This case study examines specific examples of localised and informal land registration practices in South Africa. Such informal land registration often arises where people do not have access to the formal state system of land registration. But as the desire and need to gain access to urban land, to secure rights in relation to that land and also to trade land, a localised registration system that meets these needs tends to emerge.

The protection given to the land rights of women, orphans and any other vulnerable groups in Northern and Eastern Uganda is probably as good as can be found anywhere in the world. Customary land law is based on three main principles. First, everyone is entitled to land, and no-one can ever be denied land rights. A second principle is that all inherited land is family land, never individual property.

The study sought to determine the state of farms that belonged to the then National Agricultural Corporation (NAFCO), ranches that belong to the National Ranching Company (NAFCO) and land belonging to absentee landlords. Since any state is dynamic, this research report, then, is a socio-historical account of what has been happening within/out more than 543,604 hectares of ranch/farmland in the wake of the fall of nationalization and rise of privatization.

The study has established that customary land in Zambia is enormously significant because land is central to human existence and a large proportion of Zambians depend on it for their livelihood. Customary land in Zambia is the source of food and other necessaries for human existence for the villagers whose entire spectrum of perceptions of life are rooted in the cultural configurations and heritage of rural activities. Further, the study has found that the land can be made more productive without converting it to leasehold.

Land is the centre of most conflicts in Northeast India because of its importance in the life of the people of the region, particularly its tribal communities. It is also the resource most under attack, in the tribal areas in particular.

This book contains studies papers conducted by a group of researchers on land alienation in different states of the Northeast in 2005-2006.

The book attempt to understand the processes that result in tribal land alienation and the consequent conflicts in the region.

Includes the legacies of colonial and apartheid rule; policy dilemmas; key controversies – private ownership or customary land rights?; the nature and content of ‘customary’ land rights; transforming gender inequalities; land rights, authority and accountability; processural or rule-bound versions of ‘customary’ law; was the appropriate procedure followed in enacting the Communal Land Rights Act?

The figures of public resources estimated to have been channeled into private pockets are so high one hopes, obviously against hope, that they would turn out to be typographical errors. The figures of public resources estimated to have been channeled into private pockets are so high one hopes, obviously against hope, that they would turn out to be typographical errors.

State/people forest relations are at a turning point in Liberia. The crux of the issue is property relations and how the rights of rural Liberians to forests are treated in law and in practice. Central to the problem and the solution is the status of customary land rights. The paper tracks what happened to the natural rights indigenous Liberians have to their lands and the valuable forests that grow on them. It looks back at the treatment of customary land tenure over the century-long process of forming the modern Liberian state.

State efforts to reform the customary land tenure system of Lesotho have failed to produce intended outcomes. An explanation given for this failure is customary chiefs' opposition to state-sponsored reforms, as these were purportedly meant to curtail their power over land. This explanation initially appeared in 1974 connection with the Administration of Lands Act of 1973, and has since been handed down through generations of academics and policy analysts in Lesotho and outside and uncritically accepted as immutable truth.

Divided into 7 sections: introduction – tenure insecurity, poverty and power relations; the subordination of customary land rights; attempts to make amends; an end of century turn-around – towards the liberation of customary land rights; launching reform through new policy and law; the need to assure success; how to make land reform work? Argues that dramatic improvement in the legal status of customary land interests is globally on the horizon.