Land-Tenure Reform in Kenya: the Limits of Law

1979 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 615-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon F. R. Coldham
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Working Party ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Land Consolidation ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Cash Crops ◽  
Substantive Law ◽  
Land Register

Most Africans in Kenya have always lived and worked on the land, and until fairly recently their land-tenure arrangements have been governed by customary law. Colonial administrators were divided about the desirability of granting individual titles to African farmers, and concentrated their efforts on persuading them to plant cash-crops, to fight soil erosion and, where necessary, to consolidate their holdings. It was only in the mid-1950s, when large-scale compulsory land consolidation schemes were initiated in the Kikuyu Land Unit, that serious thought was given to the nature of the title which the owner of a consolidated holding would acquire.1 The East Africa Royal Commission advocated the adjudication and registration of individual titles in suitable areas,2 and eventually a working party was appointed to consider what legislation would be necessary to implement this recommendation. As a result of its report,3 a system of registration of title based on the English model was introduced. Once the processes of adjudicacation and consolidation have been completed, the title of the owner is registered and, where appropriate, any interests not amounting to ownership are also entered on the Land Register. The land thereupon ceases to be subject to customary law,4 and is governed instead by the complete code of substantive law – based broadly on English law – which is contained today in the Registered Land Act, 1963.

scholarly journals The Virtuous Cycle of Property

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Fabbri ◽  
Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
Virtuous Cycle ◽  
Positive Effect

The article shows that formalizing private property rights has a positive effect on the propensity to respect the property of others. We study a recent large-scale land tenure reform in West Africa which was the first of its kind to be implemented as a randomized control-trial. Results of a modified dictator game show that the formalization of private property rights reduced an individual's willingness to take from others' endowment. We used additional experimental measures and post-experimental survey data to rule out alternative explanations for the observed behavior that do not imply a change in preferences.

scholarly journals Nonindustrial Family Forest Landowners' Stated Willingness-to-Participate in Forest Cooperatives in Southern China

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lifei Yang ◽  
Yali Wen ◽  
Francisco X. Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Forest Management ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Forest Landowners ◽  
Family Forest ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Tenure Reform

Forest landowner cooperatives have emerged as a formal institution capable of fostering professional forest management. There are many reasons to motivate participation in forest cooperatives. For instance, cooperatives could ease nonindustrial family forest landowners (NIFFLs) access to financial assistance and enhance market entrance opportunities. In China, various forms of forest cooperatives supported by government agencies are developing rapidly in an effort to facilitate forest management at a large scale. However, the development of forest cooperatives is still in its early stages. An understanding of NIFFLs' attitudes towards the development of cooperatives is instrumental for crafting policies and organizational structures that motivate landowners' participation. Three hundred and ten NIFFLs from Fujian and Jiangxi provinces in Southern China were interviewed to elicit their attitudes and willingness-to-participate in forest cooperatives. Logistic regression was used to evaluate landowner, household, forest resource, and institutional factors associated with NIFFLs' stated decision to participate in a forest cooperative. Results show that NIFFLs' stated willingness-to-participate in forest cooperatives was associated with demographic characteristics like education, forest-related income, size of forestland, and attitudes toward land tenure reform and cooperatives. This paper outlines suggestions on how to further develop forest cooperatives in Southern China.

The Effect of Registration of Title Upon Customary Land Rights in Kenya

1978 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Coldham
Keyword(s):  
Soil Erosion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Land Consolidation ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Native Land ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
Customary Land

When the State of Emergency was declared in 1952, most Africans in Kenya were living on the land in tribal reserves known as Native Land Units. Land rights within the Land Units were governed by native law and custom, though the demand for individual titles was strong, particularly in the Kikuyu Land Unit. However, administrators were divided about the desirability of hastening the demise of traditional institutions and concentrated their efforts on promoting agricultural development by taking measures against soil erosion and encouraging farmers to consolidate their holdings. It was only when large-scale compulsory land consolidation schemes were initiated in the mid-fifties among the Kikuyu that serious consideration was given to the nature of the title which the owner of a consolidated holding would acquire. Many people saw customary law as an obstacle to agricultural development (after all, the customary law relating to the allocation and inheritance of land was largely responsible for the considerable fragmentation of holdings that had occurred) and recommended that it be replaced by a system based on the registration of individual titles.

scholarly journals Assessing the Impacts of Land Consolidation on Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Producers: A Survey from Jiangsu Province, China

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyan Zeng ◽  
Fengwu Zhu ◽  
Fu Chen ◽  
Man Yu ◽  
Shaoliang Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Jiangsu Province ◽  
Crop Diversity ◽  
Land Consolidation ◽  
Frontier Analysis ◽  
Land Fragmentation ◽  
Agricultural Income

Since the year 2000, China has implemented large-scale land consolidation, which was used to reduce land fragmentation, enhance grain yield capability, facilitate land tenure transfer, and promote agricultural operational scale. However, the impacts of land consolidation on agricultural technical efficiency of producers in practice is not yet clear. A field survey was executed at two points of time during July 2010 and July 2016. A total of 900 producers were chosen from 30 land consolidation projects at random in the Jiangsu Province. The agricultural technical efficiency caused by land consolidation was calculated by using a stochastic frontier analysis method. The results of a stochastic frontier production function reveal that land tenure transfer, land fragmentation, non-agricultural income, and crop diversity has undergone significant changes after land consolidation. The overall agricultural technical efficiency of producers had also increased considerably and the average technical efficiency was estimated at 0.924 after land consolidation. Land consolidation directly promotes land tenure transfer while indirectly encouraging non-agricultural employment, which could improve agricultural technical efficiency of producers. Non-agricultural income and crop diversity had a significant correlation with agricultural technical efficiency, but land fragmentation after land consolidation does not significantly improve technical efficiency. These conclusions are helpful in understanding the impacts of land consolidation, which enriches the academic literature in related fields and improves the policy of land consolidation in China and other developing countries.

Transforming legal status of customary land rights: what this means for women and men in rural Africa.

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-181
Author(s):  
Liz Alden Wily
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
East African ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Land Relations ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Customary Rights ◽  
Customary Land

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of land tenure reform, which should, in theory, prove a potent trigger towards equitable land relations between men and women in the customary land sector. This has been progressively underway in Africa since the 1990s. Broadly, a common objective is to release customary rights from their historical subordination as occupancy and use rights on presumed unowned lands, and much of which land remains vests in governments as ownercustodians. Or, where national laws have treated customary rights more equitably, a principal aim of reforms is to increase their security by these rights to be registrable without their extinction and conversion into statutory private rights. In short, this new phase of African land reform could signal the end of 70 years of intended disappearance of customary tenure as formally advised by the East African Royal Commission in 1955 and core elements of which were also adopted by France in respect of its own African possessions.

Vulnerabilities and Threats to Natural Forest Regrowth: Land Tenure Reform, Land Markets, Pasturelands, Plantations, and Urbanization in Indigenous Communities in Mexico

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1340
Author(s):  
Elena Lazos-Chavero ◽  
Paula Meli ◽  
Consuelo Bonfil
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Natural Regeneration ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Landscape Restoration ◽  
Peasant Communities ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Biological Corridor

Despite the economic and social costs of national and international efforts to restore millions of hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes, results have not met expectations due to land tenure conflicts, land-use transformation, and top-down decision-making policies. Privatization of land, expansion of cattle raising, plantations, and urbanization have created an increasingly competitive land market, dispossessing local communities and threatening forest conservation and regeneration. In contrast to significant investments in reforestation, natural regrowth, which could contribute to landscape regeneration, has not been sufficiently promoted by national governments. This study analyzes socio-ecological and economic vulnerabilities of indigenous and other peasant communities in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Chiapas, and Morelos related to the inclusion of natural regeneration in their forest cycles. While these communities are located within protected areas (Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, El Tepozteco National Park, and Chichinautzin Biological Corridor), various threats and vulnerabilities impede natural regeneration. Although landscape restoration involves complex political, economic, and social relationships and decisions by a variety of stakeholders, we focus on communities’ vulnerable land rights and the impacts of privatization on changes in land use and forest conservation. We conclude that the social, economic, political, and environmental vulnerabilities of the study communities threaten natural regeneration, and we explore necessary changes for incorporating this process in landscape restoration.

scholarly journals Conditions for successful land reform in Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
JA Groenewald
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Special Support ◽  
Fiscal Planning ◽  
Human Material

Land reform has traditionally had two objectives: equity and productivity. Food insecurity and the need for agriculture to contribute to development emphasise the need to maintain and improve productivity while improving equitability. Land must foster production and agriculture must attract good human material. The following areas need to be considered in policy formulation and delivery: an effective institutional framework involving all the relevant public and private bodies; efficient fiscal planning is essential; potentially successful farmers must be selected and given special support, including extension and adult education; complementary services and infrastructure are needed; prioritisation of functions and land tenure reform is often necessary. In addition, international agricultural markets are very important for Africa.  Wealthy nations should cease trade-distorting protection of their own farmers.

scholarly journals Land Tenure Reform in Three Former Settler Colonies in Southern Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 87-110
Author(s):  
Chizuko Sato
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Traditional Leaders ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Communal Areas ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Customary Land

AbstractThis study explores the challenges of land tenure reform for three former settler colonies in southern Africa–Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa. While land redistribution programmes have been the primary focus of land reform for these countries since independence, land tenure reform for the inhabitants of communal areas is an equally important and complex policy challenge. Before independence, the administration of these areas was more or less in the hands of traditional leaders, whose roles were sanctioned by the colonial and apartheid authorities. Therefore, one of the primary concerns with respect to reforming land tenure systems in communal areas is related to the power and authority of traditional leaders in the post-independence period. This study highlights striking similarities in the nations’ land tenure reform policies. All of them gave statutory recognition to traditional leaders and strengthened their roles in rural land administration. In understanding this ‘resurgence’ or tenacity of traditional leadership, the symbiotic relationship between the ruling parties and traditional leaders cannot be ignored and should be problematised. Nonetheless, this chapter also argues that this obsession with traditional leadership may result in the neglect of other important issues related to land tenure reform in communal areas, such as the role of customary land tenureas social security.

scholarly journals The THE CONCEPT OF THE LAND REFORM IN CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE JAVANESE COMMUNITY

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-127
Author(s):  
Widhiana Hestining Puri
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Agrarian Reform ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Regulation Mechanism ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Community Regulation ◽  
The Village

THE CONCEPT OF THE LAND REFORM IN CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE JAVANESE COMMUNITY   Widhiana H. Puri Phd Student at Law Fakulty of Gadjah Mada University and Lecture in National Land Academy, Indonesia. Email [email protected] Research Highlights   Land reform is a state effort to overcome the imbalance of land tenure in the community (Wiradi, 2000 # 1). Customary law in the Javanese community recognizes the existence of a mechanism of welfare distribution through the ownership and joint use of land in community togetherness bonds based on territorial factors as well as the concept of land reform. The existence of customary land as pekulen land is land owned by the village whose use rights can be requested by the villagers with a rotating utilization mechanism among the villagers in need (Luthfi, 2010 # 2). The study found that indigenous peoples in Java had a welfare distribution mechanism that was the essence of land reform or agrarian reform through a mechanism of land communalization and distribution of its use carried out on a shared land / communal land of the village in rotation.     Research Objectives This research was conducted in order to understand the phenomena of the implementation of law that developed in the community. The existence of community law or so-called non state law, informal law, or customary law in Indonesia is very numerous. The reality of this law is that the majority is still far from the attention and order of a positive and formal state legal arrangement. The community regulation model is an effort to meet the needs of its legal ideals in the midst of limited state positive law arrangements that tend to be more static and less responsive (Puri, 2017 # 16). The community regulation mechanism is a manifestation of unity in the village community where the distribution of land use is carried out among community members who have a concept in line with the national agrarian policy of the country called land reform. The regulatory model initiated from the local level becomes the learning material for how the land regulation mechanism is not always top down, but can be bottom up based on customary law that is proven effective and in accordance with the characteristics of the local community.     Methodology This research was carried out through an empirical legal research model with research locations in villages in Pituruh Subdistrict, Purworejo Regency, Central Java Province. This research is a kind of analytical descriptive research that is directed to get an idea of ​​how the implementation of Javanese traditions in land management has a concept similar to land reform or agrarian reform. In order to analyze existing traditions, a socio-legal approach is carried out, namely a study of the law using the approach of law and social sciences in order to analyze it (Irianto, 2012 # 17). The legal approach referred to is not only to see aspects of norms that are built on the provisions of customary law alone but by looking at their relevance to the regulation of the positive law of the country as the territory of the enactment of the community regulation. This is to see the common thread and the interrelationship between the two and avoid the release of the phenomenon of legal pluralism that is within the scope of national law. So that the legal norms of the community can be assessed as the model of regulation that can be applied in other regions.     Results Javanese people in Indonesia have a land regulation mechanism that has a concept similar to that of land reform or agrarian reform by the state. The customary law of the Javanese community has a common bond based on territorial factors or similarity in the area of ​​residence (Taneko, 2002 # 11). Customary law communities with their customary rights can own and control land both in the concept of individual property rights and communal / communal property rights. The concept of shared property / communal rights illustrates the existence of ownership rights by all members of the community embodied in village control (Susanto, 1983 # 18). One form of joint ownership is the right of possession which can be controlled by community members with the permission of the village government to be used for the benefit of themselves and their families with a rotating mechanism. At present, land is experiencing strengthening and individualization, but the character of togetherness and social function of land is maintained through the distribution of utilization rights of speculative land which has the status of individual property rights, in village settings.     Findings Land reform or agrarian reform is a land policy that aims to overcome the imbalance of land tenure through the distribution of land to people in need. Land reform or agrarian reform can be extended not only to the concept of distribution of land ownership but also to the control and use of land. The limitations of the number of land parcels and the need for land can be overcome through a model of tenure and shared use of land based on the concept of joint property / communal rights over land.    

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