In terms of land ownership, the empirical findings suggest that
many households in both communities lacked basic forms of land
title, which is also an important indicator of vulnerability (cf. Hahn
et al., 2009). In Caroni, the surveys reveal that three out of four
landless households were renting land, while in Nariva, 3=4 of landless
households were classified as illegal squatters seeking ‘‘regularization’’
by land settlement authorities. Again, the differences
are subtle, but they reveal important structural factors that contribute
to our understanding of vulnerability. In Nariva, for instance,
the illegal status of landless households suggests a more
pronounced form of vulnerability, in which access to formal safety
nets and entitlements was limited