Land markets in Ecuador have been studied on a regional comparative perspective. The study that FAO carried out in Ecuador analyzed the characteristics of land markets in two of the three regions of the country, the coast and the highlands.

The coast is a productive agricultural area where export crops such as cacao, banana and sugar cane have been cultivated since the colonial period. The highlands, where many of the Indian communities are settled, have less productive land, and agriculture is based on traditional food crops.

The results of the study demonstrated that land transactions (both purchase and disposal) in the more traditional and subsistence sectors of the regions, particularly in the highlands, only take place with people who are known and accepted by the community. For these peasant groups, land possesses both a social and economic meaning. On the one hand, land is considered an asset that allows them to assure their economic subsistence. On the other hand, it is a source of social and economic recognition in the community. Land transactions in these groups are usually controlled by the peasants themselves, are informal and usually involve few or no transaction costs. In general, the peasants prefer to rent or to sharecrop their land instead of selling it.

In the more economically dynamic zones where export crops are cultivated, such as the coast, the land markets are open. Land transactions are usually registered, and the participants do not have the social acceptance of the group where land is located. Analyzing the data of both regions, the coast and the highlands, the study found that land markets become more open and dynamic when land prices rise because of increases in technology, changes in agricultural activity (a shift, for example, to export crop cultivation), infrastructure improvements or changes in land use (from rural to urban, or for tourism purposes).

• a clarification of the private and public sector roles, both at the central and local levels, in land markets;

• more willingness to incorporate the private sector, NGO's, community-based organizations, private consultants and other interested parties in the management of land markets;

• a larger emphasis on making land registration and titling procedures more appropriate to the needs of the poor and more accessible to them;

• a reduction in public sector monopolies of land allocation and land management;

• the evaluation and auditing of land market institutions;

• the auditing of land use control systems;

• the design of more simple legal and regulatory systems;

• the evaluation of the use of power for compulsory purchase of land to see that it is not overused;

• the assessment of formal and informal land markets and dissemination of the results in order to increase information and knowledge about the functioning of land markets;

• low taxation on land transactions;

• easy access to land information (land register, cadastre, valuation);

• capacity building and training of personnel dealing with reformed land markets.