and did not deliver the anticipated benefits of improved welfare.

Uganda’s refugee policy is among the most progressive globally, granting new arrivals access to services, freedom of movement, and, when available, small plots of cultivable land intended to foster self-reliance. Yet little empirical evidence exists on whether these land allocations actually improve refugee livelihoods. Using four waves (2017–2021) of the representative RIMA panel, covering refugee and host households across 12 settlements, we estimate the causal impact of initial land allocation on welfare and production outcomes. To address endogeneity in settlement parcel assignments, we implement a leave-one-out instrument based on cohort-level average allocations. Our results show that households with larger initial allocations substantially improve food security, increase agricultural earnings, and raise the share of production sold. Effects are consistently larger in IV than OLS estimates, suggesting that households granted more land may be less prepared to utilize it—consistent with qualitative interviews documenting feelings of limited agricultural experience among new arrivals.

We examine how land ownership shapes educational mobility in rural India. Using full-count rural census microdata, we document a robust step-function pattern across the land distribution: educational mobility rises sharply from the landless to marginal landholders and then plateaus. Exploiting historical variation in British-era land-tenure regimes, we demonstrate a causal link between higher landlessness and lower educational mobility. To unpack mechanisms, we develop a model where parents allocate children’s time between school and work under a subsistence constraint. With little or no land, the constraint binds, increasing child labour and suppressing schooling; a small rise in land relaxes it, producing a sharp drop in child labour and a jump in schooling and upward mobility. The framework endogenously generates the step-function, matches the core facts, rationalizes heterogeneities, and yields testable predictions that we validate.

This study examines the drivers and consequences of household transitions from farm to non-farm livelihoods in Rwanda. Using nationally representative EICV data, we apply Random Forest with SHAP values to identify key determinants of livelihood choice and a Multinomial Endogenous Treatment Effects model to assess impacts on poverty, productivity, and diversification. Results show that households specializing solely in non-farm activities see modest poverty reductions but no significant productivity gains. In contrast, those combining farm and non-farm work achieve higher labor productivity but only marginal poverty reduction. These findings suggest that non-farm work alone does not ensure escape from multidimensional poverty without improvements in job quality and earnings. Meanwhile, diversification enhances resilience but not income per hour. Policy should focus on improving non-farm job quality, supporting mixed livelihood strategies through credit and skills development, and fostering synergies between sectors to ensure productivity gains lead to inclusive rural development.

This paper examines how water resources mediate the relationship between climate shocks and violence. Combining high-resolution data on temperature, hydrology, and conflict events across Africa from 1997 to 2023, we show that high-temperature shocks increase conflict in nearby water-rich areas. The results are driven by shocks originating in downstream locations, consistent with groups seeking to secure access to upstream water sources that confer greater control over river flow. The effect is stronger for persistent temperature shocks and in regions experiencing long-run decline in water availability. These findings highlight a mechanism through which climate change may increase conflict risk, as rising temperatures and shifts in the distribution of surface water intensify competition over water resources.

Climate change is increasingly driving land‑based conflicts in drought‑prone regions where environmental stress intersects with fragile governance systems. This study examines land governance solutions in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, particularly Harshin district, where climate stress, mobility, and contested authority converge. Findings show that addressing climate‑induced conflicts requires more than environmental interventions, it also requires a transformation in we govern land. The study highlights key land governance solutions such as securing tenure rights for pastoralists and agro‑pastoralists, legally recognizing migration corridors and dry‑season reserves, and embedding climate risk into land‑use planning. More importantly, hybrid governance mechanisms that combine customary dispute resolution with statutory enforcement are found to be essential for legitimacy and effectiveness. Ultimately, effective land governance solutions for climate induced conflicts require secure tenure systems, stronger local institutions, and the integration of climate adaptation into resource management.

Violence and population displacement during conflicts can severely disrupt agricultural systems, particularly in countries with limited arable land. These disruptions not only threaten food security and rural livelihoods but also deepen the broader socioeconomic consequences of war. Despite the significance of this issue, empirical evidence on the causal impact of conflict on agricultural land use remains scarce, primarily due to data limitations and endogeneity concerns between agricultural land use and conflict. We examine how the Syrian civil war (2011–2024) affected land use using a spatial regression discontinuity design along the Syria–Türkiye border. We show that the conflict resulted in a loss of cropland mass and cultivation intensity in Syria relative to Türkiye. We provide evidence that cropland loss likely resulted from destruction of irrigation infrastructure and institutions that made Syria more vulnerable to droughts, as well as from cultivation disruption in the context of territorial fight between armed groups.

Women’s housing, land, and property (HLP) rights in Sub-Saharan Africa remain profoundly unequal despite significant regional policy commitments. This paper argues that these rights constitute a missing but essential pillar of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Drawing on regional evidence and case studies from fragile and climate-affected contexts, the paper demonstrates how unequal land governance perpetuates gendered vulnerability during conflict, displacement, and recovery, while secure HLP rights generate measurable peace and resilience dividends. Using a feminist political economy lens, it analyzes the institutional gaps between continental land frameworks and WPS implementation, highlighting how current policy silos weaken both agendas. The paper proposes strategic pathways for integrating women’s HLP rights into World Bank diagnostics, land reforms, climate programs, and FCV operations. It concludes that strengthening women’s tenure security is foundational to achieving structural peace, inclusive growth, and the next generation of gender-responsive development policy.

The Nexus Pilot Project in Ethiopia’s Lake Chamo watershed examined how legal recognition of communal land tenure can support forest landscape restoration and strengthen local governance. Implemented between 2020 and 2023, the pilot certified more than 1,500 hectares of communal forest across five kebeles and established legally registered forest user cooperatives to manage these areas. Using a retrospective case study approach, the analysis draws on project documentation, participatory mapping, legal records, and field observations. Results show reduced encroachment, early signs of vegetation recovery, and improved cooperation between communities and local administrations. The findings align with global evidence on the links between tenure security, environmental stewardship, and procedural justice. The case demonstrates how participatory communal land titling can operationalize national land laws, reinforce local governance, and contribute to broader agendas of equity, climate resilience, and reparative land policy. It provides a practical, scalable model for communal tenure reform in African contexts.

The relationship between Investor State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) and the indigenous peoples’ land rights has been turning abstruse over the years, raising critical questions about the adequacy of ISDS mechanisms in safeguarding those rights. Foreign investment projects, often pursued in the name of development, have frequently been reported to infringe upon indigenous peoples’ land rights and other fundamental freedoms. The paper examines the extent to which the decisions of ISDS tribunals impact indigenous peoples’ land rights in Asian and Africa countries, critically questioning whether and how the perspectives of indigenous peoples are incorporated into the resolution of international investment disputes. The research methodology applied is a combination of doctrinal and qualitative methodologies to analyse the existing texts and legal instruments on international investment disputes in Asia and Africa and explore the real-world examples on various relevant ISDS decisions made in Asian and African countries.

One key rationale for implementing public works programs (PWPs) is that the assets they create can yield lasting benefits, yet evidence on such “asset channel” effects remain limited. This paper examines how assets generated through Malawi’s Climate-Smart Enhanced Public Works Program (CS-PWP), implemented by the government with World Bank support, strengthen household resilience to climate shocks such as droughts and floods. Using a case study approach, the analysis combines primary qualitative data collected in 2024 with site visits and quantitative asset quality assessments. Findings show that well-designed CS-PWPs create durable, community-maintained assets that enhance households’ ability to cope with and adapt to climate risks. Land-based assets in particular provide multiple benefits at both household and community levels, while forest-based interventions show promise for delivering similar long-term gains, though additional research is needed to confirm their sustained impacts. Strengthening design and implementation through participatory planning is critical to program effectiveness.

On-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity paves way for natural evolution and adaptation which produces novel genes for breeding hardy varieties and new traits for improved farm resilience under climate change. By evaluating climate change perception and determinants of perception of 280 smallholder farmers cultivating paddy landraces in the climate vulnerable district of Palghar in India, the present study reveals the effect of collective response to climate change and land governance by farmers on agrobiodiversity conservation, agricultural resilience, food and livelihood security, and poverty mitigation. Further, it shows the role of strong social networks and local institutions in raising climate awareness, shaping climate change perception and influencing adaptation. Given the heterogeneity of climate effects, farming systems and farmer experiences, policies for agrobiodiversity conservation and climate resilience should factor in regional differences, local land governance systems and institutions, be aligned with farmers’ perception of climate change, and thus be informed by field-based evidence.

The Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) is the technical framework used by the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) to implement the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The CAP channels €35 billion to farmers each year, supporting farm continuity, food security, environmental protection and rural development. IACS records the extent, location and agricultural activities of more than 90 million agricultural parcels declared by farmers for CAP support (around 90% of all EU agricultural land). Farmer claims are monitored and verified mainly using Earth observation data, particularly Copernicus Sentinel. Although not a cadastral register, IACS provides a reliable spatial picture of European agricultural land and its dynamics. IACS is planned to evolve into a European Land Management System with broader scope and data that can potentially contribute to the European Observatory on Agricultural Land, a new system that is in its pilot phase to help monitor agricultural land transactions.

As Ukraine advances toward EU accession, establishing an EU-compliant Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) is critical for its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The EU standard requires 0.5m aerial ortho-imagery, which is currently unavailable. This study presents findings from a pilot forced to use VHR satellite imagery as a substitute to test delineation methodologies. The core of our research is a rigorous comparative analysis of two satellite datasets: 0.3m Vantor (formerly Maxar) and 0.7m Satellogic. We compared a 100 km² dataset from 0.3m imagery against a dataset from 0.7m imagery delineated by an independent team. We will present quantitative (area, count) and qualitative (feature capture) analysis to compare the two datasets. This study highlight the opportunities and limitations of current satellite imagery for LPIS.

The Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) relies on labor-intensive manual delineation, creating a major bottleneck for countries lacking operational systems. This work presents DelAny, a deep learning model based on YOLO11 combined with a multi-stage post-processing pipeline for automated parcel segmentation. The approach is resolution-agnostic and integrates morphological operations with land cover–based filtering and classification to assign LPIS categories. The pipeline was evaluated on 11 pilot sites across Ukraine within the World Bank/EU funded LPIS Pilot 2024–2025 project, using both Sentinel-2 and very high-resolution imagery MAXAR. Results demonstrate good agreement with manual LPIS delineations, achieving high coverage and improved detection of small fields while maintaining consistency for large parcels. Comparisons with existing products show that the proposed method consistently performs better across multiple metrics. The approach enables scalable LPIS automation and can serve as a proxy in regions where LPIS is absent, supporting land administration and agricultural monitoring.

Smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries often lack formal collateral and verifiable production records, limiting their access to agricultural credit and increasing lending risk for financial institutions. This research explores whether satellite-based Earth Observation (EO) data could improve agricultural credit governance by validating declared cultivated areas, identifying crop types, and monitoring seasonal crop development. The work is theoretical and conducted ex-post, assessing whether access to parcel-level time series (Sentinel-1/2 imagery, NDVI/EVI trajectories, and climate anomaly indicators) could have reduced loan defaults in past lending cycles. Using field boundary mapping, crop classification, and vegetation anomaly detection, the study will generate a Geo-Credit Alert Index and simulate counterfactual lending decisions using econometric techniques. The anticipated outcome is evidence that EO-enabled screening and monitoring could reduce portfolio risk while expanding financial inclusion. Findings will inform policy design and future implementation models for scalable EO-assisted agricultural lending systems.

Welcome Remarks

Introduction

Key messages with emphasis on agrifood systems and the impact of non-tariff measures

Making standards work - operations investments and partnerships

Making standards work - operations investments and partnerships

Making standards work - operations investments and partnerships

Making standards work - operations investments and partnerships

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Property transfer and land administration are central to how firms access and transact land, yet the quality of underlying systems varies enormously across economies. While registries and cadastres are nearly universal, their coverage, transparency, and interoperability remain highly uneven. This presentation draws on indicators — spanning regulatory quality, public services, and operational efficiency — from 101 economies in B-READY 2025. The data show that registry coverage is the strongest predictor of firm-reported land access constraints, with gaps particularly pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of economies have less than half their land nationally registered. Additional findings highlight widespread gaps in online transaction platforms, property tax value integration into cadastral systems, and public availability of sex-disaggregated land ownership data. Together, these indicators offer a comparable, cross-country lens for understanding how differences in regulatory frameworks, service delivery, and implementation shape business access to land.

Property registries are a pillar of state capacity essential for private investment and job creation. While registry establishment and maintenance were traditionally costly and difficult, digital technology can reduce delivery cost and increase quality and usefulness of land records if appropriate regulations and institutional arrangements are in place. We develop indicators–of digital coverage, interoperability, and public land management and land value capture–for effective registry operation. By highlighting vast differences and significant advances across regions, data from 85 countries show that such indicators can help provide strategic direction, share experience, and measure progress towards realizing property registries’ potential in terms of (i) empowering private right holders to invest and create the basis for land, mortgage and insurance markets; (ii) providing the information needed to transparently regulate markets and use of land; and (iii) foster effective decentralization in management of public land and land value capture for public good provision.

India's Central Government has invested approximately US$1 billion across three programmes covering agricultural, habitation, and urban land, recognising land records as foundational digital infrastructure. Progress is substantial: 95% of rural records across 625,000 villages have been computerised, unique identifiers assigned to 230 million parcels, and 89% of Sub-Registrar Offices integrated with land records. However, realising full returns is complicated by land being a state subject under the Constitution, with responsibility historically fragmented across institutions, resulting in wide variation in record quality and interoperability. SVAMITVA has extended titling to 329,000 villages, with evidence of credit market activation where titles are digitally integrated. NAKSHA applies the same precision-survey approach to urban areas, linking parcels to property tax records, with US$600 million earmarked for national rollout. Benchmarking states on data integration and regulatory readiness could accelerate scheme management and sustain accomplishments.

Ukraine's war-driven digital transformation of agricultural land governance is a model with few global precedents. Following the elimination of a longstanding ban on land sales, and despite Russia's invasion, Ukraine built a State Agrarian Registry fully interoperable with the State Land Cadaster and the Registry of Real Property Rights from scratch — achieving in two years what peacetime reform had failed to deliver in decades. This created a verified digital profile of every registered farmer, underpinning a complete overhaul of public agricultural support, with all subsidies and grants now flowing through the SAR with minimal mis-targeting. Integration with annual Sentinel-2 satellite crop maps, co-developed with a local university, the World Bank, and the EU's Joint Research Centre, enables parcel-level cultivation tracking. The resulting verifiable cultivation history supports EU compliance, digital traceability, private credit and insurance provision, land valuation, and local property tax collection.

Costa Rica has one of Latin America's most digitally mature land administration systems, with the Registro Nacional housing both property registry and national cadaster under a single institutional roof and fully electronic transactions operational since 2010. The IGN is on track to complete cadastral coverage across all 492 districts by 2026. Five second-generation challenges remain: cadaster and registry lack a shared parcel identifier and API access, preventing interoperability; without a permanent legal framework, gains from the 2025 revaluation initiative will erode — a CAMA framework could increase municipal revenues by 40–60% in urban areas; public land boundaries remain fragmented and not fully integrated with the cadastral layer; environmental monitoring systems lack parcel-level linkage to the cadaster; and municipal disaster risk plans do not systematically draw on cadastral data. A single LADM-compliant shared parcel identifier could unlock all five challenges in a country positioned for a world-class land administration system.

Colombia is transforming its land administration system through a nationally mandated Multipurpose Cadaster, driven by the 2016 Peace Accord and supported by a US$100 million World Bank loan. From under 10% cadastral coverage in 2022, over 44 million hectares across 326 municipalities had been updated by early 2026. The program's DLIs are informed by global benchmarking frameworks, and adoption of the LADM/MECR data standard provides the architecture for multi-system interoperability. Three concrete advances stand out: the Catastro Verde has mapped 5.6 million hectares of legally settled national parks; MECR v4.1 establishes the data infrastructure for environmental monitoring; and experience integrating cadastral data with municipal Territorial Organization Plans (POTs) offers a template for national disaster risk zoning requirements. Four gaps remain: cadaster-registry integration, fiscal activation, digital authentication, and operationalizing environmental and disaster risk interoperability. The presentation will discuss how these gaps could be closed with ongoing World Bank support.

South Africa

China has been developing a more comprehensive and unified system for land management and property registration over the past two decades. Shanghai shows how stronger institutional coordination and digitalization can improve the business environment and make investment easier. Responsibilities for planning, land management, property registration, and construction permitting have been brought into a more integrated governance framework, reducing fragmentation and improving coordination. Digitalization has reshaped service delivery, with centralized information platforms and the “All-round, Online and Shared” reform enabling end-to-end online processing and data sharing across agencies. Inter-regional connectivity is also emerging, with cross-provincial property registration services helping to facilitate investment flows across major economic corridors. Looking ahead, priorities include deeper data integration and interoperability across regions and expanding consistent “one stop” online services for a wider range of users. The presentation will highlight Shanghai’s reforms and key initiatives that have enhanced efficiency and improved the business environment.

A colonial legacy from British rule, Uganda's mailo tenure that superimposes freehold-like ownership over legally recognized but unregistered tenant rights is one of the world's most complex tenure systems that has undermined investment and land market operation, especially on high-value land, for generations. Investment in digital data and physical infrastructure that is ready to scale created the preconditions for trying to overcome this bottleneck by ensuring that data on land use that are already collected for traceability can be processed digitally and converted into a legally valid ownership document on customary land or used to register a tenant-owner partnership to access finance for productivity-enhancing investments. If results from planned pilots show promise, such efforts could be expanded quickly to provide a scalable solution not only for Uganda but also for other countries under the World Bank's flagship AgriConnect initiative.

Housing assistance programs are widely used to provide affordable housing to low-income families. We study a large-scale subsidized housing program in Brazil and estimate its effects on adults who received housing and on children who were exposed to it. Adult beneficiaries experience small declines in formal employment. Unlike in other settings, these effects are not driven by spatial isolation, but are instead consistent with modest income effects. In contrast, the impacts on children are large and transformative. Earlier exposure increases educational attainment, makes children more likely to enroll in high school and college, and substantially improves formal employment in adulthood. These gains are concentrated among children of the poorest families and are driven in part by proximity to high-quality schools. Housing assistance can therefore promote intergenerational mobility when it expands children’s access to opportunity.

Does first-time homeownership affect entrepreneurship among low-income households? We address this question by exploiting random assignment from a housing lottery program in Brazil. We link lottery records to matched employer--employee records and Brazil's business registry, tracking formal employment and business formation. Being awarded a house substantially reduces entrepreneurial entry: beneficiaries are 20% less likely to start any business in the year following the lottery, with effects persisting for up to five years post-lottery. The reduction is observed at the microenterprise margin---we find no effects on small or larger firm entry at any horizon. The effect is driven by applicants with no formal occupation at the time of the lottery, spans all major sectors but concentrates within each sector in subsistence-type activities. The reduction is stronger among men and in more economically developed municipalities, where occupational alternatives are ample, and among lower pre-lottery earners, where financial pressure is most acute.

We study a stringent rent control law introduced in 60 municipalities in Catalonia in 2020 and suddenly eliminated in 2022. Using matched rental and sale listings, we find that rents fall by 6-7% after implementation but return to pre-policy levels within a year as rental listings drop by nearly 40%. Sale listings increase by 16-17% and prices decline by 2-3%, with persistent effects after decontrol. Administrative data suggest that landlords reallocate supply from rentals to sales, and rely on contracts exempt from the law or left unregistered. As a result, rent relief is temporary, while losses in property values persist.

We study consumer protection in homeownership markets where buyers pay developers before construction completion. Home ownership is households' largest financial investment, yet protection against developer fraud remains weak. Without oversight, developers delay projects, divert funds, or default, deterring marginal buyers and restricting ownership to wealthier households. Regulatory effects are ambiguous: reduced risk may expand access, but compliance costs may reduce supply. We analyze India's Real Estate Regulation and Development Act, which mandated escrow accounts, completion deadlines, and project disclosures. Using 1.06 million mortgage originations, we find regulation increases mortgage access, particularly for first-time buyers and marginalized groups. Defaults decline. Developer market structure transforms: exits rise alongside new entry, reducing concentration and expanding affordable housing supply. Overall, our findings suggest that consumer protection targeting developers can democratize homeownership.

Literature on the governance of common-pool resources predicts that consensus on resource use rules will promote effective governance of natural resources. However, empirical evidence directly testing this hypothesis is scarce. We investigate how community-level consensus on spatial land use rules is associated with forest conservation using original survey and participatory mapping data from 70 Indigenous communities in the San Martín region of Peru. We conducted an innovative mapping exercise in which community participants independently mapped their understanding of permissible land uses across their territory. We found that (i) areas with higher consensus on forest conservation exhibit significantly lower deforestation rates, while (2) areas with stronger consensus on agricultural use face greater forest loss. Our findings highlight how consensus about the rules governing land use is strongly associated with forest outcomes. This finding suggests that interventions should be deployed to help communities achieve consensus about how to use communal lands.

We provide the first causal evidence on the environmental consequences of secure land property rights by examining the impact of China’s national land titling reform (2009–2019) on biodiversity conservation. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the reform and rich county-level panel data, we implement a difference-in-differences design to identify its effects. We find that land titling significantly improves ecological outcomes, including habitat diversity, bird species richness, crop variety, and ecosystem productivity. Mechanism analyses show that land titling promotes biodiversity by realigning private incentives—through more efficient land use and sustainable investment—and by enhancing community coordination for collaborative conservation activities. By demonstrating how private property rights can help deliver global public goods, our study uncovers a novel institutional channel linking tenure security to environmental sustainability.

Collective land titling in the tropics often reduces deforestation, yet the mechanisms behind this effect remain unclear. Leveraging a unique parcel-level dataset from Bolivia's recent land reform, I show that collective land titles protected forests, especially primary forests, in lowland Bolivia. I investigate four potential mechanisms: low land quality, pre-titling land clearing, restrictive land rights, and collective governance. I find no support for the first two: collective land was in fact more suitable for agriculture than large private land, and collective titles showed no clear pre-trends of deforestation before titling. The evidence instead supports the latter two mechanisms: restrictive land rights appear to limit agricultural expansion in collective titles, and collective titles granted to long-established communities exhibit stronger forest protection compared to those granted to newly formed communities.

This paper examines the impact of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) on the dietary diversity of India's indigenous communities (Schedule Tribes/STs). Historically dependent on forests for subsistence, livelihoods, and cultural identity, STs lacked formal rights until the FRA was enacted in 2008, granting access to forest land and non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Using four rounds of a large-scale consumer expenditure survey and variation in forest cover to capture the potential of the Act, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy. Post-FRA, dietary diversity of ST households increased, driven by an increase in the diversity of vegetables, fruits, and oils consumed. FRA titles data further supports this claim. We document a shift in food sources from subsistence-based collection and cultivation to market purchases. Gains are strongest in areas with larger shares of moderately dense forests that enable NTFP access. Suggestive evidence indicates a shift towards non-agricultural employments potentially facilitated by improved resource access.

Research has shown that ownership of assets, such as land, is strongly correlated with well-being and economic security. To understand this relationship robust measures of ownership are needed. However, standard survey modules on asset ownership often rely on a single respondent and capture only reported or documented ownership. To address this limitation and to better understand ownership and the effects on women’s empowerment, the Measures for Advancing Gender Equality (MAGNET) Initiative developed five survey tools - vignettes and a scale - to address key questions such as: What does ownership entail? Do people share a common understanding of ownership? What are people’s preferences regarding individual versus joint ownership? Each tool was tested in the field in at least two countries per tool covering land and other key assets. This paper validates the tools using a three-phase framework and motivates their inclusion in household surveys.

We investigate the sensitivity of rural land rental market participation statistics, which are based on survey data collected (a) from different household respondents, and (b) under alternative questionnaire design characteristics. Our analysis is based on data from male and female spousal pairs from farming households in rural Zambia. We provide evidence of systematic underreporting of rented-in and rented-out land, which stem from different underlying causes. Underreporting of rented-in land appears to be associated with salience bias in plot roster responses and can be partially addressed through nudges embedded in questionnaires. Underreporting of rented-out land, on the other hand, appears to be associated with self-censoring, possibly reflective of social desirability biases, and stronger for men than women. Interestingly, while male and female respondents indicate similar average rates of rental market participation, we observe household-level discordance in reported rates of tenancy, suggesting gendered biases in responses partly related to intra-household information asymmetry.

Accurate land measurement is critical for agricultural research, yet GPS-based plot data in household surveys are prone to error. Using two rounds of Nigeria’s General Household Survey–Panel Wave 5 (2023–2024), we apply machine learning algorithms to detect and correct anomalies in plot size data, and validate improvements with repeated GPS measurements. We find that 21% of plots were flagged as anomalous in the post-planting round, but re-measurement in the post-harvest round reduced anomalies by over 60%. Environmental factors and surveyor characteristics were significantly associated with changes in anomaly status. Productivity estimates are highly sensitive to plot size definitions: doubling plot size is associated with a 49–58% decrease in output value per unit area, confirming the inverse farm size–productivity relationship. Our findings demonstrate the value of machine learning for survey data quality assurance and highlight the policy importance of reliable land measurement for credible productivity analysis in agricultural and development research.

Mixed-mode data collection strategies, combining phone and in-person interviews, are increasingly used in longitudinal surveys in low- and middle-income countries to reduce costs while maintaining data quality. This paper uses experimental data from Nigeria to assess whether mixed-mode surveys can reduce recall bias in reporting agricultural labor and input use. The findings reveal substantial recall bias in the standard method: plots in the mixed-mode group were 92.6% more likely to report individual labor participation, and the number of household members reported as working increased by 101.5%. Conversely, hours and days worked per person were overreported in the recall survey, with reductions of 29–32% observed under the mixed-mode approach. Non-labor inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides were underreported by up to 198% in the recall survey. These results underscore the potential of mixed-mode surveys to dramatically improve the accuracy of agricultural input data and inform more effective policy design.

This study evaluates the Rural Cadastre (CTR) in Brazil from the perspective of the FELA Strategic Pathways, focusing on overcoming challenges to effective land administration. Although Brazil has a legal framework and robust but isolated systems, significant gaps persist. A modernization project led by INCRA applies LADM, Fit-For-Purpose principles, and the SDGs, resulting in an advanced prototype. However, FELA adoption remains limited due to weak coordination, low interoperability, and institutional fragmentation. FELA, adopted by UN-GGIM in 2020, provides leadership, standards, and nine strategic pathways. The study analyzes how implementing the CTR can strengthen FELA by integrating formal and informal rights and simplifying processes. It also examines organizational barriers and proposes evaluating the CTR’s impact on governance, policy, data, interoperability, engagement, and financial sustainability within the FELA framework, advancing the transition from technical achievements to strategic effectiveness.

Money laundering and the financing of terrorism are two of the most serious threats to the credibility, stability and security of the world’s financial markets. With an ever more interlinked world, financial crimes can be cross-border and travel quickly, using legal gaps, lax regulation and tenebrous business structures. Consequently, preventing money laundering and its associated crimes has increasingly become an international problem necessitating coordinated effort among governments, financial institutions, supervisory bodies, and non-financial actors. Among these actors, property and land registries play a critical yet sometimes underestimated role in detecting and preventing illicit activities linked to real estate transactions. Countries such as Spain has a strong regulation on money laundering policies. It is important to highlight the role that the “Colegio de Registradores” play in terms of prevention, helping judicial authorities to fight against money laundering through “CRAB” (Anti-money laundering registry center).

Ethiopia has implemented one of Africa’s largest digital land administration systems through the National Rural Land Administration Information System (NRLAIS), now it operational in over 500 woredas with over 32 million registered parcels and over 10 million landholders. This study examines how Ethiopia achieved national-scale deployment using a Fit-for-Purpose approach, LADM-compliant data structures, and open-source technologies within a decentralized governance framework. The analysis draws on administrative data, spatial datasets, synchronization logs, and system performance indicators to assess impacts on service delivery, data quality, and institutional coordination. Findings show that NRLAIS significantly improves transparency, reduces transaction time, strengthens data integrity, and expands inclusion through offline-first tools. The Ethiopian experience demonstrates that large-scale digital land systems can be successfully implemented in resource-constrained settings and provides globally relevant lessons for building sustainable, scalable, and interoperable land information systems.

Typically measured as housing cost over income. Many factors influence housing affordability, but without doubt the limited supply determines the high sale and rental prices. The lack of availability of housing in the market arises not only from its material scarcity, but also from the use of existing housing for purposes other than meeting the need for permanent housing or a home. This is the case of housing , being used or exploited for tourism purposes. This paper will set out how Spain, through the Property and Moveable Assets Register, controls the use of dwellings intended for short-term rentals, assigning them a registration number ,once the Registrar has verified that they meet the legal requirements, without which they cannot be marketed on the platforms dedicated to this purpose.

Land-use change driven by economic factors has significantly altered ecosystem services in Lampung, Sumatra-Indonesia. This study investigates the key drivers behind the ongoing shift. Data were obtained through structured household surveys, field observations, and institutional records, and supported by literature. The method of Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) was used to identify the variables affecting land-use changes in the study sites. These variables were then classified into four quadrants based on their levels of influence and dependency. The analysis highlights six determinant variables: farmers’ age, education level, presence of farmer groups, palm oil selling price, land suitability, and government policy support. These variables play a pivotal role in shaping land-use dynamics, which provide a foundation for targeted and effective policy interventions. Insights from this study offer important lessons for promoting sustainable oil palm management and enhancing agricultural resilience in one of Indonesia’s high intensity farming regions.

Blockchain technology offers emerging tools for enhancing zero-deforestation supply chains by improving transparency, traceability, and governance. However, not all blockchain systems are created equal, and their environmental and social impacts differ significantly. This review critically evaluates key blockchain systems to assess their potential contributions to zero-deforestation efforts, exploring how these systems could address deforestation challenges, foster smallholder inclusivity, and enable decentralized digital governance. By analyzing blockchain's capabilities and limitations, we aim to provide actionable insights for stakeholders considering its application in sustainable forest supply chains, and identify directions for future research.

This paper examines whether combining tenure documentation with Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) can improve livelihoods and environmental outcomes in Ghana’s cocoa frontier. Using a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design, we assess a pilot project which offered land and tree documentation, agroforestry training, shade-tree distribution, and PES tied to verified tree survival. Over five years, treatment and comparison communities were tracked through surveys, interviews, administrative data, and field-based carbon measurements. The pilot significantly increased uptake of land and tree documentation, boosted shade-tree planting, and improved food security and off-farm income diversification—especially for sharecroppers. However, perceived tenure security, self-reported land clearing, and measured carbon stocks showed no detectable effects. Imperfect bundling—where many households received PES but not documentation—further limited environmental gains. Overall, integrated “rights + incentives” approaches can strengthen household resilience but are unlikely to deliver forest or carbon benefits without stronger incentives and clearer links between documentation and enforceable rights.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) represents a transformative opportunity for the insurance industry to innovate and support the global shift toward nature-positive development. With the global Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework driving commitments worldwide, insurers are uniquely positioned to derisk ongoing nature-based investments. Pemberton will discuss services, opportunities and pitfalls to support insurers, developers, landowners, and conservation bodies by integrating ecological data with insurance systems and risk analytics, and aligning, then translating into frameworks like ORSA, CSRD, ESRS E4, and TNFD. The strategic opportunity lies in creating new insurance products, such as project-specific biodiversity cover or helping monitor for existing professional indemnity for ecologists, and environmental liability policies. By integrating explainable AI through a transparent data pipeline (not a standard AI 'black box') biodiversity measurement and monitoring services to existing and new products, insurers can reduce risk, help unlock capital, support liquidity and sustainable development, and lead innovation in nature-based risk management.