Does Improved Tenure Security Reduce Fires? Evidence from the Greece Land Registry

While tenure security is essential to effective land management, there is little empirical evidence on its environmental impact. We show that improving tenure security reduces fires. Exploiting the staggered rollout of the Hellenic Cadastre program across Greece, we find those regions covered by the mandatory land registry witnessed large declines in agricultural fire events, burned areas, and air pollutants. Agricultural data reveal the mechanism: the improved tenure security under the program leads to farming expansion and larger investments; to protect the land-attached investments, the landowners mitigate fire risks through stocking more fire-suppression equipment and practicing more long-term oriented land management.