Community-based land tenure management: Questions and answers about Tanzania's new Village Land Act, 1999

In 1999, Tanzania enacted a basic new land law in the form of the Land Act and the Village Land Act. The latter lays out the legal framework and procedures for most of Tanzania’s rural land to henceforth be governed through a community based land tenure management system. This devolves authority over land administration, land management and dispute resolution to the community level. The law came into effect in May 2001, along with gazettement of 83 Regulations providing details on various points and procedures. This paper aims to provide a very simple but comprehensive explanation of the intentions of the Village Land Act. It is purposely not an academic paper and eschews looking beyond, or citing sources other than the law itself. It comprises this introductory commentary and critique followed by a list of questions and answers about the new law. These were originally for several Tanzanian District Councils in November 2002 as base material upon which they will develop simple material aids and guidelines to villagers. District Councils have responsibility to help village communities within their jurisdictions to learn enough about the law to 1/ ensure their rights are protected, and 2/ to establish formal working community based tenure administration and management. The level to which communities will do the latter will be up to their own discretion; registration activity as described in the law in particular is voluntary, and many of the norms proposed in the law already operate to one degree or another. Many communities will choose to refine and develop their administration and management systems along the lines laid out in the law, and regulate land holding accordingly, but stop short of full registration of rights, at least in the immediate two to five years. Some of the most important prescriptions in the law relate to ensuring that the land rights of those with a usually weaker voice in the society are protected, through improved procedures for land allocation and transfer. Other prescriptions give important new support to the right of the community to control its common properties. Learning about the kind of security provided by the law even without registration will be crucial information for districts to impart to villagers.