This briefing note call attention to the ongoing situation of harassments and arbitrary arrests of human rights defenders in Loliondo in northern Tanzania.It offers an account of the recent events taking place in the area and background information.

IWGIA believes that these developments are a cause of great concern. The detentions, harassment and trumped up charges undermine civil society and other stakeholders, limiting their options to carry out human rights work in Tanzania.

An Act to provide for the establishment of Land dispute settlement machinery and for matters incidental thereto. 

An Act to establish Ward Tribunals, to provide for their jurisdiction, powers, practice and procedure and other related matters. 

Land-use conflict is not a new phenomenon for pastoralists  and farmers in Tanzania with murders, the killing of livestock and the loss of property as  a  consequence of  this  conflict  featuring   in  the  news  for  many years  now.  Various actors,  including civil society organisations, have tried  to  address  farmer–pastoralist conflict through  mass  education programmes, land-use planning, policy reforms and  the development of community institutions. However, these efforts have not succeeded in the conflict.

The Land Act, 2012

The Land Registration Act, 2012

The National Land Commission Act, 2012

The Environment & Land Court Act, 2011

The Urban Areas & Cities Act, 2011

Because of changes in some underlying factors, land is increasingly becoming a source of conflicts in Africa. We estimate the determinants of land conflicts and their impacts on input application in Kenya by using a recent survey of 899 rural households. We find that widows are about 13 percent more likely to experience pending land conflicts when their parcels are registered under the names of their deceased husbands than when titles are registered under their names.

Land and resource conflicts in India have deep implications for the wellbeing of the country's people, institutions, investments, and long-term development. These conflicts reveal deep structural flaws in the country's social, agrarian, and institutional structures, including ambiguities in property rights regimes and institutions.

The first set of the land laws were enacted in 2012 in line with the timelines outlined in the Constitution of Kenya 2010. In keeping with the spirit of the constitution, the Land Act, Land Registration Act and the national Land Commission Act respond to the requirements of Articles 60, 61, 62, 67 & 68 of the Constitution. The National Land Policy, which was passed as Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2009, arrived earlier than the Constitution, with some radical proposals on the land Management.

Conflict is a major cause and, in some cases, result of humanitarian crises. Conflict frequently overlaps with underlying social inequalities, poverty and high levels of vulnerability. Conflicts are direct threats to food security as they cause massive loss of life and therefore loss of workforce (which is particularly important as agriculture tends to rely heavily on human labour), loss of vital livestock, and loss of land.

Over the past 20 years, the term "agro-ecological zones methodology," or AEZ, has become widely used. However, it has been associated with a wide range of different activities that are often related yet quite different in scope and objectives. FAO and IIASA differentiate the AEZ methodology in the following activities:

Almost one in seven people around the world are chronically hungry, lacking enough food to be healthy and lead active lives. This is despite the fact that enough food exists for all of the world’s people.1 Agricultural policies, the prices of certain food commodities such as meat and grain and economic development hugely impact food security, but demographic trends also play a role.