Land tenure and the management of land and trees: the case of customary land tenure areas of Ghana

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keijiro Otsuka ◽  
Agnes R. Quisumbing ◽  
Ellen Payongayong ◽  
J.B. Aidoo

This study explores the effects of land tenure institutions on land use and management using household date from cocoa growing areas of Ghana. Various land tenure institutions with different land rights coexist in our sites, such as allocated family land, inherited land, appropriated village land, and land received as gift. While tree planting and the decision to leave land fallow may be affected by land tenure status, there are no significant differences in labor allocation and revenue of both cocoa and food crops among parcels under different land tenure institutions. These results support the hypothesis that management incentives of cocoa fields, but not food crop fields, tend to be equalized due to the incentive-enhancing effects of granting secure land rights after efforts to plant cocoa trees are expended.

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-462
Author(s):  
Ricarda Rösch

After the end of Liberia’s civil war in 2003, the country embarked upon the reform of its forest and land legislation. This culminated in the adoption of the 2009 Community Rights Law with Respect to Forest Lands and the 2018 Land Rights Act, which NGOs and donors have described as being amongst the most progressive laws in sub-Saharan Africa with regard to the recognition of customary land tenure. Given these actors commitment to human rights, this article takes the indigenous right to self-determination as a starting point for analysing customary property rights and their implementation in Liberia. This includes the examination of the Liberian concept of the 1) recognition and nature of customary land rights, 2) customary ownership of natural resources, 3) jurisdiction over customary land, 4) the prohibition of forcible removal, and 5) the right to free, prior and informed consent.


Africa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Sitko

This article explores the ways in which efforts to expand private land tenure, coupled with the continued centrality of customary land administration in Zambia, produce a fractured system of land governance in which localized markets for land emerge but are forced to operate in a clandestine manner. Using ethnographic and archival data sources, I argue that despite the historical and contemporary relationship between land rights and economic ‘development’, the clandestine nature of land markets in rural Zambia tends to (re)produce many of the social ills that ‘development’ seeks to resolve. Using a case study of a clandestine market for land in a Tonga-speaking region of southern Zambia, this article shows how these markets undermine women's rights to land, while allowing for the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of a few.


Author(s):  
Catherine Boone

Land-related disputes and land conflicts are sometimes politicized in elections in African countries, but this is usually not the case. Usually, land-related conflict is highly localized, managed at the micro-political level by neo-customary authorities, and not connected to electoral competition. Why do land conflicts sometimes become entangled in electoral politics, and sometimes “scale up” to become divisive issues in regional and national elections? A key determinant of why and how land disputes become politicized is the nature of the underlying land tenure regime, which varies across space (often by subnational district) within African countries. Under the neo-customary land tenure regimes that prevail in most regions of smallholder agriculture in most African countries, land disputes tend to be “bottled up” in neo-customary land-management processes at the local level. Under the statist land tenure regimes that exist in some districts of many African countries, government agents and officials are directly involved in land allocation and directly implicated in dispute resolution. Under “statist” land tenure institutions, the politicization of land conflict, especially around elections, becomes more likely. Land tenure institutions in African countries define landholders’ relations to each other, the state, and markets. Understanding these institutions, including how they come under pressure and change, goes far in explaining how and where land rights become politicized.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEAN-PHILIPPE COLIN

AbstractThe issue of property rights in land has taken central stage in research in institutional economics regarding developing countries. In the African context, numerous studies have dealt with the individualization and commodification of customary land rights. The issue of intra-family land rights tends however to remain a black box, regarding the content of the bundle of rights and duties, the identification of the right holders and the transfers of rights within the family. Drawing from the insights of institutional economics as well as economic and legal anthropology, this paper presents a conceptual framework to rigorously explore the issue of land rights through an economic ethnography.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-119
Author(s):  
Happy Trizna Wijaya

Since September 24, 1960 Law No. 5/1960 was stipulated regarding Basic Regulations on Agrarian Principles or often referred to as the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA), adopting legal unification and based on customary law. Customary land law is original law, has a unique characteristic, where individual rights to land are personal rights but in it contain togetherness. Land controlled by customary law communities is known as ulayat rights. Although customary law is the basis of the LoGA, problems with ownership rights to customary land often occur due to unclear land boundaries and customary land tenure by the government without any release of land. The results of this study revealed that the procedure for controlling customary land by the local government through the mechanism of land acquisition as stipulated in Permendagri No. 15 of 1975 provides more opportunities for the Government to control land rights, while the owner / holder of land rights has a very weak position because many rights to land are neglected so that it violates the human rights of land rights holders. With the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 55 of 1993 concerning Land Procurement for the Implementation of Development for the Public Interest in lieu of Permendagri No. 15 of 1975, which provides a protection to holders of land rights to be able to defend their rights. This is also the case with Perpres No. 36 of 2005 Jo Perpres No. 65 of 2006 issued as a substitute for Presidential Decree No. 55 of 1993, far more provide protection to the community to defend their rights, while the government is increasingly limited in obtaining land. So Perpres No. 65 of 2006 provides a guarantee of legal certainty to holders of land rights to be able to defend their rights.Sejak 24 September 1960 ditetapkan Undang-undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1960 tentang Peraturan Dasar Pokok-pokok Agraria atau sering disebut Undang-undang Pokok Agraria (UUPA), menganut unifikasi hukum dan berdasarkan hukum adat. Hukum tanah adat merupakan hukum asli, mempunyai sifat yang khas, dimana hak-hak perorangan atas tanah merupakan hak pribadi akan tetapi didalamnya mengandung unsur kebersamaan. Tanah-tanah yang dikuasai oleh masyarakat hukum adat dikenal dengan sebutan hak ulayat. Walaupun hukum adat merupakan dasar dari UUPA tetapi permasalahan terhadap hak kepemilikan atas tanah adat seringkali terjadi karena penentuan batas tanah hak ulayat yang tidak jelas, maupun karena penguasaan hak atas tanah adat oleh pemerintah tanpa ada pelepasan tanah. Hasil penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa Prosedur penguasaan tanah ulayat oleh Pemda melalui mekanisme pembebasan tanah yang tertuang dalam Permendagri No. 15 Tahun 1975 lebih memberikan kesempatan kepada pihak Pemerintah untuk menguasai hak atas tanah, sedangkan pemilik/pemegang hak atas tanah mempunyai kedudukan yang sangat lemah karena banyak hak atas tanah yang diabaikan sehingga sangat melanggar hak asasi pemegang hak atas tanah. Dengan diterbitkannya Kepres No. 55 Tahun 1993 mengenai Pengadaan Tanah Bagi Pelaksanaan Pembangunan Untuk Kepentingan Umum sebagai pengganti Permendagri No. 15 Tahun 1975, yang memberikan suatu perlindungan kepada pemegang hak atas tanah untuk dapat mempertahankan haknya. Begitu juga halnya dengan Perpres No. 36 Tahun 2005 Jo Perpres No. 65 Tahun 2006 yang dikeluarkan sebagai pengganti Kepres No. 55 Tahun 1993, jauh lebih memberikan perlindungan kepada pihak masyarakat untuk membela haknya, sedangkan pihak pemerintah semakin terbatas dalam memperoleh tanah. Sehingga Perpres No. 65 Tahun 2006 memberikan suatu jaminan kepastian hukum kepada pemegang hak atas tanah untuk dapat mempertahankan haknya.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-229
Author(s):  
Oloan Sitorus

Abstract: What land registration concept is suitable for Tanah Ulayat (Petuanan Land)? This question is relevant to be answered when the actual conditions of tenurial of the Petuanan Land have undergone an individualization process. The above question is answered by applying the concept of land registration to the actual conditions of customary land tenure. For Petuanan Land which is still intact containing public authority and private right, the proper concept of land registration is only limited to the Land Register. Furthermor, Petuanan Land that has undergone the process of individualization into Tanah Marga or Soa and individual land, the concept of land registration can be carried out up to the issuance of certificates as proof of land rights. Thus, the portion of Petuanan Land that can be the object of Complete Systematic Land Registration in Maluku Province is Petuanan Land that has undergone a process of individualization, can be land that is possessed or owned  by traditional village (although very rare), clan or soa. Intisari: Pendaftaran Tanah yang bagaimanakah yang tepat bagi Tanah Ulayat (Tanah Petuanan) di Maluku? Pertanyaan ini dipandang relevan untuk dijawab ketika kondisi aktual penguasaan Tanah Ulayat (Tanah Petuanan) itu sudah mengalami proses individualisasi. Pertanyaan di atas dijawab dengan cara menerapkan konsep pendaftaran tanah terhadap kondisi aktual penguasaan tanah ulayat. Bagi Tanah Petuanan yang masih utuh berisi kewenangan publik dan privat, konsep pendaftaran tanah yang tepat hanyalah sebatas Daftar Tanah. Selanjutnya, Tanah Petuanan yang sudah mengalami proses individualisasi menjadi Tanah Marga atau Soa dan Tanah Individual, maka konsep pendaftaran tanah dapat dilakukan sampai pada penerbitan sertipikat sebagai bukti hak atas tanah. Dengan demikian, bagian dari Tanah Petuanan yang dapat menjadi objek Pendaftaran Tanah Sistematik Lengkap di Provinsi Maluku adalah Tanah Petuanan yang sudah mengalami proses individualisasi, dapat berupa tanah yang dikuasai oleh negeri (meskipun sangat jarang), tanah yang dikuasai marga atau soa, dan tanah yang dikuasai oleh perorangan.


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoshaunna Parks

AbstractThe struggle for indigenous rights to pre-Hispanic cultural heritage parallels the struggle for indigenous land rights in Belize. By Belizean law, material objects and sites of activity older than 100 years in age are the property of the state. Similarly, land inhabited by indigenous communities in southern Belize is held in trust by the government. In 2007 the community of Santa Cruz in southern Belize won customary land tenure over their lands for the first time from the Belizean government. This change in land ownership presents new challenges to the definition of ownership of ancient places in Maya territory. In particular, the transfer of land rights to the community has potential implications for the ownership and management of the local pre-Hispanic site of Uxbenká that may ultimately serve as a paradigm for the future relationship between Maya peoples and ancestral remains throughout the nation.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 662
Author(s):  
Malumbo C. Chipofya ◽  
Sahib Jan ◽  
Angela Schwering

According to the online database landmarkmap, up to an estimated 50% or more of the world’s habitable land is held by indigenous peoples and communities. While legal and procedural provisions are being made for bureaucratically managing the many different types of tenure relations in this domain, there continues to be a lack of tools and expertise needed to quickly and accurately document customary and indigenous land rights. Software and hardware tools that have been designed for documenting land tenure through communities continue to assume a parcel-based model of land as well as categories of land relations (RRR) largely dimensionally similar to statutory land rights categories. The SmartSkeMa approach to land tenure documentation combines sketching by hand with aerial imagery and an ontology-based model of local rules regulating land tenure relations to produce a system specifically designed to allow accurate documentation of land tenure from a local perspective. In addition, the SmartSkeMa adaptor which is an OWL-DL based set of rules for translating local land related concepts to the LADM concepts provides a more high-level view of the data collected (i.e., what does this concept relate to within the national LADM profile?) In this paper we present the core functionalities of SmartSkeMa using examples from Kenya and Ethiopia. Based on an expert survey and focus groups held in Kenya, we also analyze how the approach fairs on the Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration tools scale. The results indicate that the approach could be beneficial in scaling up mapping of community and customary lands as well as help reduce conflict through its participatory nature.


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