Interdisciplinary Project

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Linking Madagascar’s land tenure

systems to slash and burn practices:

an interdisciplinary research

First version

Tutor: Joris van der Klei Expert: Rutger Bults Date: 06-05-2020

Allard de Graaf 11822023 Political Science

Anne Meekel 11705345 Spatial Planning

Bram Avezaat 11646403 Earth Sciences

Iris Balk 11906537 Earth Sciences

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Abstract

From an interdisciplinary approach, this report investigates to what extent the land tenure systems of Madagascar are related to the slash and burn agriculture that is intensively performed in this country. Because the influence of the land tenure systems on the use of SAB practices is a very complex problem, in which factors of multiple disciplines are involved, this research attempts to integrate insights from several involved disciplines on this subject. By using the interdisciplinary concepts marginalization, sustainability, and land security, this report shows that the land tenure systems of Madagascar play a crucial role in the recent increase of slash and burn practices in Madagascar, which results in a decline of various ecosystem services. Because of land insecurity, farmers prevent themselves from investing in their lands, hereby limiting the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices. Because of this lack of investments, problems surrounding land tenure are aggravated even more.

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1. Introduction

Case study description

Slash and burn

Slash and burn, which will be referred to as SAB from now on, is the traditional and most widely used agricultural practice in Madagascar (Klanderud et al., 2010). The first step of this practice is cutting the forest, followed by the burning of the remains of vegetation. Afterwards, the land is used for a period of cultivation as long as sufficient nutrients are available for agriculture, followed by a period of abandonment in which natural vegetation has an opportunity to recover (Klanderud et al., 2010). However, the yields obtained through this practice are low and very short-lived, and bring with it several risks to the environment and long term food security (Randrianarijaona, 1983). As can be seen in figure 1, shifting agriculture, i.e., SAB, is a primary cause of deforestation in Madagascar. This deforestation is considered a major problem since tropical forest is one of the main ecosystems of Madagascar. SAB has also been linked to biodiversity loss, soil erosion, and product supply vulnerability (Klanderud et al., 2010; Randrianarijaona, 1983; RAF Learning Lab, 2019). In recent years, deforestation rates have risen in Madagascar because high population growth, the

absence of proper financial alternatives, and the low amount of national investments in agriculture have resulted in increased demand for land (Desbureaux & Brimont, 2015). Land tenure

The use of SAB as the main agricultural practice is strongly tied to the land tenure systems in Madagascar. A land tenure system is defined by the FAO (2002) as a set of rules concerning the relationship of people with respect to land. The land tenure system in place determines who has access to use resources on a plot of land, and for how long. According to Maxwell & Wiebe (1998) “land tenure derives from both statutory and customary law regarding not only property rights and ownership, but also institutions of marriage, of power and control, and of inheritance.” (Mawell & Wiebe, 1998. P.4). In most Western countries, land tenure is regulated through property rights. Crucial to this is that the enforcement of these property rights is done thoroughly to ensure that the land owner’s rights are protected against the act of others. Because of a lack of tenure offices, verification of property ownership, record keeping systems and financial support hinders the enforcement of property rights in Madagascar. Therefore, official property rights are not implemented on a large scale (Delcourt, 2018; Feder & Feeny, 1991). Because of this, Malagasy people still mostly use old methods of obtaining land. This is done by clearing a plot of unused land by themselves, and then using this land continuously, thereby claiming the land as their property (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994; Schuck et al., 2002). Figure 1: Tree cover loss by dominant drivers from 2001 to 2018 on Madagascar, with a canopy loss of ≥ 30% (Adapted from: Curtis et al., 2018)

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The traditional land tenure pressures local communities to clear land as quickly and cheaply as possible to obtain rights over this land (Kotto-Same et al., 2000), hereby negatively impacting soils and biodiversity. This way of claiming land is mainly enforced through cultural forces, and official legal rights play less of a role than in the modern land tenure system explained before (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994).

This paper is an interdisciplinary research on the relationship between the land tenure systems of Madagascar and the SAB agriculture that is intensively performed in this country. Through primary and secondary data the following research question is answered: To what extent are the land tenure systems of Madagascar related to slash and burn agriculture?

This question will be answered through the following sub questions:

● What makes the specific land tenure context of Madagascar unique?

● What is the effect of the land tenure systems of Madagascar on slash and burn agriculture?

● How do the consequences of slash and burn agriculture on ecosystem services link to the land tenure systems of Madagascar?

Relevance and interdisciplinary approach

This research is relevant in multiple ways. The scientific relevance lies in the interdisciplinarity of the research. An interdisciplinary approach to this problem is crucial because the influence of the land tenure system on the use of SAB practices is a very complex problem, in which factors of multiple disciplines are involved. This research attempts to integrate insights on this subject from multiple relevant disciplines. Different interdisciplinary integration techniques will be used, namely extension and organization. These integration techniques will be specified by relevant concepts, which will be explored by each discipline. The links between theses perspectives will be investigated to create interdisciplinary knowledge that is currently not available for this specific problem.

The social relevance is closely related to this interdisciplinary approach, as this approach will show how intertwined social and ecological factors are, and how dependent the Malagasy people are on nature. This research attempts to unveil these connections, which can inform policy-making, for example in the areas of agriculture, conservation and property rights.

This paper is structured as follows. The paper will start with a theoretical framework, in which the concepts that are central to this research will be explained thoroughly and put in a scientific framework. The theoretical framework will be followed by the problem definition, where the choice of research questions will be further explained, and the necessity for an interdisciplinary integration will be argued. An elaboration of how this interdisciplinary integration took place follows. The chapter after will elaborate on the research methods and will operationalize the central concepts. Next, the results will be reported, which will be followed by a discussion and finally, the overall findings of this research will be concluded.

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2. Theoretical framework

SAB in Madagascar is a multifaceted problem which can not be reduced to a single disciplinary dimension. In this theoretical framework, we will explain how the study of disciplinary theories from social geography, political science, spatial planning and earth sciences led to an integrated framework out of which the research problem has come forth.

Theories and concepts related to slash and burn

Colonial marginalization

The practice of SAB is related to the colonial context of Madagascar. The French colonial rulers had a solely commercial interest in Madagascar and pursued a strategy of maximal resource extraction, primarily by cultivating coffee (Jarosz, 1993). In doing so, they pushed the indigenous people to less fertile areas, a process called marginalization (Raik, 2007). Because of the less fertile land, more area was needed to produce sufficient food, and SAB was a cheap method to do this. The increase in SAB hindered state-led resource extraction, so the French authorities decided to prohibit SAB practices in Madagascar. This decision by the French rulers led to social unrest, and practicing illegal SAB became a way of showing resistance to French colonial authority (Raik, 2007). Marginalization thus has made SAB both a necessary tool to realize food security and an act of resistance against a repressive government.

Foreign land acquisitions

In postcolonial Madagascar, foreign influence on Malagasy agriculture, and thus on SAB, primarily comes from foreign companies, as a large part of Malagasy agricultural products are exported (OEC, 2017). While the global trade in agricultural products has led to a disconnection between the environmental impacts of its production and the price at which it is consumed, there are also global market forces that can improve local sustainable practices (Swisher, Ruiz-Menjivar & Koenig, 2018). The presence of companies from developed countries can give farmers in developing countries access to educational, technological and financial resources that are needed for sustainable agriculture, but often are hard to come by on a national level (Minten, Randrianarison & Swinnen, 2009). Companies are extremely interested in securing stable supply chains, which includes a stable supply of agricultural products. The primary way this is done is through land acquisitions in developing countries (Zoomers, 2010). Next to the positives effects described above, foreign land acquisitions are also linked to environmental degradation and food insecurity (Franco et al., 2013).

Land tenure

How agriculture is practiced is related to land tenure. Land tenure concerns the institutionalization of the relationship of people to land. Feder & Feeny (1991) explain that when land becomes more scarce than labor, a need arises to secure land, because labor is now in competition for land to make use of. A lack of land security prevents farmers from employing long-term, i.e. sustainable agricultural practices because they aren’t assured of the return on their investment (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994). This lack of land security thus pushes farmers towards short-term practices such as SAB. Two different systems of land tenure can be found in Madagascar. Traditionally, land tenure is determined by what Schuck

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et. al (2002) have called: “first use and continuous occupancy” (p. 61). It is an informal system that highly depends on cultural understanding and extensive social ties between land owners. Under French colonial rule a parallel land tenure system was introduced in Madagascar. This system resembles the Western system and is based on highly formalized ownership in the form of legal rights (Feder & Feeny, 1991). Therefore, it is highly dependent on the legitimacy of the legal system, as well as the strength of state institutions.

Recovery time

The most pressing issue of SAB agriculture in Madagascar is that is has scaled up towards a highly unsustainable level, threatening biodiversity and soil fertility. Madagascar is among the world’s largest biodiversity hotspots and is especially rare in its high degree of endemism (Ganzhorn et al., 2001). As the name suggests, SAB is a two-stage process, which makes it particularly harmful to biodiversity. The slash-stage causes deforestation, which leads to an absolute loss in habitat as well as habitat fragmentation (Gibson et al., 2011; Bierregaard & Laurence, 1997). The subsequent burn-stage then clears the land of all vegetation, which especially harms plant biodiversity. Recovery of vegetation after SAB cultivation has been shown to be slowed significantly, needing over 50 years for just secondary forest to recover (Styger et al. 2007). Soil fertility is essential for the practice of agriculture, but SAB leads to an increasing degradation in soil fertility. This is because the recovery time in each subsequent cultivation cycle needs to be longer in order to maintain soil fertility. However, over the past 50 years the recovery time has decreased, from 8-15 years to 3-4 years (Styger et al. 2007).

Interdisciplinary framework

The theories and concepts presented above have a single disciplinary background. Marginalization is largely developed within the field of social geography, foreign land acquisitions are studied by political scientists, land tenure is the domain of spatial planning and recovery time comes from the earth sciences discipline. Therefore, common ground has to be found to integrate the theories into an interdisciplinary theoretical framework. Our integrated framework places the land tenure system of Madagascar central to its analysis. This system will then be studied using the concepts of marginalization, sustainability and land security.

The concept of colonial marginalization can be employed when studying land tenure, because the colonial era was important in shaping land tenure systems in Madagascar. The concept of marginalization means to be excluded from power, so to be outside of the mainstream in economic, political, cultural and/or social contexts (Mulligan, 1999). In this paper, studies of soil quality, such as soil fertility and inclination, are integrated in marginalization as well, because those determine the geography of marginalization. Marginalization is also not restricted to the colonial context, but can also be found in practices of global agricultural trade. Marginalization offers a common ground to study the differences and similarities between colonial and supply chain agriculture.

We use sustainability as a second concept to integrate several of our theories into the land tenure systems. Lichtfouse et al., (2009, p. 3) propose to define sustainable agriculture as follows: “Agricultural systems are considered to be sustainable if they are capable of sustaining themselves over a long period of time. that is, if they are economically viable, environmentally safe and socially fair”. The relationship between humans and land revolves around the ways land can be used, the ecosystem services it offers. The use of sustainability

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in this research will be the extent to which these ecosystems services, e.g. the cultural, provisioning, regulating and supporting services, can be maintained. As such, our concepts of biodiversity and recovery time are incorporated. There is also attention for sustainability of livelihood, looking at what is needed of the land in terms of income, economic development and cultural value.

A third interdisciplinary aspect of land tenure systems is land security. Land security can be defined as the perception of the landowner of how assured he is of his land ownership in the (near) future (Roth et al., 1989). Land security is a vital part of land tenure systems and is dependent on the strength and legitimacy of the institutions and relations that enforce land security. Multiple of our theories can shed light on both the strength and legitimacy part.

The problem that we have encountered in our study of the theory is that the current land tenure system has not proved to be able to cope with SAB agriculture and its underlying causes. SAB is not only a problem that is difficult to solve, but also difficult to study in the first place. This complexity will be further elaborated on in the next section.

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3. Problem definition

Various studies have explored the structures of land tenure systems, both on a highly institutionalized and regulated level, and on a traditional and culturally grounded level (Schuck et. al, 2002; Feder & Feeny, 1991; Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994). Other studies focus on the drivers and consequences of SAB practices, with the drivers being primarily social (Schuck et al., 2002), and the consequences primarily environmental (Klanderud et al., 2010). However, none of these studies focus on an interdisciplinary integration of how the land tenure systems of Madagascar have several direct and indirect links to SAB agriculture. By doing an interdisciplinary analysis of these connections between land tenure and SAB, this research aims to expose new relations between different disciplines, bridging the knowledge gap in the existing literature on this topic.

Under French colonial rule, a Western land tenure system was introduced in Madagascar. However, due to this fragmented system there is no enforcement of property rights (Delcourt, 2018). Therefore, most Malagasy people still tend to use old methods of obtaining the rights over land by clearing land as quick and cheap as possible (Schuck et. al, 2002). Because of the uncertainty about what form of land tenure is actually followed in practice, it is difficult to determine what the drivers of SAB in Madagascar are. Therefore, more insight in the land tenure system is needed before addressing SAB.

The land tenure system will be studied using the concepts of marginalization, sustainability and land security. These concepts are not merely researchable from one discipline, but have strings attached to more than one discipline. All three concepts have their own complex web of links, loops and feedbacks to other phenomena and actors, and are connected to each other as well. They are part of large complex systems such as the world economy and the politics of Madagascar, as well as the Malagasy ecosystem and culture. Because of this extensive complexity that lies behind the problem of SAB it is inevitable that multiple disciplines are involved and affecting each other. This is why an interdisciplinary approach can not only reveal new ties that are important in the problem, but an integrated, interdisciplinary method is crucial to resolve the several complex issues surrounding SAB in Madagascar. Solely analyzing the problem from one discipline’s perspective would neglect the size and complexity of the problem. Therefore, an interdisciplinary approach is needed in order to answer the research question.

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4. Interdisciplinary integration

In this report, perspectives from different disciplines were integrated by using several relevant concepts, which were then integrated beyond their original discipline. The chosen concepts are: Marginalization, Sustainability and Land Security. Each of the sub-questions of this report were formed around one or multiple of these concepts. This made it easier for each of the disciplines to integrate their respective knowledge, as each discipline focussed their research on this concept from their own disciplinary perspective. Applying these concepts to other disciplines than its original domain is the main component of the interdisciplinary integration technique called extension (figure 3). However, additional to applying concepts beyond their original domain, this report intends to find links between the different disciplinary perspectives of these concepts, in order to illustrate the complexity of the problem surrounding SAB and land tenure in Madagascar, and give a clearer picture of the multiple aspects of the problem. Finding causal links between different disciplinary perspectives best fits the description of

organization (figure 3). This was done by discussing the links each of the researchers had

found when applying the chosen concepts in their own discipline. In these discussions, the links that were found most relevant were chosen, and further explained in the report. The concepts and main links between these concepts that were identified in this research are visualized in figure 2.

Figure 2: The conceptual scheme showing the main concepts used in this report. Concepts in light blue are the central concepts of the research, which the main question is based upon. Concepts in grey are the two separate forms of land tenure in place in Madagascar. The three concepts shown in different colors are the concepts originating mainly from one discipline on which the sub questions were based and which form the starting point for each of the contributing disciplines. Concepts in red are the main consequences of SAB. The links found between the consequences and the concepts are visualized by the dotted lines.

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5. Selected methods and data

The objective of this research is to discover to what extent the land tenure system of Madagascar relates to the SAB practices on this island. This is a case study of a situation that is located far away from the researchers’ base; the Netherlands. Therefore, conducting experiments or creating unique primary data is no option, which limits the research to already existing primary and secondary data. This chapter will elaborate on the research design and method, the used variables, how the data was collected and how it was analyzed.

Research design, method and variables

Because the research is solely focusing on the relationship between the land tenure system of Madagascar and SAB in Madagascar, the research design is a case study. A case study is a research strategy that studies the phenomenon within its own context. It is usually an in-depth investigation of a situation that exposes the dynamics of the researched phenomenon, and focuses on why those dynamics are taking place (Bryman, 2016). In this research, the entire island of Madagascar will be studied as one case. Such a large scope of analysis is rarely used in this research design, because of the risk of including too much dynamics and relations, which can lead to ambiguous and nugatory results. However, the studied literature has given no indication that the dynamics of land tenure differ greatly within the island. Furthermore, because of the interdisciplinary approach, this research will need to draw on a variety of data and literature. Limiting the research to a smaller scale limited the ability to find results on the integrated concepts. Qualitative literature research is the main method that was used, as this was needed for an explanation on what the land tenure system of Madagascar looks like and how this relates to the farming method SAB. However, maps of areas that have undergone SAB can provide statistical facts that can show the scale of this relationship. Hence, both primary and secondary data is used.

As figure 2 shows, the concepts named in the theoretical framework are expected to influence each other. Therefore, those concepts can be seen as the variables that will be researched. These concepts are:

● Marginalization ● Sustainability ● Land security

The variables listed as above are difficult to research, because they are very broad and complex concepts. Hence, in the operationalization, the variables will be broken down to expose the properties that really seem to influence the other variables.

Operationalization

Marginalization

As becomes clear from the theoretical framework, marginalization is a very broad concept which can be applied to multiple contexts, e.g.: economic, cultural, political, and social contexts (Mulligan, 1999). In this paper, marginalization mainly relates to the colonial context. Back in colonial Madagascar, only the French colonial elite were recognized as possible landowners, which caused a lot of land grabbing from poor farmers and indigenous Malagasy (Mulligan, 1999). As the French pursued a strategy of maximal resource extraction, mostly

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indigenous people were pushed towards less fertile areas in Madagascar and were so excluded from power (Raik, 2007). So, this colonial marginalization is related to the concept of land grabbing by the French. This land grabbing “is characterized by transnational and domestic corporate investors, governments, and local elites taking control over large quantities of land (..) to produce food, feed, biofuel and other industrial commodities” (Margulis, McKeon & Borras Jr, 2013., p. 2). In postcolonial Madagascar, foreign influence on Malagasy agriculture, and thus on SAB, primarily comes from foreign companies (OEC, 2017). These foreign companies look for access to lands in order to stable their supply chains, as raw materials are becoming increasingly scarce (Burnod et al., 2013). The primary way this is done is through land acquisitions in developing countries (Zoomers, 2010). As a result of this political perspective of marginalization, indigenous people are excluded from power.

This variable can be researched by using qualitative data, which can explain which actors, such as the government, foreign companies or local elites, are drivers of marginalization processes. The literature will also be assessed on what means are used to marginalize, for example economic political, or discursive means.

Sustainability

Sustainability is known as a very broad concept. In the theoretical framework, it is not even named as a separate concept. The sustainability of an agricultural practice could be measured as the degree to which the practice impacts the ecosystem services of the agricultural land itself and the surrounding area. Ecosystem services are defined as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems” (MEA, 2003). These ecosystem services are divided into four different categories: cultural, provisioning, regulating and supporting. Provisioning services include all materials that people obtain from ecosystems, such as food but also non-edible products like timber. Regulating services are defined as the services which regulate important ecological processes such as pest control and pollination. Regulating services are crucial for maintaining other ecosystem services in the long-term. Cultural services are the cultural benefits people acquire from ecosystem such as sense of place, cultural heritage and spiritual connection. Lastly, supporting services are the services which are necessary for the provisioning of all other ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling and habitat provisioning (MEA, 2003). In each category of services, relevant indicators for sustainability can be found. For example, provisioning services are crucial for food security, regulating and supporting services are highly dependent on soil quality and biodiversity and cultural services are important for maintaining human wellbeing. The type of data used for the assessment of ecosystem services depends on the type of service. Regulating, supporting and provisioning services can best be measured by quantitative data of indicators of specific services. For example, the regulating service pollination could be measured by pollinator abundance in a specific area. Cultural services are best described by using qualitative data such as data obtained through interviews.

Additionally, the concepts of recovery time and foreign land acquisitions are also an integral part of sustainability. For SAB and agriculture, these are the most important properties when it comes to how sustainable this method is. The recovery time vegetation is given after a SAB cycle can influence both the biodiversity and the soil quality. Primarily quantitative data is needed to expose the relationships between recovery time and biodiversity and soil quality. Data on vegetation species richness and abundance and soil nutrient cycle rates, such as nitrification, will be used to measure this relationship. The recovery time also influences farmers, as they have to decide where to farm, and whether they want to create new land to

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be cultivated, or give the already slashed and burned fields less time to recover and use them again. This is where foreign land acquisitions play a role in sustainability as well, as they represent a substantial portion of the farmers. Furthermore, they limit the availability of land to local farmers. To study the impact of foreign land acquisitions, the relation between foreign companies looking to access land and the land tenure system is assessed, with special attention to the tension between the national and local level.

Land security

Land security is made up of two main properties which will be researched. First, it strongly depends on the land tenure system. Using qualitative data, which will mostly be previously done research on land tenure systems, land security will be explained within the different land tenure systems that are prominently exercised in Madagascar. The second property, which is the factor that really links land security to SAB, is the fact that the way and amount people are willing to invest in land very much depends on land security, also called land investment (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994; Brasselle et al., 2002). Land investment both seems to be influenced by land security, and control land security. That land investment is dependent on land security is already briefly explained in the theoretical framework. On the other hand, family institutions of land security are dependent on how much their ancestors have invested in the land (Brasselle et al., 2002; Place and Hazell, 1993). When they have invested a relatively large amount in the land, the security that the land will stay within the family and will thus be available for present and future generations increases. This codependency gives good reason to, essentially, research the relationship between land tenure and SAB through land investment. Land investment can very well be defined as the amount of money invested. If quantitative data of amounts of money invested in land is available, this could be compared to how much SAB is taking place on that same location. However, if this quantitative data is not available, the relationship can be explained using policy documents and previously performed researches on land investment, land security and agriculture methods. Therewithal, maps of locations where the different land tenure systems are used can be compared to maps that show locations of extensive SAB practice. With this method, findings in secondary data can be supported with spatial data.

Table 1. Operationalization table

Concepts Dimensions Variables/indicators Datasource

Marginalization Colonial marginalization (Margulis et al., 2013; Burnod et al., 2013) Land grabbing (Margulis et al., 2013) Literature Political marginalization (Burnod et al., 2013) Foreign land acquisitions (Zoomers, 2010) Literature Sustainability Environmental impact (Lichtfouse et al., 2009) Regulating services (MEA, 2003) Literature Supporting services (MEA, 2003)

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15 Recovery time (Styger et al., 2007) Economically viable (Lichtfouse et al., 2009) Provisioning services (MEA, 2003) Socially fair (Lichtfouse et al., 2009) Cultural services (MEA,2003) Supply chains (Burnod et al., 2013)

Land security Land tenure system (Schuck et. al, 2002; Feder & Feeny, 1991)

Western land tenure (Feder & Feeny, 1991) Indigenous land tenure

(Schuck et. al, 2002)

Literature

Land investment (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994; Brasselle et al., 2002)

Wealth

(Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994)

Family-relationships (Brasselle et al., 2002; Place and Hazell, 1993)

Literature

Data collection and analysis

This research is mostly dependent on secondary data. Therefore, scientific papers were collected that give explanations of all concepts that were researched in this paper. First, scientific definitions of the concepts were obtained through internet-searching the concepts separately. This was done through scientific search engines and libraries like Google Scholar, Web of Knowledge and the UvA online library. When every concept had been researched and defined, the relationship between the concepts was explored by internet-searching the concepts together, in pairs, trios or all together. Whether the scientific articles that the libraries provided using these search terms are usable, was reviewed by the researchers of this paper. To make sure data on the situation concerning these concepts in Madagascar specifically wasn’t missed, the terms were internet-searched in pair with “Madagascar” as well.

In addition to secondary data, primary data on deforestation and soil characteristic are used. The data on deforestation was obtained using previous research, which was found using the same methods as the secondary data. For the data on soil characteristics, an atlas was used.

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6. Results

The results will be presented per sub-question. Each sub-question will end with a small conclusion for the sub-question, essentially aiming to answer that sub-question. In the next chapter, the answers to the sub-questions will be combined to provide an answer to the main research question.

What makes the specific land tenure context of Madagascar unique?

In Madagascar, the option of privatizing land has just recently been added to the land tenure system (Delcourt, 2018). Interestingly, Feder and Feeny (1991) mention that the pressure on land in Madagascar is increasing by the increasing Malagasy population that needs to provide for itself, but also by increasing commercial and climate pressure. Supposedly, this was a driver for the Ravalomanana government to implement new land privatization options. Before, land tenure was still very rooted in the colonial traditions and uses. The French colonizers defined the dominant policy discourse regarding land tenure systems (Mulligan, 1999). Over a long time, they had tried to implement a Western land tenure system in which land tenure is regulated through property rights. The option of securitization of land tenure with property rights should have motivated people to invest in their land and take good care of it, as elucidated in the operationalization (Delcourt, 2018). However, nowadays these property rights have not yet been implemented on a large scale in Madagascar, because of the lack of tenure offices, verification of property ownership, record keeping systems and financial support (Delcourt, 2018; Feder & Feeny, 1991).

The privatization of land and other natural resources was done in order to achieve economic development by incentivizing international investment, and it worked. Between 2005 and 2008, foreign direct investment in Madagascar surged from 95 billion to 1,445 billion USD (Burnod et al, 2011). While most of this went towards mining concessions, the investment in agricultural land was most surprising. The emergence of foreign large-scale land acquisitions has laid bare tension between the local and national scale of land policy (Burnod et al. 2011; Burnod, Gingembre & Andrianirina Ratsialonana, 2013). In a 2005 law, land that wasn’t entitled to anyone but that was occupied, as well as land for customary uses was no longer deemed state-owned. Through this, the local village leaders are included in the formal process of land deals. A transfer of land ownership must, next to the selling and buying parties, also be approved by the local communal leadership. However, because of poor spreading of information about this clause, as well as —non-binding—promises of material improvements to the community, the consent of local leader is often reduced to a formality.

The absence of the enforcement of property rights drives the Malagasy people to continue to use old methods of obtaining land (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994). People can become land owner by clearing a plot of land for themselves and use it continuously, called the principle of ‘first use and continuous occupancy’ by Schuck et al. (2002). This is an institution that is more culturally captured than legally captured, which makes it a very insecure system. As there are a lot of different types of land ownership in Madagascar, and Malagasy attach multiple cultural and ancestral values to land, “a single piece of land (…) may be categorized in a multi-dimensional way, with different actors articulating different versions or the same actor having a multi-layered understanding.” (Mulligan, 1999., p. 652), which leads to enormous land insecurities. Because of these insecurities, people do not see the need to consort their land with care, as there is not much to hold people from simply stealing land from others, this theory is also elucidated in the operationalization and theoretical framework (Bruce

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& Migot-Adholia, 1994). Foreign companies are, next to formal land acquisitions, also navigating these local, informal institutions in order to access land. While, out of 15 foreign companies, only 2 had obtained formal access to land in 2012, all of them already had operational plantations (Burnod et al., 2013). Most companies looking to obtain agricultural land are small- or medium-sized and need third-party funding to realize their plans. Therefore, instead of the time-consuming formal procedures, they try to obtain immediate results by directly approaching local and to a lesser extent regional leaders. This is problematic because these leaders can be partial to certain groups in their communities. The informal deals are also unknown to the central government.

Thus, what makes the land tenure system of Madagascar such an interesting case is that for half of the population of Madagascar, there is not really one land tenure system in use. The official procedures of the central government are not followed in practice, because of the particular interest of foreign companies. Instead, local informal arrangements largely determine land access. And despite attempts to legally bind all land tenure, the lack of enforcement makes that two different forms of land tenure are in play in Madagascar, one rooted in the French colonial time, and the other rooted in the upcoming Western culture, driven by globalization.

What is the effect of the land tenure systems of Madagascar on slash and

burn agriculture?

The findings on the previous sub-question have sketched what makes the land tenure system of Madagascar so unique. The conclusion was that there are actually two main institutionalized systems in play. Both of these systems have a different effect on SAB agriculture, which will be explained through this second sub-question.

The role of land security

First, the different land tenure systems bring along different levels of land security. As expected, the land security is tied to land investment. Several researches work with the assumption that a lack of land security keeps people from investing in their land (Bruce & Migot-Adholia, 1994). Brasselle et al., (2002) also explains this as the “assurance effect”; when people are ensured of the right to own the plot of land they bought or claimed, they are automatically ensured of the profit that come from long term investments in the land. Since most Malagasy farmers are poor, it is sensible that they will not be likely to invest money into an asset that does not have the security of at least returning the same amount of money to the farmer who invested it.

However, Brasselle et al. (2002) found that this relationship actually works the other way around. This empirical research showed that property rights to secure land tenure in Sub-Saharan African countries do not increase investment in land, but more investment in land does secure land tenure, mostly within family-friend relationships, as elucidated in the operationalization. A survey research by Place and Hazell (1993) supports this finding for Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda, where land appears to be surprisingly privatized, despite the lack of record keeping systems. Additionally, this privatization of land has not led to an increase in land investment relative to non-privatized land. Moreover, a study on the effect of land titling on land investment in Madagascar showed that land titling did not lead to an increase of land investments and that owners of untitled land were only willing to pay 6% of the value of their plot to secure their land through this official institution (Jacoby et al., 2007). Furthermore, Jacoby et al. (2007) showed that the customary tenure system provides enough land security

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for small-scale investments, indicating that traditional institutions are often the primary foundation for small scale land investments. A study on the customary land tenure systems in place in the Murang’a district in Kenya showed that planting trees is seen as a way of claiming land and securing customary tenurial rights (Mackenzie, 2003). Thus, investing in land can increase not only land security for local farmers, it also aids the implementation of more sustainable agricultural practices such as agroforestry. These researches present a counterargument to previous literature that claimed that property rights increase land investment, at least for Sub-Saharan African countries.

The effect of France

Despite the potential of customary institutions to facilitate sufficient land security, SAB remains the most prominent agricultural practice in Madagascar (Klanderud et al., 2010). This is where the French colonial history of Madagascar comes in play, as the practice of SAB can be traced back to that colonial context. The French colonial rulers had a commercial interest in Madagascar and pursued a strategy of maximal resource extraction, primarily by cultivating coffee (Jarosz, 1993). As a result, indigenous people were pushed to less fertile areas, a process called marginalization (Raik, 2007). As indigenous people had to move to less fertile lands, more area was needed to produce sufficient food, and SAB was a cheap method to do this. Because these SAB practices prevented state-led resource extraction, the French authorities decided to prohibit SAB practices in Madagascar. This decision by the French rulers led to social unrest and so, practicing illegal SAB became a way of showing resistance to the French authority, as elucidated in the operationalization (Raik, 2007). Even after the decolonization of Madagascar, practicing SAB remained, among other things, an act of showing resistance and embracing their Malagasy identity (Peters, 1998). Marginalization, thus, has made SAB both a necessary tool to realize food security and an act of resistance against a repressive government.

The concept of colonial marginalization can be employed when studying land tenure, because the French defined the dominant discourse in Madagascar, for example about land tenure systems (Mulligan, 1999). As there are a lot of different types of land ownership in Madagascar nowadays, the land tenure system of Madagascar can be considered as very insecure. As a result of this lack of land security, Malagasy farmers are pushed towards short-term practices, such as SAB, which prevents them from employing long-short-term, sustainable agricultural practices. Because of the earlier mentioned ‘assurance effect’, Malagasy “may choose to produce a crop with low expected returns if that crop also has a variance sufficiently low that the household is assured of (…) access to sufficient food.” (Maxwell & Wiebe, 1998, p. 12). However, these unsustainable SAB practices lead to an increasing degradation in soil fertility, which eventually will threaten long-term food security. Yet, the indigenous land tenure system is kept intact, because of the lack of property rights enforcement, and because Malagasy farmers have very limited access to credit which prevents them from implementing more sustainable, modern farming strategies.

Madagascar soils and SAB

The land tenure system of Madagascar is generating a pressure on farmers to clear land in the quickest and cheapest way possible (Kotto-Same et al., 2000). This is where SAB plays a large role, as it is a very quick, cheap and effective technique to make land cultivation-ready (Klanderud et al., 2010). The SAB can negatively impact the soil quality and biodiversity of an area, however these are not sufficient reasons for farmers to stop performing these practices. The motives for continuing with SAB are closely related to factors mentioned in previous

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paragraphs, e.g. the cultural importance of SAB and the fact that farmers are not dependent on one plot of land. The extent of the impact of SAB on the soil quality depends on the intensity of SAB and on the soil characteristics.

It is a challenge for the farmers to maintain the yield levels on Madagascar, since the soils of Madagascar are quite prone to erosion, so the farmers need to perform a suitable land cultivation system (Randrianarijaona, 1983). However, land ownership and tenure arrangements can prevent conservation of the soil, especially when these systems do not provide security for the farmer and are only short-term based. The farmer will not feel the need to invest in long-term improvements for conservation of the land, causing major soil depletion and eventually resulting in more soil erosion. When the soil is barren, the yields are not substantial enough to support his living, farmers will have to clear more land to compensate for this loss of yield, thereby turning to the SAB practice. The barren soil will be unsupervised and not protected by any vegetation, resulting in erosion induced by hardening of the soil, intensive rainfall, runoff and disappearance of the humus horizon (Gade, 1996; FAO, 2020).

There are numerous soil types present on Madagascar. The main soil types that can be found on Madagascar are Acrisols, Arenosols, Ferralsols, Fluvisols, Lixisols, and Nitisols. The distribution of these soils are visualized in figure 4 (Jones, 2013). The majority of these soil

Figure 4: Soil map of Madagascar with a legend of the main soil types (Jones, 2013)

Figure 5: Map of the provinces of Madagascar (Adapted from: Los688, 2010)

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types; Acrisols, Ferralsols, Lixisols and Nitisols belong to the red tropical soils (FAO, 2020; Randrianarijaona, 1983). One of the main characteristics of these soils is that they are highly weathered and leached, meaning the soils are highly susceptible to erosion (Chesworth, 2008; Randrianarijaona, 1983). Given that the red tropical soils are quite dominant on the whole island, it indicates that the large parts of the island of Madagascar are prone to erosion. The different soil types demand different land conservation management styles. On the East coast, in the provinces Antananarivo, Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa and Toamasina, the Ferralsols are most common (see figure 4 and 5). Ferralsols are low in fertility due to the leaching of mineral nutrients, therefore lime and nutrients need to be added for agricultural use (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2016). The soils are used for traditional agricultural methods such as SAB, where the land is suitable for 2-4 years of agriculture, followed by, a 10-20 year period of forest fallow or pasture. The old land tenure system, where the agriculture will shift from place to place, was therefore a functional use of land, leading to sufficient yields on this soil type. However, modern intensive agriculture could also be performed on the Ferralsols. To be able to perform this sedentary agriculture, management with no tillage and extensive amount of minerals and fertilizers is necessary (FAO, 2020).

In the south of the province Toliary, the most common soil type is Acrisol. Acrisols are not very productive soils, having limited resources and therefore needing a sufficient regeneration period (FAO, 2020). The traditional land tenure system, SAB, is the best adapted system to these soil properties since this system allows, if sustainably performed, a long regeneration period. Under a land tenure system where sedentary farming is practiced the soil needs a careful management and complete fertilization (FAO, 2020).

Thus, the land tenure systems in place in Madagascar provide insufficient land security for large-scale land investment, while the lack of land investments further aggravate the land insecurity, resulting in a reinforcing loop. To prevent further decreases in soil quality, alternatives for high-intensity SAB are likely to be needed. However, because of market pressure and the customary ways of dealing with land tenurial rights, there are not enough incentives for farmers to decrease the intensity of SAB use.

How do the consequences of slash and burn agriculture on ecosystem

services link to the land tenure systems of Madagascar?

As explained before, intensive use of SAB is not a sustainable way of agriculture and has several detrimental impacts on the environment. In turn, as ecosystems are degraded, the services which ecosystems can provide are reduced as well. Ecosystem services are defined simply as the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems, which are divided into four sub-categories: cultural, provisioning, regulating and supporting services (MEA, 2003). The deterioration of ecosystem services caused by SAB is a measure for sustainability, as operated in the methods. The following paragraphs will explain the relation between the land tenure system and these services.

Cultural services

Cultural ecosystem services, such as spiritual connection and cultural heritage, are influenced by Madagascar’s traditional land tenure system. This traditional system is enforced by cultural forces. As SAB practices are embedded in social structures and relationships of local communities, “putting fire to a new field ensures cohesion within the community and reinforces the established hierarchy” (Desbureaux & Brimont, 2015, p. 11-12), and so (new) lands are cleared as quick as possible. SAB practices thus ensure ownership over new plots of land,

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while at the same time sustaining the livelihoods of local communities, and respecting the cultural and social connection between nature and these communities (Desbureaux & Brimont, 2015). As SAB is a primary cause of deforestation, cultural services of ecosystems in Madagascar are threatened by these local communities themselves.

Regulating and Supporting services

The regulating and supporting services are declining, impacting several factors. As mentioned before, regulating services are crucial for maintaining other ecosystem services in the long-term, while supporting services are the services which are necessary for the provisioning of all other ecosystem services (MEA, 2013). Regulating and supporting services are mainly governed by soil quality and biodiversity (Bommarco et al., 2013). The potential yield of a plot of land depends mostly on available solar radiation and temperature. The difference between this potential yield and the yield that is actually obtained is caused by a lack of water, nutrient deficiency or imbalance, pests, weeds or lack of pollination (Bommarco et al., 2013). These aspects are highly dependent on several supporting and regulating ecosystem services. When there is a lack of the supporting services such as water cycling and nutrient cycling, there will be less fuel available for the plants to grow, negatively impacting the biomass production. When regulating services as pest control and pollination are lacking, the plants are affected and less reproduction of plants will take place, resulting in less biomass production. Thus, when these ecosystem services are degraded as a result of high intensity SAB agriculture, the actual yields are likely to decrease far below the attainable yield level. Modern farming strategies that are used to close this gap are mainly focused on external inputs that decrease the stress on the crop caused by the aforementioned aspects such as irrigation, adding pesticides and inorganic nutrients. These external inputs are widely known to cause severe environmental damage and are by no means preferable from a sustainability point of view (Bommarco et al., 2013). Also, their potential for long-term food security is questionable, but they do allow farmers to increase their yields in order to have sufficient income and provide them with a relatively stable food security. However, these management practices cannot be used by most Malagasy farmers because of their high costs (Parsa et al., 2014). To obtain sufficient yield, the Malagasy farmers have to turn to a practice that has even more detrimental impacts on the environment; increasing the land they use for crop cultivation.

Furthermore, the widespread deforestation caused by SAB agriculture in Madagascar has caused large scale loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation, leading to a decline in flora and fauna biodiversity (Harper et al., 2007). Biodiversity plays a key role in sustaining regulating and supporting ecosystem services, which are of much importance to food production. One service that a high biodiversity level can provide, is biological pest control, which reduces the need for pesticides and potentially safeguards yields.

Biological pest control is seen as an environmentally friendly and low-cost management practice and is therefore relevant for smallholder farm in developing countries such as Madagascar (Bommarco et al., 2013). Biological pest control involves creating preferable conditions for natural enemies of pests to increase natural predation on these pests. Pest predators can include general predators that feed on several species e.g. birds & bats, or specific predators that prey on one specific organism e.g. parasitic organisms (Bommarco et al., 2013). A case study from Madagascar has shown that several native bat species have a positive effect on pest control, as DNA from several pest species were detected in bat faeces, including two economically important rice pests, as well as several pests of sugarcane, macadamia and citrus fruits (Kemp et al., 2019). Other studies on the effect of bats and birds on pest control have shown that exclusion of bats and birds from an agricultural plot in the

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tropics negatively affected fruit development and led to a decrease of crop yield by up to 31% (Maas et al., 2016). Deforestation induced by SAB practices reduces the habitat of these species could therefore decrease their ability to manage pest levels. As most Malagasy farmers do not have the education or financial funds to implement sufficient pest management strategies (Parsa et al., 2014), this decrease in biological control can decrease food security of local communities even further, potentially causing more deforestation in the process to compensate for the losses in yield, which is, as explained before, reinforced further by the land tenure system.

Provisioning services

One of the other aspects that impacts the decrease in crop yield, and therefore effects the provisioning service, is the soil quality. The effects of SAB on the soil quality are at first positive, as the slashing of vegetation and consequent burning introduces nutrients to the soil (Styger et al., 2007). The soil can therefore be used for several years for agricultural use, but the fertilization is only a temporary effect. After every SAB cycle the soil will lose some of its fertility, caused by a lack of recovery time. The soil loses its nutrients and gets less fertile every cropping cycle and after 3 years of agriculture, the nitrogen and phosphorus level are significantly lower (Styger et al., 2007; Gay-des-Combes et al., 2017). According to the research of Styger et al. (2007), the fallow period needs to be extended after every cropping cycle for the soil to be able to restore the nutrient level. The recovery time influences the farmers, as they have to decide where to farm, and whether they want to create new land to be cultivated, or reuse the land that has previously been subject to SAB. However, due to the present land tenure systems, the pressure of foreign companies and the pressure of the population growth that Madagascar is dealing with, a sufficient regenerating period is often not being respected. In some cases, the fallow periods are so short that the soil is too infertile and the tipping point of the ecosystem is reached, causing a shift from a forest towards a savannah ecosystem, where no agriculture can be performed (Raharimalala et al., 2010). The fallow periods are not respected by the farmers because the farmers feel the pressure of being able to support their household, while at the same time they have no security over their plots. Farmers therefore do not feel responsibility and are not investing in more long-term interventions. This shows that the land tenure system of Madagascar can lead to less land security and can cause a decrease in the land investment. Looking at the whole system, a vicious circle has been created: the current land tenure system and population growth is resulting in higher pressures on the farmers, therefore farmers are shortening the fallow periods, preventing soils to restore their nutrient levels. The yield levels will drop and to compensate for this yield reduction, more areas have to be converted into agricultural land, causing more soil erosion and land degradation.

The deforestation and erosion caused by SAB also has an impact on one of the other provisioning/regulating services, namely water purity and availability. The barren soils are exposed to heavy rainfall causing landslides and runoff of soil particles, minerals and nutrients. The runoff ends up in water surfaces where the concentrations of sodium, magnesium and carbon increases. As a consequence, this causes siltation of rivers and irrigation canals, resulting in a disappearance of lakes and a decrease of available water for cropland irrigation (Bakoariniaina et al., 2006).

Even though extension education is used to inform farmers about the unique natural environment they live in, the endemic species that thrive in Madagascar and should be looked after, the unique soils, the value of water and even the techniques mentioned above to

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increase yields, the effect of the land tenure system is too strong to push the farmers to change their habits (Schuck et al., 2002). It is very sensible that farmers who have no source of income, do not have any resources for any sustainable farming method. This finding by Schuck et al. enhances the relationship between the land tenure system and SAB practices. Interventions of knowledge that give farmers insights that can be very useful for their career are being obstructed by the institution of property rights and land ownership in Madagascar.

So, the intensive use of SAB is inherently an unsustainable practice, leading to a decrease of soil quality and biodiversity on the farmland. The subsequent decrease of ecosystem services provided by the soil and biodiversity causes yields to decline, resulting in insufficient profit for their business and increased pressure on the food security of local communities. To compensate for this yield decrease, farmers clear more land to use for cultivation. The customary land tenure system reinforces the desire to clear this land as it provides local farmers with tenurial rights over the land. The increased clearings lead to deforestation and habitat loss, lessening the effect of biological pest control and other ecosystem services even further, with a further decline of yields as a consequence.

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7. Conclusion

This paper explored to what extent the land tenure systems of Madagascar are related to slash and burn agriculture in the African country. SAB use in Madagascar has been shown to have various detrimental impacts on the environment, leading to large-scale deforestation, increased soil erosion and a decrease of biodiversity, which all cause a loss of ecosystem services. Despite these negative effects, the intensity of SAB use has been continuously increasing. This report has shown that the land tenure systems of Madagascar play a crucial role in this increase, as land security is relatively low, which prevents farmers from investing in their land, limiting the implementation of more sustainable agricultural practices. As land investments have been shown to be effective in increasing land security in sub-Saharan countries, preventing these investments from taking place aggravates the problem surrounding land tenure even further. Additionally, the presence of foreign companies has increased the already existing tension between national policy and local practice of land tenure, a tension that stems from the colonial past of Madagascar’s state institutions.

The negative effect that SAB has on most ecosystem services further increases the pressure on yield, leading to a decline in the food security of local communities. To compensate for these yield losses, farmers increase the intensity of their agricultural practices, leading to a further decline of the ecosystem services.

As this paper is a case study of a situation that is taking place far away from the researchers’ base, conducting experiments on or creating unique primary data about Madagascar was no option. Therefore, the research is limited to already existing primary and secondary data. Unfortunately, no primary data was found about the different land tenure systems in Madagascar. Thus, making a comparison between areas of SAB and Madagascar’s different classifications of land by using maps was not possible. So, further research could focus on the creation of primary data about Madagascar’s different land tenure systems in order to make such a comparison. Moreover, this paper states that the relatively low amount of land security in Madagascar prevents farmers from investing in their land, hereby limiting the implementation of more sustainable agricultural practices. However, this is a topic which needs to be discussed and investigated in further research as one could also argue that an increase in investments will result in the implementation of intensive, unsustainable farming techniques. Furthermore, an interesting avenue for further research would be to explore what is further needed to make Madagascar’s land tenure system more comprehensive.

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