Written submissions on the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Draft Bill made to the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform
Kenya is the most recent African state to acknowledge customary tenure as producing lawful property rights, not merely rights of occupation and use on government or public lands. This paper researches this new legal environment. This promises land security for 6 to 10 million Kenyans, most of who are members of pastoral or other poorer rural communities. Analysis is prefaced with substantial background on legal trends continentally, but the focus is on Kenya’s Community Land Act, 2016, as the framework through which customary holdings are to be identified and registered.
...The main purpose of this paper is to examine legal measures taken to recognize
indigenous groups and provide for their ongoing operation; the paper starts, therefore, from an
underlying assumption that indigenous groups have continued relevance to the needs and wishes
of the people who operate within them. Nevertheless, while it is beyond the scope and purpose of
the paper to explore this complex issue in any depth, it may be useful to present – however briefly
– some of the arguments made for and against the preservation of indigenous groups. In the
ABSTRACT:
"Is there a ‘best practice’ model for the legal recognition of customary tenure?
If not, is it possible to identify the circumstances in which a particular model
would be most appropriate? This article considers these questions in the light
of economic theories of property rights, particularly as illustrated by the
World Bank’s 2003 land policy report. While these theories have their flaws,
the underlying concept of tenure security allows a typological framework for
Summary: "This paper presents an overview of the distinctive
features of communal tenure in
different community-based land and natural resource
management systems. Communal
tenure refers to situations where groups, communities, or one or more villages have
well defined, exclusive rights to jointly own and/or manage particular areas of natural
resources such as land, forest and water. These are
often referred to as
common pool
resources: many rural communities are dependent on these resources for their
Elinor "Lin" Ostrom (born Elinor Claire Awan; August 7, 1933 – June 12, 2012) was an American political economist whose work was associated with the New Institutional Economics and the resurgence of political economy. In 2009, she shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Oliver E. Williamson for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons". To date, she remains the only woman to win The Prize in Economics.
Paper prepared for presentation at the 2016 WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY, The World Bank - Washington DC, March 14-18, 2016
XVI Biennial Conference of the IASC, Utrecht July 2017
Track 8: What Role can the Commons play in the Struggle for Land Rights, in particular of
The present study on Myanmar focuses on customary tenure among upland ethnic
nationalities, where colonial and state land administration systems have been poorly integrated,
allowing customary systems to be sustained over time. Much like under British colonial power, the
state has an ambiguous attitude towards customary systems: they are not formally recognized in
law but in practice they are tolerated. Customary land is not titled and therefore at risk of
alienation. The expropriation of many thousands of acres of farmers’ land during the military junta
Executive summary:
"In January 2016 the government adopted a National Land Use Policy, which included the recognition
of customary land management practices. While this is a welcome first step in the necessary
integration of Burma’s customary land management systems with the national-level system,
there is an urgent need for constitutional reform and devolution of land management powers
prior to any such integration.
This report by the Ethnic Community Development Forum (ECDF) presents how Burma’s diverse
This document highlights, in English and Burmese, some key chapters of the National Land Use Policy: Objectives...Grants and Leases of Land at the Disposal of Government...Procedures related to Land Acquisition, Relocation, Compensation, Rehabilitation and Restitution...Land Use Rights of the Ethnic Nationalities...Equal Rights of Men and Women...Harmonization of Laws and Enacting New Law...Monitoring and Evaluation...Research and Development.
The government has promised to secure ethnic rights and the rights of original landowners in setting a new national land use policy...A national forum to discuss a draft national land use policy, which will create a framework for a new national land law, was held on June 29 and 30 in Nay Pyi Taw. Discussion was dominated by the question of the rights of ethnic community organisations and other rights groups.