For more than 50 years social scientists have studied property rights with the aim of understanding what kind of institutional setting allows optimal management of natural resources for the maximisation and maintenance of human well-being. Land rights security is generally included in this research as one of the conditions required for acceptable and sustainable natural resource management.

From the perspective of classical economical theory, property rights security is a critical incentive for investment in land because it guarantees the right holder will reap the benefits of their investment. Land rights security also gives the right holder access to credit because...

The general framework presented here is based on the institutional analysis and development framework developed by Ostrom et al. (1994). This conceptual framework comprises ‘(1) an exogenous set of variables that influence (2) situations of actors and (3) the behaviour of actors in those situations, leading to outcomes, which then feed back to modify both the exogenous variables and the actors and their situations’ (Dorward and Omamo 2009).

Here exogenous variables constitute the ‘environment’ which influences the action situation and the behaviour of the actors, positioned in the ‘action arena’, the core research unit corresponding to ‘social spaces in which...

Driven by an increasing global demand for edible oil and biofuel, worldwide oil palm production rose from 120 million tonnes of fruit in 2000 to 207 million in 2009, a growth of 70% in 10 years (FAOSTAT 2010). Although palm oil prices dropped as a consequence of the 2008 economic crisis, they are already recovering and the demand for palm oil is expected to keep on growing. In 2008, Indonesia was the second biggest producer of palm oil in the world, after Malaysia, according to the FAO.

In 2009, Indonesia had 5.2 million ha of oil palm plantations, representing approximately...