Land rights take patience

Mairowa Village in Longido District is an area of 17.000 hectares, mainly populated by Masaai people who cultivate small crop fields near their main settlements. In the village office the land certificate is kept in a locker. The document defines the village’s boundaries and thereby its inhabitants’ customary right of occupancy of the land.

Setting the boundaries.

By Merete Holm, Development Worker, MS Tanzania.

10. juni 2008

It took six months to settle the boundaries. ‘There was a lot of dispute, but now the boundaries are set and the disagreements have been settled. Before we started the process of demarcation, we did not have disagreements with our neighbours’, says Laikipa Ngomera, a member of the Village Land Council.

While this may seem a bit irrational, it actually does make good sense. Firstly, the Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999 stipulates that all villages should demarcate their boundaries. More importantly, while demarcation does not restrict the shared use of resources as is the norm in Masaai communities, it still gives authority to the village. In principle, the certificate protects the village against land grabbing from outside and illegal sale of land from inside.

‘There is the perception among some officials that they can allocate pastoral land for other use. It happened before along the borders of Monduli District where huge areas, predominately grazing areas for pastoralists, were seized by large-scale farmers for commercial purposes. But after demarcations no pastoralists have been evicted from their land. Even the government has kept away’, explains the Programme Co-ordinator, Emmanuel Ndulet from CORDS.

Since 2001 the organisation has - with the support from Monduli District Councils, MS Tanzania, CORDAID, IWGIA and MRG - assisted 62 villages in Monduli and Longido Districts with the training of villagers in land rights, demarcation work and the securing of village land certificates. A number of challenges delay the process; i.e., time can be a significant constraint for land rights and demarcation, discouragement from the village leaders does occur frequently, and it is hard to convince donors to continue to support the work.

CORDS also frequently experiences that authorities are delaying the process. According to Emmanuel Ndulet the incidents that typically occur could be that the district land surveyor, who officially guarantees the demarcation, might give an excuse for not going to the field. The Ministry of Land, also, is known to obstruct the process - some land officials ask for ‘chai’ in return for taking the case further and for not ‘losing it’. But obstructions do also take place inside the village, such as when village authorities abuse their power, often occurring due to lack of awareness on various legislations. In addition, Village Assemblies can be sidelined by the Village Council if it does not want to share its privileges. Therefore, training on land rights for the villagers is a vital part of CORDS’ work.

CORDS has started with the village leaders, traditional leaders, ward executive officers, councillors and district officials, and now these people relate their experiences on land issues with new legislations during training sessions. In this way CORDS can go further to empower village assemblies on the same issues.

Community Research and Development Services (CORDS)

CORDS works in partnership with MS Tanzania. Its main task is to address the challenges that the pastoral communities face in their regions. Its work focuses on the fundamental issues, approaches, challenges, and changes that are needed to ensure the achievement of sustainable pastoral development and curb the trend of further marginalisation and impoverishment of pastoralists. Read more here: www.cordstz.org

Land - a reason for conflict
Land is the cause of many conflicts in Tanzania, especially in pastoralist areas. Here, prime land often has been taken from the communities for national parks. Since the government opened up for private investors, land is becoming scarce in certain places. The government’s right to take village land for public purposes adds to the conflicts. Population growth is another reason for conflicts over land, also between farmers and pastoralists even outside the traditional pastoralist areas. Boundaries between villages are typical causes of disagreements. The many reasons for conflicts over land are topped by a lack of awareness and knowledge about land laws in rural communities.

Land issues call for Public Private Partnership (PPP)
MS Tanzania’s Country Programme Strategy (CPS) focuses on land rights from a democracy perspective. Many activities regarding land rights in the villages have to be carried out in a PPP between Local Government Authorities and citizens. However, to build this local democracy it is necessary to create awareness and knowledge among the two parties - and to create simple systems, procedures and mechanisms for the implementation of land laws. MS Tanzania has a special focus on women, pastoralists and small-scale/traditional farmers. A number of MS partners are already engaged in work with land rights and access to natural resources for these target groups.