Examining Tenure Security and Investment in Sustainable Forest Management Among Smallholder Farmers in Enugu State

Land tenure insecurity is widely theorised as a disincentive for long-term investment in trees and sustainable forest management by smallholder farmers, yet empirical tests of this relationship under Nigerian customary tenure conditions are methodologically inconsistent and often inconclusive. This study examines the relationship between perceived and formal tenure security and investment in tree planting, maintenance, and sustainable forest management practices among smallholder farmers in Enugu State, where customary land tenure predominates alongside fragmented statutory registration. A stratified sample of 250 smallholder households across three tenure regimes (statutory title, customary communal land, and informal occupation) was surveyed using validated tenure security perception scales and detailed tree investment activity inventories. Propensity score matching was applied to control for household wealth and farm size confounds. Formal statutory title holders showed significantly higher rates of tree planting and forest patch retention compared to informal occupants, while households with customary communal land rights showed intermediate investment levels. The relationship was moderated by the perceived likelihood of inheritance transfer, suggesting that intra-household security expectations matter as much as formal tenure status. Women farmers showed the weakest tenure security perceptions regardless of formal classification, with correspondingly lower tree investment rates. The study argues that tenure formalisation alone is insufficient and recommends complementary interventions targeting inheritance rights for women and community-level customary land documentation systems. Keywords: land tenure, sustainable forest management, tree investment, Enugu State, smallholder farmers