Search

This paper draws theoretical insights from political ecology to examine the environmental and livelihood impacts of smallholder agricultural mechanization in Ghana in the context of the ongoing pursuit of a new Green Revolution for Africa. Our findings highlight the complex linkages between agricultural development, environmental degradation, and rural livelihoods. Despite the associated increased returns-to-scale in agricultural productivity and enhanced speed in land preparation with tractor-based mechanization, the clearing of major trees on farmlands as a precondition for obtaining ploughing services encourages land degradation, including the depletion of vital naturally growing tree species—shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) and dawadawa (Parkia biglobosa)—that have critical food provisioning, cultural, and socioeconomic value. The drive towards extensification has further produced competitive forces that fuel the appropriation of previously inalienable communal lands and weakening of longstanding norms that mediate environmental resource conservation and use. This situation is poised to alter customary land governance and the basis on which women assert their rights to land-based resources including shea and dawadawa. Marginalized women are progressively shifting their livelihood strategies into environmentally unsustainable subsistence activities. This study demonstrates the adverse ecological, socioeconomic, and political impacts of agricultural mechanization when implemented in agrarian societies marked by widespread poverty and pervasive gender inequities. Given the growing centrality of tractors and trees to rural livelihoods, we recommend conservation agriculture for the simultaneous promotion of sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation. Relevant social policies must also be implemented to ameliorate the adverse livelihood impacts of these agrarian reforms.

This piece of writing has investigated the legal and institutional frameworks regulating rural land governance in Ethiopia by taking the comparative analysis of rural land governance of other African countries, namely Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. The best experience of these countries on the legal and institutional frameworks is examined so as to draw a lesson for the Ethiopian land governance system. The article has employed doctrinal legal research approach and rural land legislations of the country were investigated in great detail. The article has also comparative aspect because, it has drawn lessons from the legal regimes of other African countries that have best experience on the legal and institutional frameworks governing rural lands. Ethiopia can draw many good practices from Ghanaian, Kenyan and Ugandan rural land governance. Rural land legislations in these countries have given sufficient room for the protection of customary land rights and these rights are equally compensated at the time of compulsory acquisition of land use rights. In addition to these, land legislations in these countries compensate owners not only for the value of the produce upon their land but also for the market value of the land taken, cost of disturbance and other damage like severance and injurious affection. So, this can be a good lesson for Ethiopia in order to consider the life of individuals whose land is being expropriated but unable to rehabilitate to their past economic situation after compulsory acquisition. Ethiopia can also acquire a good lesson from these countries on the mode of institutional arrangement governing rural land administration is concerned. In all these African countries, the mandate to administer land is arranged at the ministry level at the apex and there are also other independent sector based institutions up to the lowest administrative hierarchy. Ethiopia, that governs land at the directorate level under the Ministry of Agriculture at the top and bureau of land and environmental protection at the middle and land and environmental protection offices/departments at the lower administrative level can capture this good practice from Ghana, Kenya and Uganda in order to give sufficient room for this vital economic resource that is livelihood for mass populations of the country.

It is often said that laws are made by legislature and the judges’ role is only to declare and to interpret those laws. In interpreting the laws, the courts apply laws to new situations thereby developing the law. Indeed, judicial decisions have an important role in clarifying customary rights to land based on native laws and customs in Malaysian Borneo. Although breaches of native laws and customs are within the jurisdiction of the state Native Courts, major disputes over land rights which involve non-native parties have been fought in the federal system of civil courts. This paper looks at judicial decisions relating to the customary practice of pemakai menoa, and argues that recognition of land rights begin with recognition of indigenous legal traditions. To achieve justice and equality, and to prevent the law from being oppressive, the courts must make a conscious inquiry and contextual application of customs. In the light of inherent evidentiary difficulties in adjudicating native claims, this means approaching the rules of evidence, giving due weight to the unique perspectives, the normative values and rights under indigenous legal traditions and customary laws. Keywords: native law and customs, native customary rghts to land, judicial contextualisation, Pemakai Menoa and territorial rights, Pulau, role of judges

No artigo são analisados os conflitos de terra, bem como as suas causas, consequências e mediação. Também se procurou analisar o quadro legal institucional de gestão de terra em Moçambique. O artigo mostra que os conflitos de terra que se registam resultam de intensa expansão demográfica acompanhada pelo desenvolvimento urbano, sendo o acesso as actividades económicas e a habitação principais factores de atraccão. Nele são identificados dois períodos principais, sendo o primeiro o período colonial marcado pelo sistema consuetudinário e o convencional no acesso à terra e com mais privilégio ao convencional e ao colono, e o segundo, o período pós-independência onde os sistemas consuetudinários de posse de terra foram frequentemente considerados demasiados “tradicionais” para poderem fornecer uma base adequada para o desenvolvimento agrícola e porque constituíam uma importante base de poder das autoridades tradicionais que as novas elites procuravam substituir.

Release of “Tanah Ulayat” or (“Customary Land”) by “Masyarakat Hukum Adat” or “the Customary Law Community” (CLC) to the Legal Entity as stipulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Agrarian / Head of the National Land Agency No. 5 of 1999, with the intent and purpose of accommodating the procedures for releasing Customary Land, in reality has caused many legal problems in its implementation. Such legal problems has had an impact on the conflict between the CLC and large companies and even multinational companies. The research question arising of such Regulation, is there control mechanism over the unequal contract between the CLC and large companies of which results in adverse CLC. This study aims to analyze the legal issues arising from the implementation of such Regulation to the private party and provide a solution to create community welfare as mandated in Article 33 (3) of the 1945 Indonesia Constitution. It is expected that this research can provide input for the government on such Regulation to private parties, by doing reconstruction though of Right to Controlled by the State against Customary Land as a higher law. The research method used in this study is a normative juridical research, which is carried out by examining library materials. This research was referred to philosophical understanding of corrective justice from Aristoteles. Of which in analyzing the transfer of Customary Land to the private party, corrective justice is carried out by the judge in deciding cases of transactions that are voluntary or involuntary.

Taluak is located in the peri-urban area of the city of Bukittinggi, in Agam Regency, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Bukittinggi is rapidly expanding into this peri-urban area. Due to a lack of sound land-use regulations, the growing population and increasing development are encroaching into the peri-urban area. In 1999, the administrative area of Bukittinggi was formally expanded to include some of the surrounding land that had previously been part of Agam Regency. However, although the physical development of the city has encroached into parts of Agam Regency, including Taluak, the communities of the village refused to be administratively included in Bukittinggi. One of their reasons for this refusal is a belief that such urbanization will harm the culture and traditions of the village. This article aims to explain how the communities of Taluak have resisted the formal expansion of Bukittinggi to include them in order to maintain their culture and traditions of land management and to estimate how long such resistance can survive. The article also explains how the process of land conversion in Taluak is carried out, particularly the conversion from rural use into urban use, which creates rurban (rural-urban) areas.

The study concerning political law of Sidawangi society towards customary right over “Oro-Oro” land is commonly triggered by the presence of the arbitrary village officers. Historically, “Oro-Oro” land is characterised as a communal land, but its management is initiated exclusively through an agreement and doubtful rights. The legal law concerning customary right over “Oro-Oro” land is truly expected by Sidawangi society. The action of arbitrary village officers is deemed to be one of crucial factors to realise their expectation. Furthermore, the rumour of switching “Oro-Oro” land into plantation land by the corporation also toughens the strong desire of Sidawangi society to realize their expectation. The present study aims to investigate the significance of legal law and the warranty of customary rights both in the 1945 Constitution, agrarian law and international conventions. This study is conducted through an interview to Sidawangi society and literature studies regarding customary right over “Oro-Oro” land as expected by Sidawangi society. Customary right over “Oro-Oro” land, initiated by Sidawangi Society in Sumber Sub-District, originally refers to a communal area which has been exclusively possessed. In other words, this type of land is not privately preserved. The people in Sidawangi society are only allowed to maintain and gather the result. The arbitrary of village officers seize trees in “Oro-Oro” land without any kinds of certain customary right. The phenomenon in Lampung has provided insight regarding the conflict occurs when the people expect is not fulfilled. The residents inevitably expect the existence of political law in society towards customary land. The legal protection towards customary right over “Oro-Oro” land is essentially guaranteed by 1945 constitution, Basic Agrarian Law Constitution, and international convention of indigenous community. Keywords: Oro-Oro, Ulayat, Customary, Expectation .

Drawing from the articles in the special issue, I review the goals of the movement to protect customary land rights, and assess the reasons why 25 years on, the trajectory of dispossessory developm...

Regarding land acquisition by humans (land tenure), Indonesia has its own history of the occurrence of various complex land tenure categories. Each land tenure category each has a characteristic setting regarding land ownership and ownership, and management objectives. This can be seen in Indonesian society in each area of residence other than the Indonesian people, the land also affects the government which in this case the government has the authority to control the land in use and intended for the community but the fact that the community is at a disadvantage by the government. thus how is the development of customary land which in the past was not registered, then in the present many customary land must be registered if registered so that the status of the land that was originally customary land changed status to property rights, then how to protect land adat which does not register what the impact of these lands will be in the future.

This paper illustrates how communities and their customary land rights are marginalized in current mining governance reform legislation in South Africa. The research focuses on the relationship between property, territory, and authority to unpack the dynamics of struggle and the specifics of collective rights-claims in the context of resource extraction. It focuses on the struggle of the Amadiba people (and the Xolobeni community in particular) against a proposal for open cast mining on their land. The findings reveal that reading the advocacy of local communities is one way to interrogate the complex field of power characteristic of mining governance reform and innovation. The research underscores that mining governance reform demands a critical understanding of territorial governance and control and an engagement with the reality of legal and territorial pluralism whereby multiple actors vie for legitimacy and authority. The struggle in Xolobeni reveals that territorial jurisdictions deriving from colonialism must not inform mining governance legislation in South Africa. Rather, community-based and locally-asserted practices of governance and self-determined development, expressed through the right to consent, must inform mining legislation.

A typical character of land tenure or property systems in sub-Saharan Africa is that the systems exclude women (implicitly and explicitly). That is why the discourse on women and land tenure remains a burgeoning policy debate in sub-Saharan Africa. This study is relevant for land policy (and land governance) in sub-Saharan Africa because it evokes the minority voices of women in the land and gender discourse in sub-Saharan Africa. The study dissects, anatomically, female landlessness by probing why women still do not enjoy equal land rights today, and what must be done (policy-wise) to unchain women from their state of landlessness. By way of methodology, the study reviews relevant literature on the historical dimension of womenos access to property rights. It is an explorative study based on two e-Focus Group Discussions conducted on two different online platforms to enable the capture of more expert knowledge on the subject of customary land tenure, gender and womenos land rights in (and on) sub-Saharan Africa. The findings exposed three pillars of womenos landlessness in sub-Saharan Africa, including an analysis of the stages of male power that cripple womenos capacity to own or have access to land. The study identified and explained the nature of the contributions of different stages of male powers — including linguistic power, son power, husband power, and father power — to womenos landlessness. It shows how these powers form the elements of male dominance which interact over a life course to cripple womenos physical and psychological strength within their social spaces (which usually results into socio-political and economic disempowerments). As a key output, the study produced a policy pathway to neutralising the pillars of womenos landlessness.

Inter-community boundary conflicts are a key challenge to land governance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Ghana. Although exclusions engendered by inter-community boundary conflicts usually affect large numbers of people, empirical research has mostly focused on largescale land grabbing. Drawing on three inter-community land boundary conflicts in the Upper West Region (UWR) using in-depth interviews, this paper examines the underlying drivers, the exclusion and counter-exclusion strategies deployed by disputing groups and makes policy recommendations for resolving the customary land boundary dilemma. We find that the undocumented nature of inter-community land boundaries and tenure histories; weakening of the traditional land tenure system; rising land value and widespread land leasing; and statutory interference are key underling drivers of ethno-territorial land boundary conflicts. These drivers have created incentives and maneuvering spaces for competing communities/clans to deploy varied interpretations of the ‘past’ and ‘space’ in particular combinations that serve their interests to control more land. Although the traditional land dispute resolution system is effective in resolving boundary conflicts, disputing groups are increasingly turning to the courts for redress. However, with the lack of written tenure history, the judicial process is marred by uncertainty, which in turn opens the courts to delays and corruption. While land reform has been widely proposed for resolving the customary land dilemma in most countries in SSA including Ghana, we argue that these reforms will be meaningless unless existing boundary disputes are effectively resolved. We recommend inter-community boundary reconciliation as an initial step. Through this program, a customary land boundary information system can be established to circumvent future tenure ambiguities.

The responsive character of Law Number 5 of 1960 concerning Basic Regulations on the Principles of Agrarian Law is reflected in the norms contained in Article 5. The politics of agrarian law on customary land also refers to Article 18B paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution which emphasizes: "The state recognizes and respect indigenous peoples and their traditional rights as long as they are still alive and in accordance with the development of society and the principles of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia as regulated in law ". The above constitutional guarantees can then be traced in the UUPA, particularly in Article 5 of the UUPA which states that national agrarian law is based on customary law. This means that the legal strength of land rights for customary communities is highly guaranteed in Indonesia's positive law. That the control of ulayat / customary land is not regulated in writing but it is felt in the mind of each member of the customary law community, besides that the customary law community has historically been founded in philosophy before the birth of the Indonesian State.

The informal sector in urban land supply has continued to meet the increasing demand for urban land owing to the deficiencies of the formal sector in Nigeria. But tenure security and equity in land supply have become the major issues that have evoked much concern in the sector. This article seeks to understand the provisions of tenure rights through customary institutions not as the binary opposite of the formal land titling but as a part of the continuum that includes the formal system in Benin City. Through focus group discussions with key informants in the customary land delivery systems and in-depth interviews of resident home owners in two selected communities, the customary practices that guarantee tenure security in the study area were identified. The article concludes that customary tenure institutions need to be modernised and customary tenure rights need to be recognised as alternative to statutory rights by the government.

In Ghana, the constitution recognises stool land revenues as a principal source of funding local economic development. However, there has been a lacuna on the collection and disbursement of family ...

Purpose This paper aims to examine current land administration practices (LA) in Tanzania to pinpoint divergences and convergences from past experiences that necessitated the 1990s reforms. Design/methodology/approach Literature review was carried out to understand historical practices which were then matched with current regulatory framework and observable LA practices captured through in-depth individual and group interviews of LA professionals in the public and private sectors, as well as LA customers in Dodoma Region Tanzania. Findings The current practices and government’s responses through land law reforms is largely a replica of what happened in the pre- and post-independence eras until just before the 1990s reform and is still characterised by corruption, inefficiency in service delivery and poor coordination among LA actors. It introduces superficial land governance structure over customary land as it was during colonialism; induces a temporary hikes in title delivery without any sustainability prospects just as it was immediately after independence; and induces more uncertainties for local land holders/investors than it addresses as it was during the implementation of the 1982 agricultural policy. Furthermore, the current awareness education during rural land titling programmes is inadequate to address the perceived risk of land alienation and dispossession among the poor. Practical implications A uniform LA system and tenure type throughout Tanzania that cater for the need of the time rather than a fragmented system of LA, which fuels maladministration and inefficiency in LA, is dearly needed. Originality/value Convergence of current LA practices with some of the worst past experiences explains some failures in land policy reform in Tanzania and the developing world in general.

Inter-communal land conflict in Benin City has increased owing to informal land subdivision by land owning communities. As development intensifies, boundaries between communities in peri-urban areas become distorted leading to contestations and violent conflicts. However, little is known about the roles of organized groups in these conflicts. The legal pluralism in land ownership in Nigeria and the ineffectiveness of the State’s Land Law have created informal land market in which leaders of land owning communities dominate. This paper explores these issues through a case study of boundary dispute that developed into violent conflict between two communities in Benin City. The findings revealed that at the root of the conflict were material and emotional needs of groups seeking power and wealth which resulted in diverse claims. Other endogenous factors underlying the conflict were the socio-cultural environment of urban land market and local power relations among the actors involved.

Land reallocation is an important step of land consolidation where farmland parcels are reorganised and redistributed. Most current land reallocation approaches focus on the technical aspects, at the expense of the social, cultural, economic, and political factors which are important on customary lands. This paper develops an approach for land reallocation to support responsible land consolidation on customary lands taking these factors into consideration. Using the process model approach, we identify the key characteristics of customary land tenure and the general requirements for land reallocation of these lands; from which a land re-allocation approach is developed. This is subsequently applied to a case study in Northern Ghana. The results show that even though the approach is successful to the extent that land fragmentation (physical and legal) is significantly reduced in the study area; social land mobility, land tenure and cultural practices hinder the application of the land reallocation as this would either increase legal or physical land fragmentation.

A post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is currently under negotiation under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This framework seeks to transform human-nature relationships towards its 2050 vision of “societies living in harmony with nature.” Global reports published to inform these negotiations include the second edition of Local Biodiversity Outlooks (LBO-2). In the context of ethnobiology, LBO-2 is particularly relevant because it features perspectives, experiences, and stories as told by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLC) about the global biodiversity crisis. Based on these perspectives, LBO-2 identifies six areas in need of urgent transformation (i.e., in culture, land, food, economies, governance, and financial incentives), analyzing how these relate to ongoing negotiations of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. In this article, we consider these transitions, as well as recommendations made by the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity, and reveal critical weaknesses in the ways the Global Biodiversity Framework addresses the views and perspectives of IPLC. Such shortcomings include separation of nature and cultures in the framework's goals and targets, and failure to recognize and embed customary land tenure and territorial management as vital for biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, and benefit-sharing. We make a series of recommendations to mainstream and prioritize support for the rights and collective actions of IPLC throughout the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Land rights in Ghana emanate from the customary land tenure system. Secure land rights encourage access to and maintenance of large farm sizes and their productive use among others. This tenure security provides some confidence for farmers to increase farm investments and an assurance that they will benefit from those investments. This consequently increases farm produce thereby promoting food security due to food availability. Meanwhile, external pressure from population growth, urbanisation and general economic development can overwhelm the internal structures of the customary land tenure and service arrangements for safeguarding people’s land rights. These arrangements are usually non-monetary ‘homages’ in the form of gifts or labour, which non-member landholders are required to seasonally render to landowners to acknowledge the landowners’ ownership rights and renew such landholders’ secondary rights and secure the land tenure. Governments’ efforts in the past to promote food security by strengthening land rights and securing land tenure have largely been based on ‘imported’ policies of formalisation, registration or documentation processes. These efforts took little or no consideration of local customary views, practices or land tenure dynamics. As a result, the expected benefits of these efforts were either non-existent or barely minimal, not encouraging thus making them unsuccessful. Therefore, this thesis suggests a more pragmatic approach - to work with local people to co-create (or co-design) a responsible and fit-for-purpose customary land rights/tenure and food security model. This involves local people first assessing their own local land laws and practices. Then, they learn from successful models from external environments and co-create a new model by blending the strengths of both so that it fits their local needs and environment. The first objective of this thesis assessed the changing customary land rights and tenure security inequalities and their implications for food security of subsistence farmers in northwest Ghana. Using the social structure theory, the study was carried out through in-depth interviews of identified categories of smallholder farmers – disabled, women, men and middle-aged and youth. The specific land rights and tenure security of each group were identified and examined. Thereafter, the implications were also examined of the different groups. The outcome was that there are indeed marked inequalities where male landowners possess the strongest land rights with the highest land tenure security. Then, females from the landowning group who are placed higher on the communities’ social structure possess similarly weak land rights and low land tenure security just like their female settler counterparts. Paradoxically, even though male settlers are lower on the social structure, they were found to possess stronger land rights and higher land tenure security than females from the landowning group. Implying that masculinity and femininity determine the nature of people’s land rights and tenure security in the study area more than any other factor. For instance, disability does not significantly affect people’s land rights as much as their sex/gender does. Therefore, there exists more food insecurity challenges in terms of availability and accessibility among all females and male settlers possessing weaker land rights than male landowners whose land rights are stronger. Of course, females from the group benefit marginally for their membership among landowners than their counterparts who are females and at the same time settlers. The study concluded that there is the need to put strategies towards narrowing land rights and tenure security inequality gaps. This will stimulate increased investments from all categories of farmers to acquire, possess and maintain sizeable lands, increase investment on those lands more productively for increased farm produce. This may result in food availability among the people which can stimulate their food accessibility and thereby promoting nutrition and food stability as well. The second objective ascertained how the challenges of the changing customary tenure and service arrangements of subsistence farmers can be tackled to strengthen land rights, improve tenure security and consequently, food security. In this objective, the study examined the influences of community land rights and tenure security intervention processes on food security in Northwest Ghana. The local land tenure model and its inherent challenges hindering the realisation of their human aspirations of secure land tenure and food security were examined. The challenges basically were about the absence of an overarching legislation, more robust information flow system, low media involvement in terms of communication and lack of intervention opportunities for members to address land rights challenges thereby also affecting their farming, food availability and consequently food security. By working with local communities, its members’ suggested strategies (both local and external) that need to be put in place to address these challenges. The strategies include maintaining the local land rights model and blending it with some aspects suggested in literature. The first is an overarching legislation to give legal effect to processes in the local land rights model. This was initially absent. Second is to encourage information flow and regular communication about land rights issues with media empowerment and active involvement of local, mainstream as well as social media to quickly draw attention and call for prompt action by the responsible institutions. Then legal intervention by legal advocates and paralegals is needed to facilitate poor farmers’ access to the formal court system for justice whenever the customary approach is unable to provide them with satisfactory resolution to their land rights and land tenure challenges. Sub-objective three was to co-create the design of a new model for improving tenure security and food security of subsistence and smallholder farmers in customary areas in the region. Therefore, based on the outcome from objectives one and two, the third objective was to ascertain how challenges of customary tenure and service arrangements of subsistence farmers can be resolved towards improving tenure security and food security. The study at this stage worked with the local people and co-created a land tenure model referred to as responsible and fit-for-purpose (FFP) because it emanates from the people and took local practices, customs and ideas in the design of the model. By the nature of this new model, all customary land rights and land tenure issues are encapsulated in and guided by the overarching legislation. What this means is that every aspect of local tenure will now be legally enforceable when the new overarching legislation is implemented after passing a test implementation stage in sub-objective four to confirm its potential feasibility on the ground. Sub-objective four was to test the implementation of the new responsible and FFP model towards increasing tenure security for all categories of subsistence and smallholder farmers to enhance farming, possibly increase farm produce, food availability and consequently improve food security. In testing the model, various representatives of the studied communities mock-acted in various role-play sessions. During this exercise, land rights issues, challenges and disagreements were presented. Some of the local people acted as institutions and individuals responsible for addressing the issues. In the process, some matters were quickly resolved while others were referred to the next level of authority as contained in the model until it was resolved. All aspects of the model – court, legal advocates, media etc. were tested and passed as implementable and potentially effective for strengthening land rights and for securing customary land tenure. The almost unanimous acceptance and success rating were captured in a Likert scale with four and two communities agreeing and strongly agreeing respectively. In conclusion therefore, strong customary land rights and secure customary land tenure are important prerequisites for subsistence and smallholder farmers to invest their time, money and effort in farming with a high possibility of increasing food produced from their farms and therefore promoting food security. Of course, other conditions like favourable rainfall, absence of pests, fertile soil and fertilizer application to mention a few must not be overlooked in the process of achieving food security through strong land rights and secure land tenure. This thesis contributes to knowledge and literature with the addition of empirical evidence about subsistence and smallholder farmers’ land rights, land tenure and food security issues in the context of northwest Ghana. In the area of policy – medium-to-long-term, the results show the need for specific land legislations by local and central governments to narrow the customary land rights and land tenure insecurity gap between the vulnerable and privileged groups in local communities. Policies and legislations to empower local institutions, various media and professional legal advocates are equally emphasised. Also, the results show the need for a strong land policy and food policy, particularly food availability. The result show that food availability in this context is capable of facilitating food accessibility, enhancing food nutrition and promoting food stability. Other potentials of this thesis are social harmony, cohesion and peaceful co-existence with less tendency for conflicts. This consequently promotes an enabling socio-political, economic and legal environment at both local and national levels for overall general development and progress of society. These aspects may form the basis of in-depth research of this nature in future.

International audience; In the western Algerian steppe, the public authorities have carried out actions aimed at rural development (agricultural development programs) and combating desertification (grazing reserves) to counter the significant and rapid loss of vegetation cover of pastures by overgrazing, and the consequent impacts on local livelihoods. In the Rogassa area, these actions have impacted land tenure and the ancestral and collective way of land use and access. These changes have caused transformations in lifestyle and pasture management. This research aims to characterize how such changes are affecting local pastoralists and what their perceptions are about them. A selective sampling of 150 agropastoral households was carried out by interviewing their heads, analyzing socioeconomic, land tenure and government perception variables. Most agropastoralists access land under tribal tenure, conditioned by local social structures. Pastures are prevailingly perceived by pastoralists as insufficient, and the perception of grazing reserves is largely negative. Pastoralists are worried about land degradation and declining grazing lands, and are looking for solutions and alternatives. However, state interventions have been uncoordinated and have not considered their customary land rights. The generalized awareness of environmental deterioration points to the need for better communication and intervention strategies to be developed by authorities in the future that involve the inhabitants of these lands.

Post-colonial land tenure reforms in emerging countries have partly aimed at poverty reduction through equitable land access. However, the poverty rate keeps rising in rural and peri-urban settings in Sub-Saharan Africa dominated by agricultural activities. This article reviews land tenure reforms in Mali, from the year 2000 to 2017 regarding poverty alleviation and evaluates their impacts on indigenous smallholder farmers, using multiple linear and logistic regression models and local experts’ elicitations. The results indicate that the advent of land titles as the only definitive evidence of land ownership, following the reforms, has generally weakened customary land management. Smallholder farmers face several barriers to obtaining land titles, limiting equity in land access and security. This has paved way for land markets marred by irregularities and resulted in colossal loss of agricultural lands, which are the main source of rural livelihood. Thus, the reforms have not yielded the intended poverty reduction outcomes. The study recommends that land transfers must be authorised by a single institution, represented at the various administrative levels, which issues an authentic and incorruptible document using appropriate technology. Moreover, since pro-poor provisions in the reforms usually lack implementing decrees in Mali, political will is key to achieving equitable land access and security.

Peatland has long served the panglong (timber) businesses as well as the local people. In the nineteenth century, people could clear the land as long as they paid the sultan or community chief. The Sultan in Deli gave empty land concessions to companies (tanah kosong) on the condition that the company kept the land for swidden agriculture for local people. The Agrarian Law in 1870 enabled the colonial government to grant land concessions to companies for woeste grond (waste land), over which the people had no rights. The concept of “waste land” was different from “empty land” which was a part of the customary land tenure system. After the independence, the Basic Agrarian Act and the Basic Forestry Act recognized the customary communal right of disposition (hak ulayat) and the right to clear land; however, these rights were strictly interpreted, making it challenging to implement them. The Basic Forestry Act stipulated the state forest area (kawasan hutan) as the forest over which the people had no rights other than hak ulayat. The Forestry Act in 1999 added that people were prohibited from cultivating and/or making use of and/or occupying the state forest area illegally. According to our survey at a village in the peatland area, almost all land was state forest area, in which there were a lot of production forests over which companies had been granted concessions. On the other hand, local people had settled there since the 1930s and acquired land through inheritance, buying, and clearing. Many of them have letters of certificate for this land. Today the government tends not to recognize such letters issued for state forest areas. These conditions have given rise to the insecurity of land rights in the peatlands. While the government hopes that agrarian reform would resolve land tenure issues through social forest programs, local people have yet to see benefits from these programs.

Considering that Malawi, is one of the poorest countries in the world, it might need to prioritize the implementation of its planned low-cost systematic customary land registration. Targeting first areas of higher regards for land formalization, while strengthening customary institutions in areas where land rights holders still respect local leader protections in safeguarding their tenure as they wait to be registered. Using a recent 2016/2017 IHS4 Malawi national wide data set, the study finds that determinants of higher and lower regards for land formalization and local leader protections as land tenure securing strategies respectively were: parcels facing potential tenure risk due to customary/local leaders, communities that tend to be recipients of temporal job seekers, and location in Central and Southern regions of Malawi.

This chapter underscores the relevance of international political economy (IPE) to this book’s contents by discussing the transnational nature of large-scale land acquisitions and the multi-scalar networks that permit and accompany such processes of acquisition (or ‘grabbing’). We connect the question of land to IPE to uncover the polycentric forms of governance that surround land transactions and the ownership, access, and use of natural resources. The chapter presents the book’s central argument that the exploitation inherent to Africa’s contemporary land rush extends beyond the commodity price spike in 2007/2008. The book’s chapters are categorized based on existing literature, according to three themes: (1) the land-development nexus; (2) informality and ‘new’ customary land tenure landscapes; and (3) formalization, domestic agency, and legacies of legal pluralism. The final section examines scholarly areas not addressed in this book and considers how future research could contribute to, and amplify analyses of, land grabbing.

The constitution has mandated that the existence of customary law communities and their rights as long as they live still be recognized and respected. This was supported by various national and sectoral laws and regulations which also recognized and respected the customary rights of indigenous peoples, but in its implementation customary land conflicts continue to occur. From the legal aspect, this condition occurs because there is no legal umbrella to protect the existence of customary law communities at the regional level. This research was conducted to protecting of ulayat lands of customary communities with doctrinal legal research methods. The results of this study show that First, regional authority in protecting indigenous peoples is obtained from two legal regimes, the regional government legal regime in Law No. 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government and sectoral legal regimes in the fields of land, forestry and human rights. Second, the contextualization of legal protection of ulayat land rights for customary law communities by local governments can be done by establishing a Regional Regulation as a Legal Policy, so that local governments are advised to immediately form regulations that contain and protect customary land rights for customary law community. Keywords: contextualization; community; adat; ulayat; protection

This article investigates three forms of land tenure in South Sudan: investor leasehold, rural customary, and urban freehold. South Sudan’s experience with large-scale foreign investments in land mirrors that of the global land rush. A surge of investments from 2007 to 2013 has since tapered off to the point that there are only 17 land deals marked as “concluded” in the Land Matrix. This rapid, albeit brief, land rush demonstrated the pitfalls associated with large-scale land investments in the context of weak and contested governance institutions. Since the breakout of civil war in December 2013, the land question in South Sudan has been defined by government attempts to title land in urban areas and to formalize customary land systems in rural areas. These two processes have been highly contested on account of population movements and shifting power relations amid the civil war. Ensuing conflicts are often framed as ethnic in nature. From a political economy standpoint, however, these conflicts are the outcome of the expansion of market forces in urban areas and the codification of land tenure practices in rural areas, which subsequently exacerbates intergroup tensions.

As in other parts of Papua New Guinea, land in Morobe Province's YUS Conservation Area is held by clans for eternity. It is essential that they use their lands sustainably and collectively plan for long-term resource use. Land use planning is recognized by the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government as a national priority but has yet to be mainstreamed. It is also an essential component of the country's customary land tenure system. The Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program's Land-Use Planning (LUP) program has proven to be an effective approach in fostering collaboration with the more than 15,000 people who live across the YUS landscape. The LUP program responds to incremental and compounding threats by facilitating land-use plans for all of the communities in YUS. Experience from the development and implementation of Land-Use Plans shows that the process is not only successful but is vital in facilitating community consensus over resource use by bringing neighboring clans together to agree on how to improve the use of existing land, which forests and reefs to use, and which forests and reefs to protect and declare off limits. The process is also valuable in promoting ecosystem connectivity across the landscape. The resulting plans are aligned directly with national and local plans to balance rural development and environmental protection. Land-Use Planning is an invaluable asset to TKCP and the people and wildlife that share the YUS Landscape, supporting the continued balance between sustainable resource use and protection.

Land is a key asset in the lives of village communities in Zambia. It is thus at the centre of their livelihood strategies as it provides social, economic, and financial benefits to these communities. The paradox though is that despite acknowledging its importance in the lives of village communities, tenure on this land is poorly protected by the state resulting in high insecurity for its occupants. In many instances, there are no clear regulations on its use and alienation while traditional authorities are also ill-equipped for the task of administering this land. The question then that emerges is: In this perceived absence of state protection, how are village communities protecting themselves from threats of dispossession by foreign investors, urban elites, and the state's own actions? This study found that village communities are using various means to protect themselves, including issuance of local land holding certificates.

The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze the legal awareness of the community in the registration of customary land rights, with location points in two villages, namely Desa Doridungga and Desa O'O in Donggo District, Bima-NTB Regency, in the perspective of Land law and and analyzing the obstacles faced by communities in registering customary land rights at the Bima District Land Office. The research method used is a Socio-legal research that is oriented to a value approach (value-oriented approach). Empirical / sociological research is used to find out what and how public awareness in registering customary land rights is related to the implementation of land registration in the Land Agency Office of Bima-NTB Regency. The results of the research conducted were the level of community legal awareness in the context of registering customary land rights in Bima Regency, generally and in particular, Donggo District. This is due to the lack of several aspects, namely, lack of legal knowledge, legal understanding, legal attitudes, and community behavior patterns. The obstacle faced by the people of O’O Villagers and Desa Doridungga in registering customary land rights is the lack of socialization from the local government regarding proper procedures for registering customary land rights. As well as the level of legal awareness of the villagers of O'O and Desa Doridungga to carry out sporadic land registration as a result of the wrong mindset about the importance of land registration

This chapter builds on discussions on a range of conceptual and normative issues relating to legal pluralism, customary law, environment management, and conservation. It begins by defining customary land tenure and explaining its importance to the people of the Pacific. The chapter then examines a range of legislation from a number of Pacific Islands countries pertaining to customary land. This is to show the legal basis of customary land tenure and its recognition within the formal state legal system. The chapter focuses on disaster and climate change as existential threats to Pacific communities because the islands they occupy are vulnerable to inundation and erosion due to floods and sea level rise. Such threats have devasting effects on the environment, which suggests a clear link between customary land tenure and environment conditions. In some Pacific Island countries, a system of registration of interests in land was established prior to attaining political independence from a colonial power.

Inequalities in land rights exist globally, both in formal and customary settings. This is because land rights are either strong or weak, and held by various categories of people. The weaker variants of the inequalities tend to stifle tenure security, reduce land use, and threaten the food security of those dependent on the land for survival. This paper investigated the implications of customary land rights inequalities and varying tenure insecurity for food security among smallholder farmers in northwest Ghana. It identified the nature of rights inequalities, the number of rights and in whose possession. The research also assessed the kinds and nature of land rights as well as how such rights affect people&rsquo, s farm sizes and subsequently farming output for ultimate food security. The data collection techniques were focus group discussions and interviews of key informants and key players in key organisations. Results revealed the existence of food insecurity among smallholder farmers (settlers/migrants) who have both fewer and weaker land rights as compared to landowners who possess numerous and stronger rights in the study area. Results also showed that weak and unequally skewed land rights lead to uncertain tenure durations and reduced farm sizes, which affects farmed area, farm output, food availability, accessibility and food security. Furthermore, farmers expressed the need to apply coping strategies to overcome the impact of unequal land rights. This research recommends further studies to design intervention strategies to better understand land rights inequalities and their implications. The outcome is expected to contribute to informing interventions to narrow these inequalities and reduce the implications that can later enhance food security.

Malawi promulgated Customary Land Act, 2016, as a step towards achieving triple objectives of land tenure security, efficient land-use and improved land market. Customary land, however, consists of multiple and competing land rights. Mobilizing the concept of intergenerational wealth transfer, this paper explores the extent to which secondary land rights are going to be preserved within the new law. The paper explores three questions namely: what provisions has the new law provided for registration of secondary land rights? How is the new law shaping motivations for registration of secondary land rights? What are the likely outcomes of the new law on land tenure security of secondary land rights? Employing mixed research methodology, the study findings demonstrate that the assumption that land titling will protect secondary land rights is grossly misplaced. Instead, land insecurity among secondary land rights holders may become more visible and worse than before. This is largely so because the new law has failed to respond to the lineal logic of customary land rights embedded in lineal kinship.

The island of New Guinea harbours one of the world’s largest tracts of intact tropical forest, with 41% of its land area in Indonesian Papua (Papua and Papua Barat Provinces). Within Papua, the advent of a 4000-km ‘development corridor’ reflects a national agenda promoting primary-resource extraction and economic integration. Papua, a resource frontier containing vast forest and mineral resources, increasingly exhibits new conservation and development dynamics suggestive of the earlier frontier development phases of other Indonesian regions. Local environmental and social considerations have been discounted in the headlong rush to establish the corridor and secure access to natural resources. Peatland and forest conversion are increasingly extensive within the epicentres of economic development. Deforestation frontiers are emerging along parts of the expanding development corridor, including within the Lorentz World Heritage Site. Customary land rights for Papua’s indigenous people remain an afterthought to resource development, fomenting conditions contrary to conservation and sustainable development. A centralised development agenda within Indonesia underlies virtually all of these changes. We recommend specific actions to address the environmental, economic, and socio-political challenges of frontier development along the Papuan corridor.