Customary land

Customary land is land held under customary land tenure and the enjoyment of some use of land that arises through customary, unwritten practice rather than through written codified law. It is the tenure usually associated with indigenous communities and administered in accordance with their customs, as opposed to statutory tenure usually introduced during the colonial period.

Since the late 20th century, statutory recognition and protection of indigenous and community land rights continues to be a major challenge. The gap between formally recognized and customarily held and managed land is a significant source of underdevelopment, conflict, and environmental degradation. Many international development organizations, such as the World Bank, have embraced ideas about the benefits of formalizing land rights. This has translated into a number of development programs that work with governments and civil society organizations to initiate and implement land reforms. However, opinions are divided about whether formalizing land rights is one-size-fits-all strategy that necessarily empowers the poor. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, where land registration and titling are advocated by various groups as a pro-poor strategy, there are often multiple, conflicting claims to the same land by different individuals or groups. This means that formalizing land rights would benefit some groups more than others and create tensions. Such land reform efforts are most successful when pursued alongside complementary movements for racial justice and against the legacies of colonialism. Together these can ensure that reforms address not just competing legal systems but the underlying structures of dispossession and inequality.

In many countries, most land is held under customary tenure, including 90% in Africa.

In the Malawi Land Act of 1965, "Customary Land" is defined as "all land which is held, occupied or used under customary law, but does not include any public land".

In most countries of the Pacific islands, customary land remains the dominant land tenure form. Distinct customary systems of tenure have evolved on different islands and areas within the Pacific region. In any country there may be many different types of customary tenure. The amount of customary land ownership out of the total land area of Pacific island nations is the following: 97% in Papua New Guinea, 98% in Vanuatu, 88% in Fiji, 87% in the Solomon Islands, and 81% in Samoa.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Online. "customary land rights". landportal.org. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  2. ↑ "Customary and Community Tenure". LandLinks. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  3. ↑ "The Future of Customary Tenure". LandLinks. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  4. ↑ "Indigenous Community Land Rights" Archived 2020-06-26 at the Wayback Machine, Land Portal
  5. ↑ Deininger, Klaus W. Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction. The World Bank. 2003.
  6. ↑ World Bank. "Regional Study on Land Administration, Land Markets, and Collateralized Lending." 2003.
  7. ↑ Boone, Catherine (2019-03-04). "Legal Empowerment of the Poor through Property Rights Reform: Tensions and Trade-offs of Land Registration and Titling in Sub-Saharan Africa". The Journal of Development Studies. 55 (3): 384–400. doi:10.1080/00220388.2018.1451633. ISSN 0022-0388.
  8. ↑ Woods, Dee; Robbins, Martha Jane (2025-11-10). "Reflections on racial justice and land reform". The Journal of Peasant Studies. 52 (7): 1715–1722. doi:10.1080/03066150.2025.2552908. ISSN 0306-6150.
  9. ↑ Microsoft PowerPoint - Defining Customary Land Rights edited_huggins.ppt (brookings.edu)
  10. ↑ Malawi Land Act of 1965, ILO
  11. 1 2 AusAID: Making Land Work: Reconciling customary land and development in the Pacific, Canberra 2008 Archived 2009-09-14 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2009-09-07