Many countries are formalizing customary land rights systems with the aim of improving agricultural productivity and facilitating community forest management. This paper evaluates the impact on tree cover loss of the first randomized control trial of such a program. Around 70,000 landholdings were demarcated and registered in randomly chosen villages in Benin, a country with a high rate of deforestation driven by demand for agricultural land. We estimate that the program reduced the area of forest loss in treated villages, with no evidence of anticipatory deforestation or negative spillovers to other areas. Surveys indicate that possible mechanisms include an increase in tenure security and an improvement in the effectiveness of community forest management. Overall, our results suggest that formalizing customary land rights in rural areas can be an effective way to reduce forest loss while improving agricultural investments.

许多国家正在将传统土地权利制度正规化，以提高农业生产力和促进社区森林管理。本文评估了此类计划的第一次随机对照试验对树木覆盖损失的影响。贝宁随机选择的村庄对大约 70,000 块土地进行了划定和登记，贝宁是一个受农业用地需求驱动的森林砍伐率高的国家。我们估计该计划减少了处理村庄的森林损失面积，没有证据表明预期的森林砍伐或对其他地区的负面溢出。调查表明，可能的机制包括增加权属保障和提高社区森林管理的有效性。总体，