Trees and farm boundaries: farm forestry, land tenure and reform in Kenya

Africa ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Dewees
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
High Potential ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Colonial Administration ◽  
Farm Forestry ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Land Holdings ◽  
Customary Practices ◽  
Economic Considerations

Tree cultivation and management are a common form of land use in high-potential areas of Kenya. While some of these practices are related to economic considerations, such as markets and prices for specific tree products, others were derived from or developed in parallel with customary practices. This article traces the origins of contemporary demarcation practices in Kikuyu areas of Kenya, involving the planting of trees in hedges and windrows, from their customary antecedents. Customary law prescribed clear mechanisms for demarcating land to which rights of use had been acquired. These mechanisms, characterised principally by the planting of particular trees on the boundaries of land holdings, were given limited recognition by the colonial administration, and were subsequently incorporated (without any clear awareness of their customary role) in the contemporary body of land law which emerged as a result of the land reforms of the early 1960s. Land reforms tended to obscure customary distinctions between rights of control to trees and rights of use and access, by equating rights of control with rights of ownership. The result has been that rights of use and access, which had been guaranteed to the landless under customary law, were, for the most part, eliminated.

scholarly journals RESOURCE STRUGGLE, RESULTANT REALITIES AND THE FUTURE OF MARAGOLI LAND USE

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-59
Author(s):  
Alex Amisi Muhandale
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
General Level ◽  
Economic Resource ◽  
The Future ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Single Moment ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Cash Economy

Land has remained one of the most basic and valuable economic resource right from the pre-colonial to the post independent Kenyan society. The success or failure of every society is always pegged on how prudent the society manages the resources within its reach in the midst of changes, challenges and opportunities that time and space avails every single moment. Being part of the Kenyan society, the Maragoli community has never been left out of the land question that has troubled Kenya over time. The pre-colonial Maragoli society had a land tenure system which was characterized by communal control of land together with its resources and practiced individual land ownership. Though land was communally owned at the general level, it was individually owned and tilled at the family level. The basis of land administration was the customary law executed by the elders who had the overall powers over the production resource. Through colonial policies such as alienation of the Africans’ land, confiscation of livestock, introduction of taxes and the cash economy; all these mechanisms brought about disequilibrium in the Maragoli pre-colonial land use. With this in mind therefore, this paper examined the nature and realities in resource struggle and the future of such struggles especially in regard to land use in the post-independence Kenya, using the case of the Maragoli. Through the articulation theory, this paper demonstrates that the interaction between the pre-colonial Maragoli land use practices and the colonial land policies greatly impacted on the Maragoli socio-economic and political structures. Due to the cash crop economy, the traditional Maragoli communal attitudes towards land as a resource are fading out resulting into individual emphasis on land use. This individual emphasis on land use is the major cause of uneconomical subdivision of land, insecurity and increased poverty. It is from the above perspective that the paper analyses the post-independence Maragoli land situation, some of the key causes of uneconomical subdivision of land and the possible solutions.

VALUE OF LAND MANAGEMENT IN THE SPHERE OF ECONOMIC REGULATION OF LAND RELATIONS

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Management ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Economic Regulation ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
State Planning ◽  
Land Relations

The article deals with the essence and development of socio-economic theory of land management, its goals, modern problems of land reforms and trends in the economic regulation of land relations. Special attention is paid to the assessment of economic efficiency of land management activities carried out in the process of for-mation and organization of the territory of land management facilities. The material of the study was the land Fund as an object of land management, since the content of land management and the order of its conduct must correspond to the level of socio-economic development of society. The system of state and social organization, characterized by the appropriate political organization of society for their regulation and certain land relations, determines the land structure of society. Since land management is a part of the overall system of state planning and financing, each land management enterprise, activity or work should be based on the principles of self-sufficiency, commercial benefits and efficiency. From the point of view of land relations, land cadastre and land management, land is an important part of the natural environment characterized by certain production and nat-ural socio-economic characteristics. Land is the basis of all human activity, which determines the importance of land relations in the socio-economic policy of society. To prevent the disadvantages of land ownership and land use, streamlining of the market of land relations, trading and other operations with the earth creates market land Fund. At the same time, all operations related to the purchase and sale of land plots, the formation of new and streamlining of existing land tenure and land use, redistribution of land ownership, the provision and seizure of land, the device of their territory, must necessarily be based on land management projects.

Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, Mahmood Hasan Khan and M. Ghaffu Otaudhry (edt.). LaJld Reforms in Pakistan, A Historical Perspective. Islamabad: Pakistan Institute of Development Economics 1987. viii+216 pp.Price: Rs 220 (USS 35) for hardcover; Rs 140.00 (USS 20) for soft-cover.

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-218
Author(s):  
Luther Tweeten
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Rural Pakistan ◽  
The Status ◽  
Land Tenure System ◽  
Ownership Of Land ◽  
High Degree

The authors describe how Pakistan has grappled with land reform, surely one of the most intractable and divisive issues facing agriculture anywhere. The land-tenure system at independence in 1947 included a high degree of land ownership concentration, absentee landlordism, insecurity of tenant tenure, and excessive rent. Land reform since 1947 focused on imposition of ceilings on landholding, distribution of land to landless tenants and small owners, and readjustments of contracts to improve the position of the tenant. These reformist measures have removed some but by no means all of the undesirable characteristics of the system. The authors list as well as present a critique of the reports of five official committees and commissions on land reform. The reports highlight the conflicts and ideologies of the reformers. The predominant ideal of the land reformers is a system of peasant proprietorship although some reformers favoured other systems such as communal farming and state ownership of land, and still others favoured cash rents over share rents. More pragmatic reformers recognized that tenancy is likely to be with Pakistan for the foreseeable future and that the batai (sharecropping) arrangement is the most workable system. According to the editors, the batai system can work to the advantage of landlord and tenant if the ceilings on landholding can be sufficiently lowered (and enforced), the security of the tenant is ensured, and the tenant has recourse to the courts for adjudication of disputes with landlords. Many policy-makers in Pakistan have come to accept that position but intervention by the State to realize the ideal has been slow. The editors conclude that" ... the end result of these land reforms is that they have not succeeded in significantly changing the status quo in rural Pakistan" (p. 29).

Conservation and privatization decisions in land reform of New Zealand’s high country

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Adena R Rissman ◽  
Molly C Daniels ◽  
Peter Tait ◽  
Xiaojing Xing ◽  
Ann L Brower
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Biodiversity Conservation ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Conservation Easement ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
Lower Productivity ◽  
Ecological Values

Summary Neoliberal land reforms to increase economic development have important implications for biodiversity conservation. This paper investigates land reform in New Zealand’s South Island that divides leased state-owned stations (ranches) with private grazing leases into state-owned conservation land, private land owned by the former leaseholder and private land under protective covenant (similar to conservation easement). Conserved lands had less threatened vegetation, lower productivity, less proximity to towns and steeper slopes than privatized lands. Covenants on private land were more common in intermediate zones with moderate land-use productivity and slope. Lands identified with ecological or recreational ‘significant inherent values’ were more likely to shift into conserved or covenant status. Yet among lands with identified ecological values, higher-threat areas were more likely to be privatized than lower-threat areas. This paper makes two novel contributions: (1) quantitatively examining the role of scientific recommendations about significant inherent values in land reform outcomes; and (2) examining the use of conservation covenants on privatized land. To achieve biodiversity goals, it is critical to avoid or prevent the removal of land-use restrictions beyond protected areas.

Rubber specialization vs crop diversification: the roles of perceived risks

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shi Min ◽  
Jikun Huang ◽  
Hermann Waibel
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Crop Diversification ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of farmers’ risk perceptions regarding rubber farming on their land use choices, including rubber specialization and crop diversification. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey data of some 600 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna in Southwest China is employed. This paper develops a general conceptual framework that incorporates a subjective risk item into a model of farmers’ land use choices, thereby developing four econometric models to estimate the role of risk perceptions, and applies instrumental variables to control for the endogeneity of risk perceptions. Findings The results demonstrate that risk perceptions play an important role in smallholders’ decision-making regarding land use strategies to address potential risks in rubber farming. Smallholders with higher risk perceptions specialize in rubber farming less often and are more likely to diversify their land use, thereby contributing to local environmental conservation in terms of agrobiodiversity. The land use choices of smallholder rubber farmers are also associated with ethnicity, household wealth, off-farm employment, land tenure status, altitude and rubber farming experience. Originality/value This study contributes to a better understanding of the implications of farmers’ risk perceptions and shows entry points for improving the sustainability of rubber-based land use systems.

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.

Main trends and problems of spatial development of agricultural land use and land tenure in the Non-Chernozem Economic Zone of Russia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.A. Polunin ◽  
V.V. Alakoz
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
Agricultural Land Use ◽  
Economic Zone

The article sets out the main goals, objectives and priorities of the spatial development of agricultural land use and land tenure in the territories of the Non-Black Earth Economic Zone. The principles, main directions and scenarios of the spatial development of agricultural land use are given. The greatest attention is paid to the mechanisms of spatial development of agricultural land use.

Dynamics of grazing rights and their impact on mobile cattle herders in Bhutan

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuenga Namgay ◽  
Joanne E. Millar ◽  
Rosemary S. Black
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Socioeconomic Impacts ◽  
Land Use Policies ◽  
Land Holdings ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Downstream Communities ◽  
The Impact

Seasonal cattle movements have been an important part of the living cultural heritage in Bhutan for centuries. Herders migrate south every winter to graze their cattle on subtropical pastures and to work in orange orchards. They return north to their villages in spring to grow summer crops. However, the practice of transhumant agropastoralism is under increasing pressure on account of changes in land-use policies, climate change and a declining labour force as youth seek alternative livelihoods. This research investigated the impact of changes in land-use policy, with emphasis on the Land Act 2007, on current and future livelihoods of transhumant herders in Bhutan. During in-depth interviews with 24 transhumant herders and nine livestock advisors, and seven focus-group discussions with 64 participants including herders, downstream residents and development agency personnel, perspectives on this issue were gathered. Findings revealed a lack of herder awareness of changes in land-use policies and minimal consultation of herders during policy development. Confusion and uncertainty about the proposed redistribution of grazing rights and restrictions on herd movements have resulted in confusion and resentment and have created conflicts between upstream and downstream communities. Herders with no current alternatives are concerned about their future livelihoods, whereas others are leaving it to their children to decide their future. It is concluded that the motive behind nationalisation of rangeland is noble and timely, but there are flaws in the redistribution plan. Transhumant agropastoralism is already in decline and there is no need to push towards its end through legislation. Transhumant practices could be left to evolve towards what may be their natural end. Sudden stoppage of inter-district transhumance without offering meaningful alternatives to herders could result in negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In future, policy development needs to increasingly embrace science and be based on evidence. A genuine participatory process with citizen engagement could avoid the unintended negative impacts likely to be faced by transhumant herders with marginal land holdings, who depend on this production system for their livelihoods.

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.    

scholarly journals Problems of Land Tenure and Land Use of the Trans-Baikal Buryats and its Solution by the National Authorities

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-70
Author(s):  
Sanzhieva Tatyana E. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Baikal Region ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
National Committee ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Autonomous Region ◽  
National Movement ◽  
Land Relations ◽  
Far Eastern

The article is devoted to the problem of land tenure and land use by the Buryat population in the Trans-Baikal region at the beginning of the XX century, before the formation of the BMASSR, which became the main one in the self-preservation of the ethnos. If the national movement and the struggle for autonomy have been well studied in historiography, the regulation of land relations is the main motive for activating the national movement and the demand for autonomy. The article is based on published and unpublished materials of the Burnatskom, the Far Eastern Republic and the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Region. The author used microhistorical approach, as well as historical, narrative and comparative methods, which made it possible to study the historical events of 1900–1923 in the field of land relations in Transbaikalia against the historical background of events taking place in the country, in close connection with changes in political conditions and the formation of administrative and state structures. It was believed that the Buryats had more land, therefore at the beginning of the 20th century. According to the land reform, the withdrawal to the “state colonization fund” for the resettlement of immigrants increased and the unauthorized seizure of the land of the Buryats by Russian peasants during the revolutionary period increased. The tsarist government reduced the land holdings of the Buryats in order to switch them to agricultural economy, despite the ineffectiveness of its distribution. A great inconvenience for land use was the artificially created striped distribution of land between the Buryat and Russian populations. The problems of land tenure and land use became one of the incentives of the national movement and the formation of its governing body – the Buryat National Committee (Burnatskom), whose main task was the establishment of national autonomy, within which land problems must be resolved. Burnatskom managed to create an aimak administration, which was able to exist during the period of the Provisional Government, and during the years of the civil war. With the formation of the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Region as part of the Far Eastern Republic, the problem of land tenure and land use by the Buryat population remained open in connection with the continuing seizure of Buryat lands by Russian peasants. Despite the new legislation of the Far Eastern Republic and the RSFSR, the land issue in the BMAO was not resolved. Keywords: Trans-Baikal region, Buryats, land use, land tenure, national movement, Burnatskom, Buryat- Mongolian Autonomous Region

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