Securing Communal Land Tenure in Northern Tanzania Using Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy

In Tanzania, legal protections for Customary Rights of Occupancy empower traditional organs of local administration (such as village councils and village assemblies) to manage customary lands (also known as ‘village lands’). Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCROs) are used to formally allocate parcels of village lands to individuals or groups. This report prepared by the Ujamaa Community Resource Team profiles pilot initiatives to use group CCROs to strengthen and secure land rights for vulnerable pastoralists and hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania. The collective CCRO is a cost-effective and streamlined instrument for granting a customary group title to a defined communal land area. The collective nature of the title means that transactions and subdivisions can only take place with the consent of the entire group, thus providing greater tenure security to at-risk communities and minorities. The Ujamaa Community Resource Team suggests measures to widen the use of collective CCROs and prioritizing their issuance to clarify tenure rights in areas experiencing chronic disputes over land access and use.

Keywords: customary/village lands, customary right of occupancy, pastoralists and nomads, secure land tenure.

Year Published: 2014
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Uploaded on: Jul 25, 2015
Last Updated: Dec 04, 2015
Issues: Community / Customary Land Rights, Environmental Justice, Generalist Legal Services Tool Type: Policy Papers / Briefs Target Population: Rural Method: Navigating Administrative Processes Languages: English Regions: Sub-Saharan Africa