Paper short abstract:

The empirical findings in this paper reveal the critical role of tree plantations in accessing land in the study villages. It critically highlights tenure dynamics behind the process of tree farming and accessing land by households and farms.

Paper long abstract:

The most evident agrarian change in the post-conflict Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh is the expansion of tree plantations. Tree plantations are expanding in a hybrid land governance context in CHT, where land tenure is insecure, land ownership is contested between tribal and migrants and large-scale acquisition and incremental land grabbing is occurring. This paper uses the results of extensive field research to analyse the local dynamics of tree plantations and how this form of (agrarian) change is closely connected to the process of land (dis)possession. The process and objectives of land access in CHT have changed over decades, amounting the process of primitive accumulation and accumulation by dispossession seems to be dominated by the ways local actors access land markets and their speculative incorporation into the Cadastral Survey. The paper presents cases to analyse different motives households and small-scale farms are likely to participate plantation activities without holding secured title. We also discuss the market logic of plantations and show that tree planation development in CHT is not only driven by profit motivation rather a new opportunity for (dis)possession.