Le programme bien connu de la République-Unie de Tanzanie pour l'implantation de villages, appelé Ujamaa, a permis, dans les années 70, la sédentarisation de presque tous les résidents ruraux dans quelque 8 000 villages. L'impact de l'implantation de villages sur la pratique réelle de distribution des terres peut varier, mais on remarque une préférence générale pour une individualisation des droits dans presque tous les cas étudiés, et cela est dû, du moins en partie, à l'expérience de la production communale dans le cadre de l'Ujamaa. Seuls 6 pour cent de la superficie totale de la République-Unie de Tanzanie sont cultivés. Par conséquent, la gestion de la propriété commune et un accès ouvert aux ressources forment une part importante de toute politique foncière. Ni la privatisation des droits, ni la continuation des formes précédentes de propriété commune ne permettent de conserver les ressources forestières et de pâturage dans toutes les circonstances et sont donc toutes deux inadéquates. Il faut identifier les groupes d'usagers pour leur accorder la propriété du droit d'exploitation, y compris le droit et les moyens d'exclure les intrus.
El programa Ujamaa de implantación de pueblos en Tanzanía permitió la sedentarización de casi todos los habitantes rurales en los años setenta. El impacto de dicho programa en la distribución de tierra ha podido variar, pero se ha notado una preferencia por los derechos de tipo individual en casi todos los casos estudiados. Esto se debe, al menos en parte, a la experiencia de la producción comunal en el marco del Ujamaa. Solamente el 6 por ciento de la superficie total de la República Unida de Tanzanía está cultivada. Por consiguiente, la gestión de la propiedad común y el libre acceso a los recursos son elementos importantes de la política de tenencia de la tierra. Ni la privatización de los derechos ni la continuación de las formas anteriores de propiedad comunal permiten conservar los recursos forestales y de pastizales en todas las circunstancias, y ambos sistemas son inadecuados. Es necesario identificar a grupos de usuarios para otorgarles el derecho de explotación, comprendidos el derecho de excluir a los intrusos.
A.S. Kauzeni
F.C. Shechambo
Institute for Resource Assessment,
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Ibrahim
Juma
Faculty of Law, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania's well-known village
establishment programme, which is called Ujamaa, allowed for the sedentarization
of almost all rural residents in some 8 000 villages in the 1970s. The effective
impact of villagization on land distribution may vary, but a general preference
for individual assignments of rights has been observed in nearly all cases under
study, which is at least partially due to the track record of communal
production in the framework of Ujamaa. Only 6 percent of the country's total surface
is under cultivation. Therefore, common property management and open access to
resources are an important part of all land tenure policy. Neither the
privatization of rights nor the continuation of previous forms of common
property permit forest and pastoral resources to be maintained under all
circumstances, and are thus both inadequate. User groups must be identified and
be assigned ownership of user rights, including the right and means to keep out
trespassers.
This article undertakes a critical analysis
of the various tenure systems in the United Republic of Tanzania, with an
emphasis on the comparison between communal and private land tenure systems and
government policies towards those systems.
The total area of the United Republic of Tanzania is approximately 883 749 km 2, 99.72 percent (881 289 km2) of which is mainland, while the rest is composed of the islands. The country is endowed with a wide range of resources offering considerable social and economic potential and including extensive areas of arable land, coastline, game reserves and parks, forests, rivers and lakes (Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1989). The mainland has a low population density of about 25 people per km2 and has sufficient land resources to allow substantial growth of agricultural production, at least in the short to medium term.
Land resources
In terms
of production, land is still predominantly utilized for small-scale agriculture,
although there is some large-scale farming, for example of tea, sisal, coffee
and sugar. On the mainland, little more than 6 percent of land area is actually
cultivated (Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1989). Extensive
nomadic grazing is a major occupation of people in the northern arid lands,
Masai steppe and the central semi-arid lands, some adjacent to national parks
and game reserves.
Forest resources
Forest
resources comprise forests, woodlands or woody savannah. It is estimated that
forests and woodlands in Tanzania's mainland cover about 400 000 km2, i.e. about
45 percent of the country. Of this area about 135 000 km2 are designated as
forest reserve. It is estimated that between 300 000 and 400 000 ha are
destroyed annually (Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1989), the
major causes of deforestation being farming, wood fuel harvesting, bush fires
and land reclamation against the tsetse fly.
TABLE 1
Land resource zones
Land resource zone |
Proportion of area |
Relative population density |
Coastal |
7.2 |
Medium |
Islands |
0.3 |
High |
Arid lands |
12.0 |
Low |
Semi-arid lands |
23.6 |
Medium |
Plateaus |
35.5 |
Low |
Southern highlands |
10.0 |
Medium |
North and western highlands |
8.7 |
High |
Alluvial plains |
2.6 |
Medium |
Source: LRDC/ODA (1987).
Wildlife and water
resources
Tanzania is one of the world's great wildlife strongholds.
Realizing the importance of this natural heritage of wildlife, the government
has established an outstanding network of national parks, game reserves and
other wildlife protected areas, covering about 25 percent of the total land area
(Yeager and Miller, 1986; Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1989).
The country has the biggest lake and river systems in Africa which include large
portions of Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika and Nyasa. A variety of other small
lakes, swamps and seasonal floodplain and dam reservoirs form a very important
part of its freshwater resources.
Economic change in
Tanzania
When Germany occupied East Africa after the Congress of Berlin
(1884-85), it introduced a dual system of land tenure which has endured through
the British colonial period up to today. The Imperial Decree of 26 November 1895
declared all land to be crown land, and the German colonial governor became the
custodian of that property. Crown land could be granted by the governor either
as a conveyance of ownership which was a perpetual tenure with a clause allowing
the state to acquire the property on a number of public interest grounds, or as
a leasehold with the option to purchase and enlarge the tenure to ownership.
Peasant production was accommodated by the Decree's recognition of land rights
of chiefs or clan heads of communities. German rule recognized the existence of
the indigenous people and their own systems of land tenure. It established use
rights and recognized the existence of customary systems of land tenure.
Tanzania's agriculture is dominated by smallholders organized into about 8 000 registered villages, with an average holding of less than 2 ha per household for smallholders and about 5 ha for medium-sized farms. Under Tanzania's well-known Ujamaa villagization programme, which was implemented mostly in the early 1970s, much of the country's rural population was resettled into villages. Initially, the objective was to collectivize agricultural production, and land resource management was devolved to the village level. In practice, much of the agricultural production continued to be carried out on privately managed plots and, over time, a greater tolerance of private enterprise in agriculture was noted. Nevertheless, the Ujamaa villagization programme introduced major changes
in the customary tenure systems prevailing in Tanzania at the time of its
implementation.
Economically, agriculture is the single most significant
sector, currently accounting for almost 50 percent of GDP and involving nearly
80 percent of the workforce. In some areas, the productivity of much of the
cultivated area is steadily declining owing to the lack of modern agricultural
technology and land resource deterioration.
Extensive nomadic grazing and
agropastoralism are major occupations in arid and semi-arid areas of the
northern and central parts of the country. The livestock sector contributes
about 10 percent of GDP, although it has the potential of contributing more.
Smallholders' livestock accounts for about 99 percent of the national
herd.
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, through various
pieces of legislation, has tried to accommodate the customary tenure system to
enable the full development of land resources, to improve the overall production
level in rural areas and to open up land not effectively used for better
utilization. However, in recent decades the plight of the rural poor has not
improved significantly.
The present study was confined to two administrative
regions only, Arusha and Dodoma, but an extensive literature review was done. A
structured household questionnaire was used with participatory rural
appraisal.
Tanzania has retained the colonial legislation governing land tenure systems: the Land Ordinance with its
concept of "public land" was accepted and retained (Fimbo, 1973). The concept of
"public land" in Tanzania implies that the state, through the president,
operates not only as a political sovereign but also as the owner of land. This
underscores the primary authority of the state over all land. This role is
further strengthened by the Land Acquisition Act of 1967 which empowers the
president to acquire any portion of public land for a "public purpose".
Fimbo (1978) noted that public land is not homogeneous. Public lands serve
different economic purposes and are used in different ways. Public land
therefore comprises agricultural land granted for use in village development;
state farms and other users for agricultural purposes; land for populated
localities (cities, towns and minor settlements); land for industry, transport,
health and other non-agricultural land; land occupied by forest reserves,
waters, preserved land, national parks and game reserves; land occupied by
communities under customary law and tenure; and any other piece of land within
the United Republic of Tanzania (Fimbo, 1978).
It is important to observe
here that the term "public land" has in some instances been construed to mean
communal lands - land that is collectively owned and has not been allocated for
the use by an individual or a family. James and Fimbo (1973) list forest lands,
grazing lands, common hunting grounds, unallocated arable lands and abandoned
lands as constituting communal land.
Tanzania has divided all rural lands into villages. In 1987 the Tanzanian Government initiated an ambitious programme to demarcate, survey, title and register all of the country's more than 8 500 villages within five years. The ultimate goal of the programme was to improve security of tenure and usher in faster agricultural development.
East African Royal Commission
(1953-1955)
Tanzania today faces the same problems as in 1950s which
prompted the appointment of the East African Royal Commission in 1953. The
British Government was concerned with rapid population growth, congestion in
certain lands, falling standards of living, the lack of capital to improve
farming, means of adapting customary land tenure and the whole issue of opening
up new areas for farming. The commissioners appreciated the fact that most land
in East Africa under African occupancy is held by customary tenure, the
substance of which is not embodied in statutory law. The British (and German)
administration found well-entrenched local land authorities controlling land
rights in accordance with local custom. The policy of leaving African land
tenure to continue, unguided for the most part, under customary influences has
not always led to the individual security of tenure demanded by modern economic
conditions. Commissioners implored the policy-makers to desist from using the
"public land" conceptions as the justification for relegating customary
landholders to the legal position of occupiers at the will of the state. In
particular, commissioners were concerned that the use of the concept "public
land" would provide a rationale for giving land held under customary land tenure
to non-Africans.
The commissioners made several proposals regarding land law.
First, land tenure laws should aim at achieving the fullest possible continuous
production by ensuring landownership and enabling access to land. Second, land
tenure laws should establish grounds for confidence that existing property
rights will not be arbitrarily disturbed. Third, land tenure laws should then
provide for a process whereby exclusive individual ownership of land can be
registered where it exists and helped into being where it does not. Finally,
land tenure laws should be flexible enough to meet varying circumstances of a
local nature.
The Colonial Government of Tanganyika accepted these
recommendations. The Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), which had been
formed in 1954 and had become an important political force by 1958, successfully
opposed the measure (Fimbo, 1978).
Post-independence
statutes
Various laws passed since independence outline the official
policy towards land tenure and natural resource management. These are summarized
below.
Range Development and Management Act, 1964. This law was enacted to provide for the conservation, development and improvement of grazing lands. It declared certain areas to be range development areas. Masai District was among the first such areas to be declared a "Range Development Area". The minister responsible for animal husbandry was empowered to declare and delineate boundaries of new range development areas.
Land Tenure (Village Settlements) Act, 1965. This law made the Commissioner for Village Settlement a legal personality with perpetual succession, official seal and the capacity and power to acquire, hold, manage or otherwise deal with property. The rights of occupancies given to the commissioner were very special and geared to the village level. They were exempted from contractual terms, conditions and regulations normally attached to an ordinary right of occupancy.
Rural Lands (Planning and Utilization) Act, 1973. This law was enacted for the purpose of empowering the government to control and regulate utilization of land. It empowered the president to regulate land development in any area of Tanganyika if it is in the public interest to do so.
Village and Ujamaa Villages Act, 1975. This law was enacted to provide for the registration of villages, the administration of registered villages and designation of Ujamaa villages. In any case where the registrar of villages is satisfied that at least 250 households have settled and made their homes within any area of Tanzania's mainland and the boundaries of such an area can be particularly defined, the area could be registered as a village. Administratively, this law also provided for village assemblies and village councils. The Villages and Ujamaa Villages Act extinguished the traditional/customary land tenure system and, as a result, its implementation was very difficult because it conflicted with other land tenure and ownership legislation and local customs.
Local Government (District Authorities) Act, 1982. Repeal of the Villages and Ujamaa Villages Act did not spell the end of designation of Ujamaa villages and registration of ordinary villages. As an improvement on the status enjoyed by the village council, the Local Government (District Authorities) Act gave village councils corporate status and perpetual succession.
Conservation of Forestry and Wildlife. Lands held under customary tenure or under granted rights of occupancy are also subject to the overriding control of the Forests Ordinance, 1957, a law designed to provide for conservation and management of forests and forest produce. The Forests Ordinance empowers the president to declare any area of unreserved land to be a territorial forest reserve or a local authority forest reserve. All persons who, prior to demarcation and declaration, have been exercising any rights over such lands are then expected to register such rights. After registration of such rights, the users are required to apply to the Chief Conservator for a permit to continue to exercise their land rights. The Fauna Conservation Ordinance was enacted in 1951 to provide for the conservation and control of wild animal life. This law restricts hunting, entry and residing in game reserves.
Preserved Public Lands. Since 1954, the government
has retained the power to preserve areas of public land for their better
utilization and development in the public interest. The Public Lands (Preserved
Areas) Ordinance, 1954 empowers the minister to declare any area of public land
to be a preserved area. Once it is declared a preserved area, no right of
occupancy can be created over such an area. The declaration of a preserved area
under customary land tenure does not extinguish the right of a local community
that is lawfully using the land or preclude passing the same to customary heirs.
The declaration of an area occupied under customary land tenure implies the
co-existence of the Public Lands (Preserved Areas) Ordinance and customary land
tenure.
Different legislation has aimed at alleviating rural poverty, but many of the problems Tanzania faces today are the same ones identified by the East African Royal Commission in its report (1955).
In order to understand land and natural resource tenure, it is essential to examine the processes through which individuals and groups acquire and defend the resources they use. In Tanzania, access to rural land and other resources is through inheritance, purchase, allocation by village government, loan, lease, rental and other means. The villagization programme, the economic and political liberalization and the steady increase in population in some areas have combined to increase the value of arable land and other resources such as woodlots and pastures in areas accessible to markets.
Communal resources
The household. Before villagization, in almost all parts of Tanzania that had surplus arable land under customary tenure, anyone with the energy to do so could obtain land simply by clearing it or establishing a woodlot, grazing area or watering point, provided the person had the permission of the clan head, the lineage authority, or the individual who exercised effective authority in the area. The investment of labour gave the land resource value and created ownership rights which were held by the person who had cleared the land and his heirs. Since the villagization programme, undeveloped land and other unclaimed resources are allocated only by the village council. The prevailing customary land tenure in Tanzania is predominantly patrilineal. There are no de jure legal restrictions on women inheriting rights to land, but a widow will lose de facto rights to resources when her son
becomes 18 years of age. Another way of acquiring resources is through Granted
Rights of Occupancy. This practice relates mainly to large commercial farmers
and parastatal organizations.
In order to evaluate these means of access,
observations were made during a field survey in four representative villages:
Ilkirevi in Arumeru District, Ipala and Mahoma Makulu in Dodoma Urban District
and Arkatan in Monduli District.
Ilkirevi village lies on the slopes of Mount
Meru within a densely populated area where homesteads with zero-grazed cattle
are surrounded by coffee and banana trees. Almost all land is privately
controlled except for a few hilltops considered by elders to be "sacred" water
catchment areas.
Arkatan village in the neighbouring Monduli District
displays a sharp contrast to Ilkirevi. Population density in Arkatan is sparse
and livestock herding on open grasslands is the main economic activity
supplemented by production of annual crops. Access to and management of land
resources is invariably communal.
Two villages on the fringes of Dodoma
Urban District (Ipala and Mahoma Makulu) are characterized by a density of
population that falls between that of Ilkirevi and Arkatan. The farming system
ranges from mixed semi-pastoralism to shifting cultivation with maize, millet,
sorghum and beans as the major crops. The impact of villagization is obvious in
both villages, given that land and other resources were originally allocated to
household heads by the village authority. After the initial allocation, farmland
resources continue to be held along individual family lines while grazing land,
livestock watering points and natural forest around the village are communally
owned.
Table 2 shows various ways through which land is acquired by farmers
in the four villages under this study. A similar situation also applies to other
natural resources. Observations in these four villages represent a reliable
indication of the extent of variation in access, tenure and management of
resources to be found across Tanzania.
TABLE 2
Modes of land acquisition
Mode of acquisition |
Percentage of households relying on this mode | |||
Arkatan |
Ilkirevi |
Ipala |
Mahoma Makulu | |
Inheritance |
4.0 |
49.0 |
8.0 |
30.0 |
Allocation by village council |
62.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
15.0 |
Borrowing/renting |
0.0 |
8.0 |
2.6 |
0.0 |
Purchasing |
0.0 |
17.0 |
2.6 |
5.0 |
Clearing bush |
0.0 |
2.0 |
50.0 |
30.0 |
Allocation by clan/family |
34.0 |
24.0 |
36.8 |
20.0 |
Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
The lineage or clan. Tanzania is favoured with an abundance of arable land
resources. In villages with a greater perception of natural resource shortages
(e.g. Ilkirevi and Ipala villages), 64 and 68 percent of the respondents,
respectively, said they would not dare to dispose of their resources (e.g. land)
without seeking authority from the head of the clan or lineage. They would
expect serious sanctions if they acted on their own. In Arkatan and Mahoma
Makulu villages where the perception of land shortage was lower (low
population-density villages) among respondents, 47 and 42 percent, respectively,
said that they could dispose of privately held resources without consulting any
clan or lineage heads.
In Arusha region, women do not generally inherit land, but
gain access through their husbands or by holding property in trust for sons. In
Dodoma, on the contrary, the question of women holding and inheriting land
resources in particular was not so problematic. In Ipala, 89 percent of the
respondents replied that daughters are allowed to inherit land; in Mahoma
Makulu, the figure was 100 percent.
The village or community. Village authorities are able to hold natural resources on a corporate basis, exercising the right to allocate and reallocate resources falling within the village boundary (Village and Ujamaa Village Act, 1975). Where villagization meant resettlement of population, resources were vested in the village council. Land for individual use is allocated by the village council. This practice was observed in Ipala, Mahoma Makulu and in Arkatan. However, where villagization did not imply actual resettlement, as was the case with Ilkirevi, village authorities have little control over access, tenure and management of resources. Once land is allocated to an individual household, the village authority or village council cannot impose managerial control over it.
Other social groups. In some cases, ownership and control of natural resources is vested in organized social groups that significantly influence community welfare, including Christian churches and traditional religions. In Arkatan, the majority of Masai follow the traditional religion that considers certain hilltops to be "sacred", so no one individually is allowed to own, control or manage them except for religious functions. In other villages in Tanzania, sacred groves can be enclosed in Granted Lands and owners of such places can be allowed to worship after obtaining permission and under supervision. Other institutions may also control land resources, for example the military.
State property
According
to existing legislation, all land and other natural resources are vested in the
state which then issues rights of occupancy to various villages groups and
individuals. The state itself owns and controls considerable natural resources
in the form of gazetted areas such as national parks, forest and game reserves,
game controlled areas as well as land allocated to state farms, corporations and
institutions. The president can acquire any piece of natural resource with or
without compensation if he deems the act to be in the public interest.
Private ownership of natural
resources
Although landlessness is still not a serious problem in most
parts of Tanzania, in the densely populated areas this is no longer the case.
The majority of the respondents in three villages prefer individual ownership of
resources to communal ownership. In Mahoma Makulu, 100 percent of respondents
preferred individual ownership, in Ilkirevi 96 percent and in Ipala 89 percent.
In Arkatan only 44 percent of the respondents prefer private ownership of
resources such as grazing areas and water for livestock. Resources required on a
large scale are preferred to be owned communally. The same situation applies to
natural forests. Therefore the preference for private ownership of resources
cannot be generalized. In Arkatan, Ipala and Mahoma Makulu the privatization of
grazing areas as well as communally owned woodlands (as sources of fuelwood and
building poles) appears to constrain the farming systems being practised there.
In general, richer farmers prefer private ownership of land and other resources;
poorer ones prefer access to communal resources.
The holding of resources by
corporate bodies (both national and international) is subject to allocations by
the government in its endeavour to encourage investment in the various sectors,
for example agriculture, industry and the service sector. The allocation of
natural resources to such corporations can cause problems, especially when it
conflicts with smallholder farmers or pastoralists.
Employment creation
After experiencing some problems with communal activities under the much publicized Ujamaa system, many people have come to prefer private
ownership of resources. Private ownership has the advantage of inducing a
stronger commitment to the management of resources. However, the private
proprietor has the final decision on who should be employed. This situation may
or may not be conducive to attaining the benefits expected from the opportunity
for employment creation.
Communal ownership, on the other hand, also has the
potential for creating employment opportunities, provided there are regulations
that require individual members of the community to participate fully in the
activities of that community, and which ensure that women have access to
resources.
Income generation
People tend to work harder in their private enterprises than in communal activities. During this study villagers and leaders mostly suggested that private ownership enhances income generation. For instance, privately owned land can be used as a means of providing collateral for credit. In Tanzanian communal Ujamaa farms, both the land and its produce are owned
communally or collectively. Income generated from communal activities or
resources is often lower than those from private activities or resources.
However, in the absence of regulations or guidelines, privately owned resources
or enterprises can also be mismanaged, reducing their capacity for the
generation of high income.
The privatization of grazing areas, wildlife and
game reserves and forests is administratively cumbersome and would involve the
fragmentation of management to levels incapable of generating income. This
suggests different tenure policies for different resources. For livestock
keepers, grazing communally is advantageous since they enjoy such amenities as
cattle dips, watering facilities and other veterinary services at lower running
costs. The situation also applies to other economic activities taking place off
the agricultural holdings. It is important to note that for livestock keepers,
grazing land is owned communally but the animals are individually owned,
implying the need for effective common management and exclusion of non-owners.
Increasing the size of individuals' herds adversely affects or reduces the
income generated or accruing from livestock keeping because the livestock
carrying capacity of the land is surpassed. Under communal grazing or other
forms of natural resource use, communal property systems tend to acquire the
characteristics of an "open access" system or regime leading to poor resource
productivity.
Agricultural
productivity
Private ownership of land resources means that gains and
losses in productivity accrue directly to the owner, which enhances incentives
to invest in productive improvements. Rapid appraisal results obtained in all
four villages suggested a strong preference for the private ownership of
agricultural holdings. There is always the danger of overuse, particularly where
land is scarce. In other instances, private ownership may lead to the
underutilization of resources.
Experience has shown that, given similar
conditions, agricultural productivity is often lower on communal farms than on
private farms. This is often caused by the "free rider" problem, the observed
tendency of some members of communal production systems to exert less effort in
communal production. This has a demoralizing effect on the active members
because the final reward would be the same for everyone.
Social cohesion and group
solidarity
Resources may be more accessible to members when they are
owned and controlled by the head of a clan or lineage. Such means of access may
also serve to prevent outright landlessness. Private ownership often works
against cohesion and group solidarity. Private ownership of land and natural
resources can lead to speculative investments in those resources or their use
simply as collateral for other investments, thus exacerbating class or wealth
differences in a community. Owing to the collective nature of the communal
property regime, and depending on the prevailing situation, this regime usually
has the potential for promoting both social cohesion and group solidarity.
Social justice
Under
private ownership, everybody who has the ability to buy or acquire the resource
will do so. Women's access to resources differs from one community to another.
Although in some communities women are not traditionally allowed to inherit
resources such as land, private ownership regimes often permit women to purchase
and own land. Nevertheless, private ownership of resources intensifies
landlessness in the long term.
In communities where women cannot inherit or
buy land resources, they are prevented from capturing income from improvements
on land in spite of their labour contribution. In communities in which women
traditionally cannot inherit land, communal ownership may provide some means of
access. Communal property regimes sometimes have the tendency to favour the
group which forms the leadership of the community and which feels it deserves
special treatment.
General welfare
Under
certain conditions, private ownership is conducive to increased resource
productivity and income generation. However, social cohesion, group solidarity,
political stability and social justice are likely to be adversely affected under
private ownership if there is a loss of equality in access to resources. This
may undermine the general welfare of the population.
Environmental
considerations
Private ownership enables owners to capture the full
benefit of conserving their land resources or to bear the full cost of
deteriorating resources. For this reason it is often associated with increased
investments of both money and labour in resource conservation. However, this is
dependent on access to sufficient capital and labour, which may prove to be
major constraints.
Under communal property regimes, communities are
potentially effective in sustainable resource management. This can only happen
if the communities are granted the right to use resources, determine the mode of
usage, benefit fully from resource use, exclude outsiders, determine the
distribution of such benefits and determine rules of access.
The potential of
communal property regimes for environmental conservation is enhanced if the
community is small enough for all members to be in occasional face-to-face
communication to enforce conformity to the rules through peer pressure, has a
longstanding collective identity and has the ability to exclude outsiders from
gaining access to community resources.
Although Tanzania does not have the general problem of
acute land shortages, land concentration, or widespread land degradation
resulting from land resource mismanagement, the fact is that its present land
resource policies and laws pose problems for implementing sound natural resource
management and ensuring equitable access to land resources.
Several key
problems emerged from this study, the first being how to enable smallholders to
develop more secure and stronger property rights to their natural resources. The
second is how to ensure sustainable utilization of communal resources and
prevent their becoming "open access" resources. The third is how to regulate
competition for pasture between pastoralists and agropastoralists.
Tanzania
faces serious problems in the management of resources. These problems include
conflicting land tenure systems, competition for land between agriculture and
other activities, land degradation, inefficiency in land delivery and poor land
resource management. The country has retained the colonial system of "public
land", underlining the ultimate power of the state over all lands. Most land is
under African occupancy and is held by customary tenure, the substance of which
is not embodied in statutory law. The Government of the United Republic of
Tanzania has tried to accommodate the customary tenure system to improve
productivity and to open up land not effectively used for better utilization,
but the plight of the rural poor has not improved significantly.
Individuals
gain access to resources through inheritance, allocation by the village council,
clearing bush, buying, renting, allocation by clan/family regaining land lost
during villagization programmes, state-granted rights of occupancy or even
squatting. As a result of their experience in cooperative enterprises and
communal farming in villages, the majority of people interviewed said they
preferred private property regimes in general. However, they also said that
natural resources such as rangeland, water sources for both human and livestock
and natural forests should be treated as communal property. Both common property
and private property regimes have potential as effective resource management
systems.
The rights of women to inherit resources varies by ethnic group. In some cases, women may inherit land or other resources, while in others they are strictly barred. With changing socio-economic conditions, women can own resources through purchase and also through allocation by village government.
The basic outlines of the legal framework to improve
rural well-being as proposed by the Royal Commissioners should be adopted. Any
discussion of rural poverty must take into account the failure of legal regimes
to facilitate continuous production, enable access to resources, register
individual titles, accommodate customary tenure systems and open up land that is
not effectively used.
To enhance communally based resource management, it is
recommended that identified groups are granted proprietorship over the natural
resources concerned and have sanctioned use rights, including the right to
decide whether or how to use the resources, the right to exclude non-owners and
the right to benefit fully from their exploitation in the manner they
like.
The government should devise a legal environment which is conducive to
security of tenure under customary systems and which eliminates conflicting
means of controlling resource use. There should be one harmonious land delivery
system instead of having several organs operating separately in land delivery
services.
Depending on the nature of the natural resources concerned, both
private and communal property regimes should be legally recognized, promoted and
used because both have potential as effective resource management systems. The
present land resource laws and policies should be reviewed and periodically
updated in order to keep up with the changing economic, political, social and
technological circumstances.
Common property resources should be demarcated
within the village boundary. The village boundary demarcation and titling
programme that is currently taking place should be used by the government in
establishing common property resource control over public land resources. A
legal basis for common property management should be established under the
village titling programme.
The evolution of customary land tenure systems should be facilitated so that vagueness and conflicting claims are removed and so that the ownership or availability of land and other resources owned can be confirmed in unchallengeable possession for a term appropriate to the potentialities of owner's land. This will enable owners to develop their resources to the full without fear of losing them.
East Africa Royal Commission. 1955. Report on land issues. London, HMSO.
Fimbo, G. 1973. Land, socialism and the law in Tanzania. East Afr. Law Rev., 6.
Fimbo, G. 1978. The contours of land policy in Tanzania. United Republic of Tanzania, University of Dar es Salaam. (mimeo)
Government of the United Republic of Tanzania. 1989. Tanzania Forest Action Plan, 1990/91-2007/08. Dar es Salaam, Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Tourism.
James, R. & Fimbo, G. 1973. Customary land law of Tanzania. A source book. Nairobi, EALB.
LRDC/ODA. 1987. Tanzania profile of agricultural potential.
Yeager, R. & Miller, N. 1986. Wildlife, wild death: land use and survival in East Africa. Albany, NY, USA, State University of New York Press/The African-Caribbean Institute.