The Benefits of Titling Indigenous Communities in the Peruvian Amazon: A Stated Preference Approach

Abstract

We conduct a discrete choice experiment with leaders of 164 Peruvian indigenous communities (ICs) to elicit their preferences about and valuation of land titles—to our knowledge, the first use of rigorous stated preference methods to analyze land titling. We find that: (i) on average, IC leaders are willing to pay US$35,000–45,000 for a title, roughly twice the per community administrative cost of titling; (ii) WTP is positively correlated with the value of IC land and the risk of land grabbing; and (iii) leaders prefer titling processes that involve indigenous representatives and titles that encompass land with cultural value.