Land rights and the forest peoples of Africa - Historical, legal and anthropological perspectives
A series of five country studies, plus a broad overview, examining indigenous peoples' land rights in the forested countries of Africa.
Up to one quarter of the world’s population is estimated to be landless, including 200 million
people living in rural areas,1
and approximately 75% of the world’s population living in extreme
poverty (less than $1/day) live in rural areas.2
According to the Food and Agriculture Agency of the
United Nations (FAO), “rural landlessness is often the best predictor of poverty and hunger.”3
“While not the only pathway out of poverty, ample evidence suggests that access to land is effective
This chapter examines the relationship between land scarcity and conflict in Rwanda. Historically, land pressure has been a severe problem in Rwanda, where over 90% of the population practises agriculture. Land pressure has resulted in declining overall agricultural production, but increasing production for individuals and groups with favourable land and resource access. Cultivation is encroaching into wetlands, national parks and forest reserve areas to satisfy unmet demands for land by some, predominately underprivileged, groups.
The finite nature of land makes it a very valuable natural resource and, therefore, its use and management need to be carried out in a sustainable and rational manner. This strategic plan for the Land Sub-sector seeks to provide a framework for medium term implementation of sector specific (Environment and Natural Resources Sector) objectives as well as land–related elements in the broader national policy instruments like EDPRS and Vision 2020.
In a country with the highest population density of all Africa, and 95% of this population dependent on land, the question of land tenure is inevitably a vital issue. In Rwanda it is becoming even more crucial as marginal lands are cultivated, and competition for land, and thus a livelihood, increases. The currently prevailing land tenure systems in Rwanda vary from one area of the country to another, reflecting both differences in traditional customary laws, and the adoption, at varying degrees in different regions, of written law in place of customary law.
This policy research brief on land tenure reform and government revenue aims primarily to examine the effects of land tenure reforms on land-based revenue and to provide policy recommendations that would build on existing efforts developed to ease the process of paying and collecting various land revenue. The research topic was suggested by land sector stakeholders among other topics during the LAND Project’s Year 3 Work Planning Meeting, and was endorsed by the Rwanda Natural Resources Authority and LAND Project as an important research area.
This paper reports the findings of an in-depth case study of a highly densely populated area in the Northwest of Rwanda which has been conducted during the period 1988-1993. It demonstrates that acute competition for land in a context characterized by too slow expansion of non-agricultural income opportunities has resulted in increasingly unequal land distribution and rapid processes of land dispossession through both operation of the (illegal) land market and evolution of indigenous tenure arrangements.
This paper reports the findings of an in-depth case study of a highly densely populated area in the Northwest of Rwanda
which has been conducted during the period 1988-1993. It
demonstrates that acute competition for land in a context
characterized by too slow expansion of non-agricultural income
opportunities has resulted in increasingly unequal land distribution
and rapid processes of land dispossession through both operation
of the (illegal) land market and evolution of indigenous tenure
Rwanda’s economy is largely agrarian. More than 80% of the Rwanda’s projected population of 10.5 million1 depends on farming. The total land area of the country measures 24,700 square kilometers. Although about 79% of the country’s land is classified as agricultural, only 11% of the land represents permanent crop land2. The remaining agricultural lands are covered with forests, marshlands and marginal lands in the hillsides where permanent and routine cultivation of crops are not tenable.
The study assessed the adoption of land use consolidation and its determinants in Nyanza District of Southern Province, Rwanda. Land use consolidation is part of the on-going crop intensification program led by the Ministry of Agriculture in Rwanda. The extent to which this policy has been adopted is less spatially known. In addition, there is scarce knowledge about the factors affecting the adoption of this policy at household level. A sample of 132 households was randomly selected for the interviews conducted in August 2010.
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