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 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.

This article is about the strategic use of adat arguments in the politics of large-scale land acquisition. While customary (adat) communities are commonly depicted as small local minorities living in the forests and being guardians of the environment, in many situations such communities occupy a majority position within the district. Majority adat communities are internally differentiated into categories of actors with varying and conflicting interests. This article focuses on Sumba in eastern Indonesia, where state and adat powers are not opposed but historically aligned.

Pendant l'année 1982 et une partie de l'année 1983 l'auteur a effectué une recherche au Sénégal avec la collaboration de M. Sypkens Smit, anthropologue. Le thème central de la recherche était l'interaction entre les différents systèmes de droit foncier. Le présent rapport relate la phase préparatoire de la recherche, ainsi que les activités des deux chercheurs sur le terrain, en Basse Casamance. Le chapitre sur "Les aspects anthropologiques du droit foncier: le cas d'un village diola" est de la main de M. Sypkens Smit.

The central themes of this book are customary law, traditional leadership and local land management. International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems and traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance, and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in many areas.

Land in Cameroon is under growing pressure for many reasons — powerful commercial interests, changing climate conditions and shifting demographic flows including mass migration and increasing population density. The rights of rural communities and indigenous people to access and use land for farming and grazing have been eroded — primarily due to failure to recognise customary land tenure rights, land use conflicts and lack of effective local governance. The country’s land legislation is indeed outdated and not compatible with customary law and local realities.

This detailed timeline provides further background information on the history and land governance of Zimbabwe summarised in the Land Portal country profile.

This detailed timeline provides further background information on the history and land governance of Eswatini summarised in the Land Portal country profile.

A detailed chronology of historical and political developments and land related  issues in Lesotho. This detailed timeline accompanies the country profile of Lesotho, also published by Land Portal.

Based on a broad review of the existing documentation, the study describes the diversity of customary tenure systems in various regions of Myanmar; it looks at what they have in common and how they differ. It investigates the processes that affect or weaken the community jurisdiction over their lands and resources. It is intended as a resource for policymakers who are looking at recognizing and protecting the customary rights of rural communities.

Land in Ethiopia is held by the state, who acts as a custodian for the Ethiopian people. Even though it is the state which controls land ownership, farmers and pastoralists are guaranteed a lifetime ‘holding’ right that provides rights to use the land, rent it out, donate, inherit and sharecrop it. Everything except sell and mortgage it. On paper and under existing formal laws, women have equal rights to men as far as use and control of and access to land is concerned.

This is the report of a webinar held by Land Portal on 24th March 2021.

In much of West Africa, women are considered breadwinners responsible to provide food for the family. However, women do not only own less land but also face manifold obstacles in accessing land through transfers, inheritance, or lease. The tenure security of this group has been threatened by large-scale land deals, state appropriation in the name of the public interest, and the often-discriminating practices of customary tenure systems.

This policy brief was developed in order to enable a meaningful engagement and policy dialogue with government institutions and other relevant stakeholders about challenges and opportunities related to recognizing customary tenure in Viet Nam.