Women's Land Rights in the Transition to Individualized Ownership: Implications for the Management of Tree Resources in Western Ghana

This study explores the impact of changes in land tenure institutions on women's land rights and the efficiency of tree resource management in western Ghana, where cocoa is the dominant crop. Although communal land tenure aims to provide equitable access to land for all households, women's land rights in the region are weaker than those of men, as is often the case under customary land tenure systems. If women are blocked from having secure land rights, and therefore from individualized investment in land, the resulting barrier to increased productivity will diminish their incentives to sustain resource use over time.

Communal land tenure institutions may evolve towards greater individualization and more secure individual land rights because of population pressure and the need to intensify agricultural production. The Akan households in the region, for example, have granted relatively strong individual ownership rights to those who plant trees. Under such institutional rules, a community member who has acquired family land through inheritance and allocation may have strong incentives to plant trees in order to obtain secure land rights. Whether these rights differ between men and women may have important consequences for equity and the efficiency of forest resource management.

Land Tenure in Western Ghana
This study is based on an ex- tensive survey of 60 villages in the most active cocoa-growing regions in Ghana. The whole area is under customary land tenure, and all land is ultimately controlled by the village chief on behalf of the community. The dominant ethnic group in these villages is the Akan (87 percent of sample households). While Akans have traditionally followed matrilineal inheritance, the mode of land transfer has been evolving over time. Appropriated village land is increasingly being transferred directly to wives and children, and even family land is often transferred to them with the consent of family members, particularly after the land is planted either wholly or partially with cocoa trees. Such intervivos transfers are termed "gifts" in the study areas and individual rights on such land are firmly established.

Land rights are more clearly individualized among migrants, who either have nuclear families or practice patrilineal inheritance, by which a relatively small number of sons within a single family is qualified to inherit the father's land. The process of individualization of land tenure institutions in Ghana was strengthened by the passing of the Intestate Succession Law in 1985, which allows children and wives to gain access to land that they were previously denied under traditional law.

Determinants of Land Tenure and Acquisition
Analysis of what determines land tenure at the village level shows that population pressure first induces institutional innovation towards individualized land tenure. Gifts, moreover, allow villagers to circumvent the traditional inheritance rule in matrilineal society. The patrilineal migrant population, however, acquires cultivation rights mainly by renting land or sometimes purchasing land from indigenes.

The study also shows what determines land acquisition at the household level. A Ghanaian man follows a sequential decision-making process with respect to land acquisition over his life cycle: if forest land is available, he acquires it through clearance when he is young; he acquires the family land through inheritance, allocation, and gift when he gets married; and later he acquires the additional land through renting and private purchase. Women have a relative

Female heads of households appear disadvantaged in all modes of land acquisition, although their relative disadvantage is less significant for acquiring family land.

disadvantage in acquiring land through forest clearance because it is a male activity.

The data indicate that better-educated household heads are able to acquire land through renting or purchase, probably because these means of acquisition require previous savings and managerial ability. Female heads of households, however, are significantly less likely to have obtained land through purchase and rental, indicating that they may be disadvantaged, relative to men, in land sales and rental markets. Female heads of households appear disadvantaged in all modes of land acquisition, although their relative disadvantage is less significant for acquiring family land.

Determinants of Cocoa-Tree Planting and Yield
How does land tenure affect the management of land in terms of the proportion of area planted to cocoa and yield per unit of cocoa-planted area? Although the proportion of cocoa-planted area tends to be higher in land with strong individual land rights (acquired village forest land, land received as gift, and land purchased from nonfamily members) than in land with weak land rights (inherited and allocated family land), the differences are not conspicuous. The study shows that land tenure security alone does not critically determine whether Ghanaians will plant trees: their expectation of acquiring land through tree planting gives them substantial incentives to undertake this activity. The positive correlation between tree planting and temporarily allocated family land, for which land rights are weakest, indicates that Ghanaians plant trees on allocated family land because they believe that to do so will strengthen their land rights.

The importance of previous tree planting as a prerequisite for receiving gifts appears to differ by gender. Men had to plant only 20 to 25 percent of a parcel of land with cocoa trees before the land was transferred as a gift. Women, however, had to plant between 40 and 50 percent of land to cocoa before acquiring it as a gift. While women and men may have equal probabilities of planting cocoa, the significantly lower yields of women parcel owners may indicate credit and other (intrahousehold) constraints faced by women, including their responsibility to provide food for their families.

Estimation results also show that an inverse correlation exists between parcel size and tree planting, i.e., the land rental market, not to mention the land sales market, is imperfect, because some portions of the parcel could have been rented for tree planting if the land rental market worked effectively.

The study finds that incentives to increase cocoa area by planting trees and to increase cocoa yield by intensive management are quite different. This result clearly indicates that the incentive structure to invest changes once investment in trees is undertaken.

Conclusions
The evolution toward individualized land-tenure systems in western Ghana has been facilitated by the stipulation of customary land tenure institutions that those who exert efforts to clear forest and plant trees will receive individual parcels of land. Some researchers argue that such evolutionary changes have detrimental effects on women's traditional land rights. While this may be true in some societies, this study shows that in western Ghana, a wife who labors on a husband's cocoa plot usually receives a gift of land. This is the most important mode of land acquisition for women. Legal reform has also provided women a means of obtaining access to their husband's land should he die intestate.

Given the need for agricultural intensification to meet demand and growth objectives, a major question arises: What types of policies can assist such evolutionary changes in a manner compatible with efficient and equitable development of rural areas? While land titling is feasible only if land rights are sufficiently individualized, implementation of land titling programs must pay special attention to gender issues. If men are traditionally owners of land, as in western Ghana, land titling may strengthen their land rights at women's expense. To be fair, men and women should be equally qualified to acquire land titles. Judging from the experience of Ghana, the promulgation of the 1985 Intestate Succession Law is likely to be an effective policy option for facilitating less gender-biased, land inheritance systems in customary land areas. But attempts to equalize land rights of men and women will lead to gender equity and the improved efficiency and productivity of women farmers only if other constraints faced by women are also addressed.

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