The legalisation of the customary land rights of rural communities is currently actively promoted as a strategy for conserving biodiversity. There is, however, little empirical information on the... Show moreThe legalisation of the customary land rights of rural communities is currently actively promoted as a strategy for conserving biodiversity. There is, however, little empirical information on the conservation outcomes of these tenure reforms. In this paper, we describe four conservation projects that specifically aimed to formalise land rights in the Philippines, a country widely seen as a model for the devolution of control over natural resources to rural communities. We demonstrate that these legalistic interventions are based on flawed assumptions, on: 1) the capacity of the state to enforce tenure; 2) the characteristics of customary land rights; and 3) the causal links between legal entitlements and sustainable natural resource management. As a result, these state-led tenure reforms actually aggravate tenure insecurity on the ground, and ultimately fail to improve natural resource management. Show less
Leeuwen, M. van; Kobusingye, D.; Justin, P.; Djomo, R.; Dijk, J.W.M. van 2016
This paper examines the regulation of land rights in Bassein and Daman during the 200 years these territories were under Portuguese rule. Based on primary and secondary sources, I argue that local... Show moreThis paper examines the regulation of land rights in Bassein and Daman during the 200 years these territories were under Portuguese rule. Based on primary and secondary sources, I argue that local elites played a significant role in shaping the prazos system, a topic yet insufficiently explored by the literature. The first section outlines the pre-existent land tenure system, which was largely based on the iqtāʿ, a wide-spread institution in the Islamic world. The second section examines the setting up of the prazos do Norte system which combined elements from the iqtāʿ, the legal framework of emphyteusis and the long-established practice of granting crown's assets. The third section focuses on the adaptations this legal regime underwent as a result of its ‘social appropriation' by colonial elites and the responses of state power. Show less
The papers included in this volume were earlier presented at a conference on the settlement of land claims in Africa, which was held in Amsterdam in September 2003. The papers are written... Show moreThe papers included in this volume were earlier presented at a conference on the settlement of land claims in Africa, which was held in Amsterdam in September 2003. The papers are written primarily from an anthropological perspective. Contributions: Introduction: competing jurisdictions: settling land claims in Africa, including Madagascar (Sandra Evers, Marja Spierenburg and Harry Wels); Communal tenure 'from above' and 'from below': land rights, authority and livelihoods in rural South Africa (Ben Cousins and Aninka Claassens); Land tenure reform in South Africa: a focus on the Moravian Church land in the Western Cape (Lungisile Ntsebeza); Contestation, confusion and corruption: market-based land reform in Zambia (Taylor Brown); 'We fought the war to return to the old ways': conflicts about land reforms in Dande, northern Zimbabwe (Marja Spierenburg); Fractionating local leadership: created authority and management of State land in Zimbabwe (Bill H. Kinsey); First-comers and late-comers: the role of narratives in land claims (Carola Lentz); State formation, access to the commons and autochthony among the Berbers of the Middle Atlas, Morocco (Bernhard Venema); Land and the politics of identity: the case of Anywaa-Nuer relations in the Gambella region (Dereje Feyissa); Trumping the ancestors: the challenges of implementing a land registration system in Madagascar (Sandra Evers); The struggle for land rights in the context of multiple normative orders in Tanzania (Rie Odgaard); Traditional additional authorities in Uganda and the management of legislatively decentralised forest resources (Frank Emmanuel Muhereza); Participative approaches and decentralized management of the Samori forest in the Baye municipality, Mopti region (Mali) (Br‚hima Kassibo); Insiders out: forest access through village chiefs in Senegal (Sagane Thiaw and Jesse C. Ribot); Fighting over crumbs? : small valleys in West Africa as a new locus of land claims (Mayke Kaag). [ASC Leiden abstract]. Show less
Text in Italian. English sum.: This study examines a number of cases in which the people of Ziguinchor, in the Casamance region of Senegal, have been in dispute with the public authorities over... Show moreText in Italian. English sum.: This study examines a number of cases in which the people of Ziguinchor, in the Casamance region of Senegal, have been in dispute with the public authorities over the question of access to land in urban areas. These conflicts, however, should not obscure the fact that the citizens of Ziguinchor and the representatives of the Senegalese State generally manage to reach a consensus on questions of urban land use. The study identifies the reasons why the citizens of Ziguinchor, in spite of the various problems which they have with the authorities, ultimately accept State policies and regulations. Legal analysis is supplemented with social and economic data from Soucoupapaye, a periurban neighbourhood in Ziguinchor, in order to demonstrate that the effective application of State land law in an urban community is subject to political and socioeconomic constraints. Show less
The National Land Act of 1964, designed to unify legislation concerning land, formally abolished the various local systems of land law in Senegal. The implementation of the various urban land... Show moreThe National Land Act of 1964, designed to unify legislation concerning land, formally abolished the various local systems of land law in Senegal. The implementation of the various urban land regulations and the efforts to restructure and regulate the spontaneous settlements which were started in Ziguinchor, the capital of the Casamance, in the 1970s resulted in a great number of urban land conflicts. This paper reviews Senegalese law relating to urban land. It explores the handling by the formal judicial and administrative institutions of urban land disputes and the conceptions and attitudes of the urbanites involved in these conflicts. The deliberate and systematic ignoring in the new national land law of the actual urban situation (more or less characterized by the persistence of - accommodated - traditional customs and values) seems to have contributed to the problems in the implementation of formal land law in Ziguinchor. The basic material for this paper has been drawn from court records and the minutes of special administrative arbitration commissions for review of land disputes. A main problem appears to be that land disputes submitted to court are handled by the criminal judge, although the 'defendants' do not feel in the least criminal. Besides, the material shows a difference between the general and formalistic decisions of the judge, and the more concrete solutions of the arbitration commissions that were set up to process the great number of urban land disputes. Show less
La majorité de la population de Ziguinchor (Sénégal) appartient au groupe diola. Ce sont des 'autochtones' vis-à-vis des gens du nord, en particulier des Wolof, dont la présence paraît liée à l... Show moreLa majorité de la population de Ziguinchor (Sénégal) appartient au groupe diola. Ce sont des 'autochtones' vis-à-vis des gens du nord, en particulier des Wolof, dont la présence paraît liée à l'action de l'État sénégalais et de son administration territoriale. Les pratiques locales sont ainsi dominées par une opposition entre des représentations foncières quasi villageoises des premiers occupants et les conceptions bureaucratiques mises en ouvre par les fonctionnaires de l'État. Cette opposition crée des situations originales qu'analyse l'auteur allant de l'harmonie apparente à la confrontation directe. En conclusion, l'auteur interprète ces formes syncrétiques dominées par le discours juridique de l'État, son efficacité politique et la prégnance de la puissance publique. Show less
