Communal land ownership

Los campos comuneros son propiedades rurales de uso colectivo cuyo acceso es legi-timado a partir del parentesco entre sus pobladores. Se asume que sus orígenes son colo-niales y todavía hoy constituyen un tipo de propiedad ampliamente difundida en la región de estudio. Este artículo se propone explorar el surgimiento y el devenir de la propiedad indivisa hasta 1800, plantea una periodización del proceso e indaga en las prácticas de los comuneros a través del desarrollo de cinco ejemplos. PALABRAS CLAVE: Derechos de propiedad; Los Llanos de La Rioja; Campos comuneros. «Campos comuneros» (also called «mercedes») are collective properties based on kinship, that still continue to exist in Los Llanos region. The purpose of this article is to provide an interpretation of the emergence and fate of this kind of agrarian structure until the XIX Century and to propose a periodization of the process and an explanation of commoner s social practices.

“The family has one head in whom is vested the control of the estate. The head is generally a man, but in some cases, a woman. The head of the family holds that part of the estate which is not his property in trust for the younger members.”
It is believed that the role of the head of the family is quite coterminous with the role of a trustee under the English law so it is apt to categorize the family head as a trustee.
However, the other school of thought have opined that the term, “trustee” goes beyond duties and includes so much more. Thus, categorizing the family head as a trustee because they are both fiduciary relationships that share some duties is nothing short of fallacious.
Finally, there is another school of thought who have deemed the whole concept of this categorization laughable as they have opined that this not be an issue as a family head may be regarded as a trustee in his powers in so far as he is expected to exercise not to his own benefit but for the benefit of others. This school of thought are of the opinion that it’s not only under the English law that the concept of trust exists. They further accept that the family head is not a trustee in strictu sensu.
This work seeks to analyze these school of thoughts and give a clearer view on the nexus between a trust relationship and that of a family head.

This paper focuses on communal tenure reform developments (or lack thereof), referring to law, policy and practice in rural areas in South Africa. It shows that communal land tenure is not in a healthy state and discusses the following recent laws and policies that are symptoms of this ill health:

- the Communal Land Rights Act (struck down by the Constitutional Court);
- the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (passed in 2003); and
- the 2014 Communal Land Tenure ‘wagon wheel’ policy (currently in place).

The paper also explores the historical roots of the insecurity of tenure with which millions of South Africans struggle,  diagnoses some of the causes of the failures of communal land tenure reform and suggests some alternatives that might provide the remedies needed.

The Erin Ile and Offa boundary crisis has caused over fifty years of recurring waves of violent clashes that have resulted in many human and material casualties. The conflict has had dramatic consequences on the social fiber holding the two communities together, despite their proximity and historical relations. The unhealthy environment maintained by the conflict has further negated economic development in both communities with the destruction of economic facilities without adequate rehabilitation. While several Governments of Kwara State have made efforts to find lasting resolution to the conflict by securing and/or keeping the peace of the area, such efforts have not yielded desirable results, as the different interests in the conflict remain mutually exclusive. This situation is made more complicated by alternating government interventions and court rulings over the matter between 1972 and 2018. This paper investigates the conflict management situation, assessing its effects on socio-political developments and economic growth.

Twenty years have passed since the homelands were reintegrated into a unitary South Africa, yet the legacy of the colonial and apartheid past continues to haunt these areas. Almost 17 million people or a third of the population of South Africa reside in the former homelands, which the post-apartheid government calls ‘communal areas’, according to forms of communal tenure. However, for most of the people living in these areas the full recognition of their land rights remains unrealised as the South African government has been unable to develop laws and policies that sufficiently capture the nuanced ways in which people experience and regulate relations of communal tenure in their everyday lives. While the government has enacted laws to enhance the security of tenure of farm dwellers and labour tenants, there is currently no substantive legislation to secure and promote the land rights of the people living in the former homelands (other than the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act (IPILRA)). This legal vacuum has contributed to the insecure nature of people’s land rights in communal areas. As this report will illustrate, this insecurity has been worsened by colonial and apartheid distortions of customary law and the unequal power relations that were supported by these distortions, many of which have been reproduced or entrenched in the democratic dispensation. This report was commissioned report for the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change, an initiative of the South African Parliament.

The Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN) is a traditionally governed community in the North West Province
of South Africa. There are approximately 150,000 residents on the 1,400 km2 of land owned by the
RBN, of which two thirds identify themselves as ethnically Bafokeng. Of the population residing on
land owned by the RBN (known as Lefatshe le Bafokeng), one third came to the area as labour
migrants, mainly attracted by the possibility of mine-related employment in the area. This report
attempts to provide a quantitative and qualitative account of the rental accommodation market in
this context of traditionally governed communal land ownership combined with a large migrant
labour population.

Following the 1994 transition from racial apartheid to democracy, South Africa’s government aimed to provide tenure security for the estimated 16 million black South Africans living in communal areas. But the lack of a clear legal framework applicable to most communal areas meant that progress was slow. In contrast, a viable legal framework did exist to guide tenure reform in smaller communal areas formerly known as “coloured reserves,” where a series of apartheid laws had settled people of mixed race. In 2009, land reform Minister Gugile Nkwiti designated one such area—Ebenhaeser, on the country’s west coast—as a rural “flagship” project. The aim was both to transfer land held in trust by the government to Ebenhaeser community members and to settle a restitution claim. Provincial officials from Nkwinti’s ministry, working with private consultants, organized a communal association to serve as landowner. They helped negotiate an agreement with white farmers to return land that had originally belonged to coloured residents. The community also developed a land administration plan that would pave the way for Ebenhaeser’s residents to become the legal owners of their communal territory.

This article explores how village chief candidates can utilise a suburban community's understanding of public land use to mobilise political support, taking as its example the village chief election in Baleharjo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This article argues that, where village residents still rely on land for their welfare, candidates can politicise land grievances to gather popular support. In Baleharjo, the incumbent received the backing of merchants and investors from predominantly non-agrarian pedukuhan (hamlets) who felt that they had benefitted from the use of village-controlled land for tourism purposes. At the same time, the challenger recognised the hardships of farmers who had been deleteriously affected by such use of village-controlled land, and thus mobilised them on voting day. Applying a qualitative approach, data for this article were collected through interviews and participatory observation over the course of October 2018.

This paper explores the ways in which a theorization of heritage as a commons complicates the relation of heritage and identity. The paper analyzes how cultural heritage management and theorizations connect with the “old” vernacular commons in rural Europe, communist ideologies, Hardin’s and Ostrom’s theories, and finally with Hardt and Negri’s ideas. Can heritage managers and scholars work as mediators between the global flows of value and local communities, promoting redistributive policies and identity building capacities in the face of overarching commodification processes? How can the notion of a “shared” heritage be mobilized by local communities to implement politics of redistribution and rethinking of ownership against an alienated “world heritage” that frames itself as a globally “shared” common heritage of humanity? What are the consequences of treating heritage as a commons for identity politics?

The core objective of this study is to provide an input into the design of the Northern
Uganda PRDP and National Land policy with respect to post-conflict land policy and
administration framework. This study was undertaken in two phases; One: Literature
Review which involved review of policy and law on IDPs in Uganda, highlighting issues
and gaps; review of existing Studies on Land and IDPs in Uganda; Issues emerging
from International best practice; lessons and experiences from Great Lakes region
(Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo) and International experience
(from Cambodia, El Salvador and Bosnia). Two: Reconnaissance survey of One
village in Teso (Soroti District, Orieta B Village, Tubur Sub County) for returned IDPs,
Obuku Camp and Nakatunya in Soroti Municipality (for those still in displacement and
urban resettled); Nyorobe Olio sub county to cater for rural resettled IDPs and Katakwi
district for comparative purposes and capturing variations within Teso itself. The
purpose was to identify: types of land conflicts and claims on return; their prevention,
resolution and adjudication mechanisms including legal provisions, formal and informal
institutions; gaps in policy and administrative framework for handling potential conflicts
and claims; options for filling them and ; resources needed to undertake corrective
actions

On 20 August 2015, the Constitutional Court delivered its landmark judgment in the case of Bakgatla ba Kgafela Tribal CPA v Bakgatla ba Kgafela Tribal Authority and Others. The judgment represents an important victory for land claimant groups and Communal Property Associations (CPAs) around the country as it addresses a number of serious recurrent problems faced by CPAs who attempt to have their CPA’s registered by the Department and their restitution land transferred. As pointed out in judgments by the Land Claims Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal the issue of mismanagement and lack of support from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (the Department) to CPAs and restitution beneficiaries has reached extraordinary preportions. The judgment affirms and protects the right of land claimant groups to choose which legal entity they want to acquire, hold and manage land held on a communal basis. This factsheet explains what the legal implications of the judgment are.

Mendiskusikan hak komunal perlu keluar dari asumsi bahwa ia hanya tersedia dalam sistem ulayat, serta ada dalam 'kawasan tertentu' berupa hutan dan perkebunan. Fakta beragamnya sistem pengelolaan tanah di Indonesia memerlukan terobosan hukum yang dapat mengakomodir keberlangsungan hak komunal baik dalam pengertian hak milik maupun
hak garap. Sertipikasi tanah yang mengunci hanya pada subyek hukum individu, badan hukum, dan desa, akan tidak tepat jika dipraktekkan pada konteks keberagaman tersebut. Oleh karena itu terhadap keberadaan
kepemilikan komunal di masyarakat penting dilakukan: (1) terobosan hukum yang mengakui tanah komunal dan menjangkau lebih luas di luar kerangka tanah ulayat, (2) memperluas kategori sumber daya bersama lainnya dalam arti milik umum (commons) dan bukan hanya tanah, serta dalam pengertian milik bersama (common property), (3) memperluas subyek hak bukan sekedar komunitas adat, namun juga desa, badan usaha petani, dan lain-lain.

This article introduces the anthropology of property relations to indigenous Amazonia, where property has long been assumed to be absent, and shows that focusing on Amazonian forms of property can lead to greater understanding of native practices and institutions. The article begins by showing that the Trio, Wayana and Akuriyo of southern Suriname have a wide range of practices and values which can usefully be understood in terms of property. This provides the basis for a discussion of the analytical importance of the anthropology of property for Amazonia, followed by a consideration of the place of Amazonian forms of property in the context of anthropological
theory. [Key words: Akuriyo, Amazonia, control, creativity, leadership,material culture, ownership, property, Suriname, Trio, Wayana.]

This paper stresses the importance of community-based forestry for the conservation of natural resources and alleviation of poverty in upland Yunnan. In contrast with state-managed forests, which account for the bulk of forested land in many countries, including China, community-based forestry is a decentralized form of forestry which empowers local people to manage and establish forests. Community forestry can take many forms. It can involve forestry, including agroforestry, on the private land of individual villagers, or it can entail communal or social forestry, for example, the communal establishment and management of forests on wasteland, or oil degraded land.

In 2001 a new Land Law was adopted in Cambodia. It was significant because – for the first time – it recognised a new legal category of people, ‘Indigenous Peoples’ or chuncheat daoem pheak tech in Khmer, and it also introduced the legal concept of communal land rights to Cambodia. Indigenous Peoples are not mentioned in the 1993 constitution of Cambodia or any legislation pre-dating the 2001 Land Law. However, Cambodia’s 2002 Forestry Law also followed the trend by recognising ‘Indigenous Peoples’. These laws have been both symbolically and practically important, as they have provided government-mandated legitimacy to Indigenous identities and associated land and forest rights, including communal land rights, and have been ontologically significant in dividing Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples on legal grounds. Over a decade after the 2001 Land Law was promulgated, this article considers some aspects of its effects. In particular, when compared with the potential for developing communal land rights in Laos, one has to wonder how advantageous it is to adopt Indigenous identities and the types of communal land rights and community forestry rights presently possible in Cambodia.

În 1843, Franz Ludwig Maria August freiherr von Haxthausen-Abbenburg, nobil din Westfalia, cercetător al vieții rurale, pornește într-o călătorie în Rusia la invitația Țarului, pentru a studia situația țărănimii. În lucrarea publicată în urma acestei călătorii, Haxthausen descrie satul devălmaș rusesc (mir-ul) și în mod special familia, alcătuirea gospodăriei, sistemul de proprietate asupra pământului, cu părțile lui devălmașe și cele aparținând gospodăriilor. Observațiile sale au rămas o referință în domeniul cercetării vieții rurale, în special pentru ceea ce mai târziu se va numi sociologie rurală. Comparând aceste informații cu cele referitoare la satul devălmaș românesc, pot fi observate unele asemănări, dar și unele deosebiri între cele două tipuri de sate. Astfel, elemente asemănătoare se regăsesc în special în domeniul tehnicilor agricole. Alte elemente, cum ar fi cele legate de alcătuirea familiei sau de proprietate, deosebesc societatea rurală ruseascã, în care domină familia extinsă, de cea românească, în care domină familia alcătuită dintr-un singur cuplu căsătorit.

The growing of crops for fuel and energy production, the bio-fuels rush has caught on Zimbabwe. Although the pace
is slow and the scale low, the government has been making frantic efforts to entice communal farmers and private
commercial farmers to diversify their agricultural activities by growing jatropha or sugar cane to produce feedstock
for biodiesel production. Considerable efforts and resources have so far been invested in that regard, hence, a
National Biofuels Feedstock Production Programme was launched, a private company was formed to buy jatropha
feedstock from communal farmers, trials and research is ongoing on biodiesel production, a biofuels processing plant
was acquired and a Cabinet White Paper on Principles for Biofuels Development and Use in Zimbabwe was prepared
and presented to Cabinet. This situation is indicative of the strong belief by the Government of Zimbabwe that
biofuels may be the silver bullet to deal with the fuel shortages, energy security and to economically transform the
lives of communal farmers.
The primary purpose of this policy and practice review publication is to assess the participation of community groups
in biofuels production in Zimbabwe.

The British colony of Barbuda, Lesser Antilles, had never been a plantation island. After emancipation (1834) the freedmen carried on subsistence cultivation and stock-keeping, as they had done since the eighteenth century as enslaved persons. This paper describes and explains the success of their resistance as freed people to colonial plans for agricultural development.

Ownership structures and governance arrangements (i.e. social institutions) have significant affects on the form, cost and nature of service provision and the benefits derived from [owning] property, as well as the experience of place and social relations within neighbourhoods and between ‘owners’ and ‘users’. Such common interest and interest in common sit uncomfortably with legal distributions of property rights (Krier, 2008).

In a time of economic recession, public spending cuts, and increasing demands on the third sector from politicians, there has been a series of calls for communities to take ‘ownership’ of their areas. This raises questions about whether new commoning is exploitative, and whether and how communities calculate the costs and benefits of becoming property owners instead of ‘merely’ enjoying the benefits of assets.

The current UK Government, in power since 2010, has claimed to be pursuing a policy of localist empowerment by introducing a series of new ‘Community Rights’ effected through the Localism Act (2011). The paper examines one of the new rights’; the Community Right to Bid (CRtB), exploring the nexus between legal and social relations of property rights, community action and values and the ramifications of this localist policy tool. The CRtB mechanism encourages communities to bid to register an Asset of Community Value (AoCV), which allows them to bid to buy the AoCV on the open market when it becomes available.

This approach maintains legal ownership and ‘private’ property virtually intact and if social groups want to secure an asset, is this mechanism progressive? How CRtB contributes to the socio-economic resilience of communities is critically explored by examining the context, motivations, attitudes and process associated with CRtB.  It is contended that in order to protect AOCV and the social relations of communities that are critically dependent on the existence of the (social) asset, communities are being required to practice a form of enclosure, through formal legislative means, in order to protect valued assets. This wave of ‘new commoning’, which on the surface challenges the logic of market mechanisms, has been viewed by some as a claim to rights to the city; as collective rights “to change ourselves by changing the city more after our heart’s desire” (Harvey, 2013: 1) may also be seen as a neo-liberalisation and marketisation of social relations of property and as a last option if community assets and their ‘lived worlds’ are otherwise to be lost entirely.

CRtB may be read as part of a technology of governance practiced by successive UK government’s to ‘govern through community’ (Rose, 1999). This also highlights what kind of property relations should policymakers prefer? (Davy, 2012: 145-6) and should communities demand.


Key words: Localism, Community, ownership, governance, property rights

Bibliography
Davy, B. (2012) Land Policy: Planning and the Spatial Consequences of Property. Ashgate, Aldershot.
Harvey, D. (2013) Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. Verso Books.
Krier, R. (2008) The evolution of property rights: a synthetic overview. University of Michigan Law School working paper series, No. 91
Rose, N. (1999) Powers of freedom. Reframing political thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

ABSTRACT In 2001 a new Land Law was adopted in Cambodia. It was significant because – for the first time – it recognised a new legal category of people, 'Indigenous Peoples' or chuncheat daoem pheak tech in Khmer, and it also introduced the legal concept of communal land rights to Cambodia. Indigenous Peoples are not mentioned in the 1993 constitution of Cambodia or any legislation pre-dating the 2001 Land Law. However, Cambodia's 2002 Forestry Law also followed the trend by recognising 'Indigenous Peoples' . These laws have been both symbolically and practically important, as they have provided government-mandated legitimacy to Indigenous identities and associated land and forest rights, including communal land rights, and have been ontologically significant in dividing Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples on legal grounds. Over a decade after the 2001 Land Law was promulgated, this article considers some aspects of its effects. In particular, when compared with the potential for developing communal land rights in Laos, one has to wonder how advantageous it is to adopt Indigenous identities and the types of communal land rights and community forestry rights presently possible in Cambodia.

... acknowledge no Master, and believe the Island belongs to them selves." 20 Barbudans ever since ... This belief is expressed in the Barbudan conviction that the last Codrington will left ... that the Codringtons were lessees, not owners, and that according to the Barbuda Ordinance ...

At least seventeen million South Africans live on 'communal' landholdings that are held in trust by the state under the custodianship of traditional leaders. Yet, traditional leaders' land administration powers are undetermined, thereby impeding planning efforts and infrastructure provisions in South Africa's rural regions. The aim of this article is to revisit the historical shifts and continuities pertaining to rural land administration and tenure systems during successive regimes by focusing on 'communal' landholdings in the former Transkei. In so doing it becomes clear how rural regions remain victims of colonial and apartheid land laws despite a quarter of a century of policy redress. Arguably, until decisive answers are established regarding traditional leaders' land administration powers, residents will continue to live without municipal services and economic opportunities. Similar realities are also found across sub-Saharan Africa. Lessons from the former Transkei might then be relevant elsewhere despite situated differences. 2

En la zona regada por el río Dulce en la provincia de Santiago del Estero se configuraron desde tiempos coloniales estancias indivisas  habitualmente bautizadas con el nombre de su fundador. Algunos de estos “campos comuneros”, resultantes de la práctica de no
dividir las tierras a lo largo de generaciones, devinieron en nutridas comunidades de parientes que compartían tierra, agua y monte. También otros sujetos no emparentados fueron ingresando al mancomún a través de la compra de derechos y acciones, aunque
parece tratarse de un fenómeno tardío en la provincia.Este artículo se ocupa de la transición entre el campo común y la propiedad individual
en una zona específica de Santiago del Estero, irrigada por el río Dulce, aunque nuestras conclusiones puedan extenderse también a otras regiones. Uno de los puentes que se tendió entre las dos orillas mencionadas fue la figura del condominio, una estructura
formalizada jurídicamente y pronta para ser disuelta a partir de un marco jurídico específico inserto en el Código Civil.

Following the largest peasant revolution in history, Russia's urban-based Bolshevik regime was faced with a monumental task: to peacefully “modernize” and eventually “socialize” the peasants in the countryside surrounding Russia's cities. To accomplish this, the Bolshevik leadership created the People's Commissariat of Agriculture (Narkomzem), which would eventually employ 70,000 workers. This commissariat was particularly important, both because of massive famine and because peasants composed the majority of Russia's population; it was also regarded as one of the most moderate state agencies because of its nonviolent approach to rural transformation. Working from recently opened historical archives, James Heinzen presents a balanced, thorough examination of the political, social, and cultural dilemmas present in the Bolsheviks' strategy for modernizing of the peasantry. He especially focuses on the state employees charged with no less than a complete transformation of an entire class of people. Heinzen ultimately shows how disputes among those involved in this plan-from the government, to Communist leaders, to the peasants themselves-led to the shuttering of the Commissariat of Agriculture and to Stalin's cataclysmic 1929 collectivization of agriculture.