Statutory recognition of rural communities as collective owners of their lands is substantial, expanding, and an increasingly accepted element of property relations. The conventional meaning of property in land itself is changing, allowing for a greater diversity of attributes without impairing legal protection.

Increasing understanding of the role that secure water resources tenure plays in ensuring sustainable livelihoods, just resource governance, environmental protection, and sustainable economic development has led FAO to re-kindle the debate that had begun in 2012, when the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) were adopted by FAO, and that had culminated in 2016 with the publication of the FAO seminal study "Exploring the concept of water tenure".

International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems as well as 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 areas with a high competition for land. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably and that traditional elites benefit disproportionally from commodification of 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.

This thesis gives an overview of the Maasai livestock economy as it has developed between 1890 and 1990. Particularly, it analyses the processes and policies of land use and landownership of the Maasai pastoral areas in Kajiado district, Kenya, from the arrival of the Europeans until the recent massive individualization of land tenure. The loss of grazing pastures due to increased cultivation, the establishment of game parks and mineral exploitation is said to undermine the livestock economy of Maasai pastoralists in Kajiado district.

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.

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.

Cette étude aborde la question de l'acquisition de droits sur la terre, tels que ceux-ci ont été mis au grand jour au cours du développement et du réglement d'un litige portant sur l'utilisation d'une parcelle située dans la ville de N'zara, chef-lieu de la circonscription de Mango, dans le nord du Togo.

This book offers a historical analysis of the embattled structures of rural local governance in South Africa, with specific reference to the role of traditional authorities in Xhalanga in the Eastern Cape. More specifically, the book illustrates how at least in the Xhalanga district chieftainship was contested from the establishment of the district in 1865 to the advent of democracy in South Africa.