In 2005, massive hurricanes battered communities along the Gulf Coast of the United States. In the aftermath, thousands of families who lived on land passed down to them informally by parents and grandparents learned that because they lacked clear formal title to their properties, they were ineligible for disaster assistance to rebuild their homes. Related title issues in other regions kept families from developing inherited lands and allowed predatory developers to use court-ordered partition sales to grab long-held properties for pennies on the dollar. All those problems stemmed from the quirks of heirs' property, a form of communal landownership that gave each relative a partial share in a property but full rights to use and enjoy it-or force its sale. Beginning in 2001, before the hurricanes magnified the crisis, a coalition of scholars, lawyers, and activists united to draft and enact new state laws that would strengthen the rights of heirs' property owners. Advocates across the region helped affected families get public aid and build wealth. By 2017, those efforts were beginning to turn the tide, although many families remained unreached, unconvinced, or unable to agree on how to secure their land for future generations.

Gabriel Kuris drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas in the United States in December 2017. Case published January 2018.

In 2005, civic leaders in Xalapa, Mexico, sought to curb deforestation and unsustainable farming practices in the nearby Pixquiac watershed that threatened the quality and availability of water in their city. Xalapa’s 400,000 residents relied on the watershed—a 10,727-hectare area that channeled water into the Pixquiac River—to provide almost 40% of their water supply. SENDAS, a small nongovernmental organization, created a program that aimed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Pixquiac watershed by paying landowners to conserve and restore the watershed’s forests. The program also helped farmers adopt more-sustainable management practices and increase their incomes. By building partnerships with the municipal water commission, the state government, the National Forestry Commission, and Mexico’s largest environmental foundation, SENDAS established a sustainable financing mechanism for the program. The organization also assembled a management committee with broad representation to ensure that funds were distributed appropriately and transparently. By 2015, environmental leaders were hoping to replicate SENDAS’s success in other important watersheds across Veracruz state.

Blair Cameron drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Xalapa, Mexico, in March and April, 2015. Case published January 2016.

A former center of the timber industry in the Brazilian Amazon, the municipality of Dom Eliseu had built its economy around deforestation—much of it illegal. In 2008, as part of a strategy to enforce the country’s environmental policies, the federal Ministry of the Environment included Dom Eliseu on a list of the worst violators of deforestation laws. The blacklist cut off residents’ access to markets and credit and made the municipality the target of intensive law enforcement. To get off the blacklist, the community had to overcome a collective-action problem. The local government had to persuade the owners of 80% of private land—more than 1,000 properties—to map their property boundaries, declare the extent of deforestation, enter their properties in the state environmental registration system, and adopt more-sustainable methods of production. The municipality also had to build the capacity to take on new responsibilities for environmental protection—most important, environmental licensing, which would enable the local government to regulate land use. With support from nongovernmental organizations and the state, Dom Eliseu successfully coordinated private compliance with the national policy and left the blacklist in 2012.

Maya Gainer drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Belém and Dom Eliseu, Brazil, in September 2014. This case was funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation in collaboration with the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Case published March 2015.

In the early 2000s, the municipality of Alta Floresta was part of Brazil’s Arc of Fire, a curving frontier of communities whose residents were clearing old-growth forests in the Amazon region so they could graze livestock, harvest timber, or cultivate crops. In 2008, the federal government cracked down on deforestation and pressured local governments to implement national environmental regulations. It created a blacklist of municipalities that were the worst violators of deforestation laws. Alta Floresta, as one of the 36 municipalities on the list, was thrust into an unfavorable national spotlight, cut off from access to rural agricultural credit, and its ranchers embargoed from selling their cattle to slaughterhouses. To get off the list, the municipality had to convince the owners of 80% of privately held land—more than 2,500 owners in all—to register their property, map property boundaries, declare the extent of deforestation, and agree to restore any illegally degraded or deforested areas within 10 years. Making compliance feasible for local ranchers meant that the municipal government had to promote more efficient agricultural production and provide opportunities for alternative livelihoods. This approach protected land set aside for restoration and reduced the economic need for future deforestation. In 2012, Alta Floresta became the third municipality in Brazil to earn removal from the blacklist.
 
Rachel Jackson drafted this case study based on interviews conducted in Brazil, in March and April 2014. This case was funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation in collaboration with the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Case published July 2014. To learn more about national deforestation efforts, see "A Credible Commitment: Reducing Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, 2003-2012."