Land tenure in a changing climate

Climate change and extreme weather have far-reaching impacts on agriculture. They do not only affect agricultural production, but also fundamental assets that shape agricultural livelihoods. In this dissertation, I study the relation of weather and climate with agricultural land tenure in low- and middle-income countries. Secure access to land is of vital importance for farmers, but insecure tenure is a reality for millions of farmers around the globe. They are unsure whether they will be able to continue farming their land in the future. This insecurity fundamentally affects their lives and can have implications for food security, well-being, and resilience in the face of climate change and extreme weather. In this dissertation, I seek to advance the understanding of the link between land tenure, climate and weather. Specifically, I ask how extreme weather might affect rural land tenure, in particular tenure security, what this means in the context of climate change, and how important secure land tenure is for agricultural investment that can serve as climate change adaptation. I draw on established theories of land property rights, methods from (climate) econometrics and psychology, and use techniques for causal inference, systematic literature review, and network analysis.