Tanzania and Mozambique — countries of vast mountain ranges and open stretches of plateaus — now face a growing land problem. As soil degradation, climate change and population growth place enormous strains on the natural resources that sustain millions of people, multinational companies are also gunning for large swaths of land across both countries. Caught between these pressures, many poor, rural communities get displaced or decide to sell their collectively held land.

The challenges associated with determining fair compensation for expropriated land have been extensively discussed and debated among scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and the public. However, to date, a comprehensive study of national-level compensation procedures established by law considering whether such procedures meet internationally recognized standards on compensation valuation has not been conducted. This article aims to bridge this gap by serving as a reference point and informing “expro” debates among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

As human rights defenders around the world put their lives on the line to challenge dictators, destructive multi-national corporations, religious conservatives, and oppressive regimes, there pervades a well-resourced and coordinated strategy of defamation, criminalisation and violence deployed to intimidate, marginalise and silence peaceful, powerful activists. The human cost has been high. More than 300 human rights defenders were murdered in 2017. Yet, in spite of this violence, there are more HRDs, working on more issues, in more countries, than ever before.

In economics, land has been traditionally assumed to be a fixed production factor, both in terms of quantity supplied and mobility, as opposed to capital and labor, which are usually considered to be mobile factors, at least to some extent. Yet, in the last decade, international investors have expressed an unexpected interest in farmland and in land-related investments, with the demand for land brusquely rising at an unprecedented pace.

Compulsory land acquisition tool facilitates obtaining of land for provision of infrastructures and development projects. Its successful implementation requires adoption of good governance merits such as participation, transparency, rule of law and accountability for better livelihood rebuilding of project affected people.

Despite a comprehensive regulatory framework on land matters, compulsory land acquisition in Tanzania has been associated with complaints and delays in compensation payments an indication that good governance principles might not be under serious consideration.