Your search found 11 records
1 Suhardiman, Diana; Bright, J.; Palmano, C. 2021. The politics of legal pluralism in the shaping of spatial power in Myanmar’s land governance. Journal of Peasant Studies, 48(2):411-435. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2019.1656200]
Land governance ; Legal pluralism ; Political power ; Land use ; Land rights ; Land policies ; Central government ; Political institutions ; Legal frameworks ; Farmers ; Land tenure ; Customary tenure ; Land titling ; Strategies ; Villages ; Local communities ; Case studies / Myanmar / Karen State / Mukaplow / Maepoe Noh
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049411)
(2.05 MB)
Following the National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in the 2015 national election, Myanmar embarked on a series of legal and political transitions. This paper highlights parallel processes alongside such transitions. Linking land governance with the ongoing peace processes, and taking Karen state as a case study, it brings to light how both processes are in fact closely interlinked. Building on legal pluralism research, we argue that in the context of ethnic states, farmers’ strategies to strengthen their land rights resemble the very notion of state transformation.
2 Kmoch, L.; Palm, M.; Persson, U. M.; Jepsen, M. R. 2020. Access mapping highlights risks from land reform in upland Myanmar. Journal of Land Use Science, 22p. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1836053]
Land reform ; Land access ; Highlands ; Land use ; Household income ; Living standards ; Customary tenure ; Land rights ; Farmland ; Shifting cultivation ; Homegardens ; Economic value ; Forests ; Scrublands ; Stakeholders ; Communities ; Villages / Myanmar / Chin / Lailo / Tuilangh / Tualzang / Tungzang
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050027)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1836053?needAccess=true#aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGFuZGZvbmxpbmUuY29tL2RvaS9wZGYvMTAuMTA4MC8xNzQ3NDIzWC4yMDIwLjE4MzYwNTM/bmVlZEFjY2Vzcz10cnVlQEBAMA==
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050027.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H050027.pdf
(3.55 MB) (3.55 MB)
Secure land access is vital for Myanmar’s upland households, who rely on crops and forests to meet their subsistence needs. But recent land reforms threaten to undermine customary tenure and land-use practices in Myanmar. This paper combines income accounting methods with access theory to assess how new legislation may affect four Chin communities in the country’s north-west. Our assessment of 94 households’ land-access mechanisms and economic benefits from different types of land reveals existing land-access inequalities among Chin households and demonstrates communities’ continued dependence on environmental resources, especially those from swidden fields, home gardens and forests. A majority of households would lose all of their land-derived income, if they were denied access to communities’ customarily governed land, e.g., under the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land Management Law. Policy stakeholders should therefore intervene, to alleviate land-access inequalities among Chin households and to direct Myanmar’s land-system dynamics onto more just development trajectories.
3 Suhardiman, Diana; Scurrah, N. 2021. Institutional bricolage and the (re)shaping of communal land tenure arrangements: two contrasting cases in upland and lowland northeastern Laos. World Development, 147:105630. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105630]
Common lands ; Land tenure systems ; Customary tenure ; Institutional development ; Highlands ; Lowland ; Land use planning ; Land access ; Land governance ; Collective action ; State intervention ; Political aspects ; Farmers ; Households ; Livelihoods ; Strategies ; Rural areas ; Villages ; Local communities ; Case studies / Lao People's Democratic Republic / Houaphan / Viengxay / Khouan / Navit / Pa Khom
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050547)
(1.70 MB)
This article examines the factors shaping communal land tenure and livelihood practices in two villages in Houaphan province, Northeastern Laos. It employs the concept of institutional bricolage to show how local actors combine communal tenure, state intervention, donor programs and local power relations to (re)shape formal rules and day-to-day land tenure and livelihood practices. In particular, it highlights how state territorial strategies in lowland and upland rural spaces have differently shaped state interventions in communal land use and access, producing hybrid forms of communal land management rules and practices. The two cases highlight different processes by which communal tenure is eroded or adapted in the process of state incorporation, raising questions about competing authorities over land and the interests and objectives of different actors in land administration. The village cases illustrate how local communities’ (in)ability to shape, adapt, and reproduce institutional rules and arrangements pertaining to access and use of communal land is closely interlinked with: 1) how farm households perceive communal land tenure in relation to their livelihood options and farming strategies; 2) how power relations among local communities and between local communities and state actors shape decision-making processes and distributional outcomes; and 3) the role of the state in sustaining and advancing its control over land and how this changes over time.
4 van Koppen, Barbara. 2022. Living customary water tenure in rights-based water management in Sub-Saharan Africa. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 41p. (IWMI Research Report 183) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2022.214]
Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Water rights ; Water management ; Water law ; Customary law ; Water resources ; Water sharing ; Infrastructure ; Water supply ; Multiple use water services ; Rural communities ; Water allocation ; Sustainable Development Goals ; water, sanitation and hygiene ; Norms ; Policies ; Legislation ; Water governance ; Water quality ; Water distribution ; Water permits ; Conflicts ; Costs ; Gender ; Women ; Right to water ; Right to food ; Households ; Living standards ; Drinking water ; Domestic water ; Farmer-led irrigation ; Pastoralists ; Livestock ; Land ; Water security ; Nexus approaches / Africa South of Sahara
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H051372)
(1.10 MB)
Living customary water tenure is the most accepted socio-legal system among the large majority of rural people in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on literature, this report seeks to develop a grounded understanding of the ways in which rural people meet their domestic and productive water needs on homesteads, distant fields or other sites of use, largely outside the ambits of the state. Taking the rural farming or pastoralist community as the unit of analysis, three components are distinguished. The first component deals with the fundamental perceptions of the links between humankind and naturally available water resources as a commons to be shared by all, partially linked to communities’ collective land rights. The second component deals with the sharing of these finite and contested naturally available water resources, especially during dry seasons and droughts. Customary arrangements shape both the ‘sharing in’ of water resources within communities and the ‘sharing out’ with other customary communities or powerful third parties. Since colonial times, communities have been vulnerable to those third parties grabbing water resources and overriding customary uses and governance. The third component deals with infrastructure to store and convey water resources. Since time immemorial, communities have invested in infrastructure for self supply, ranging from micro-scale soil moisture retention techniques to large-scale collective deep wells. As increasingly recognized in both the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and irrigation sectors, this component of self supply is rapidly expanding. In all three components, local diversity is high, with gender, class and other social hierarchies intertwining with social safety nets, neighborliness and moral economies.
The study derives two sets of implications for state and non-state policies, laws and interventions. First, state legislation about the sharing of water resources should recognize and protect living customary water tenure, especially through due process in ‘sharing out’ water with powerful third parties. Remarkably, water law, which is dominated by permit systems in sub-Saharan Africa, lags behind other legislation in recognizing customary water tenure (see IWMI Research Report 182). Second, by taking communities’ self supply for multiple uses as a starting point for further water infrastructure development, the WASH, irrigation and other sectors can follow the priorities of communities, including the most vulnerable; identify cost-effective multi-purpose infrastructure; develop local skills; and, hence, contribute more sustainably to achieving more United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDGs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 13. Further historical and interdisciplinary research to achieve these benefits is recommended.
The study derives two sets of implications for state and non-state policies, laws and interventions. First, state legislation about the sharing of water resources should recognize and protect living customary water tenure, especially through due process in ‘sharing out’ water with powerful third parties. Remarkably, water law, which is dominated by permit systems in sub-Saharan Africa, lags behind other legislation in recognizing customary water tenure (see IWMI Research Report 182). Second, by taking communities’ self supply for multiple uses as a starting point for further water infrastructure development, the WASH, irrigation and other sectors can follow the priorities of communities, including the most vulnerable; identify cost-effective multi-purpose infrastructure; develop local skills; and, hence, contribute more sustainably to achieving more United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDGs 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 13. Further historical and interdisciplinary research to achieve these benefits is recommended.
5 Troell, J.; Keene, S. 2022. Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). 33p. (IWMI Research Report 182) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5337/2022.215]
Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Legislation ; Water law ; Customary law ; Land tenure ; Water resources ; Nexus approaches ; Freshwater ; Indigenous peoples' tenure rights ; Local communities ; Rural areas ; Water rights ; Land rights ; Forests ; Legal frameworks ; Water governance ; Human rights ; Gender ; Women ; Livelihoods ; Food security ; Sustainable development ; Government ; Regional organizations ; Constitution ; Policies ; Water user associations ; Participation ; Transboundary waters ; International law / Africa South of Sahara
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: IWMI Record No: H051374)
(1.11 MB)
Despite the progress made in conceptualizing and advocating for secure community-based land and forest tenure rights, there is a critical lacuna in advocacy and policymaking processes pertaining to community-based freshwater tenure rights. Moreover, water tenure as a concept has only recently gained significant traction in global policy circles. This report analyzes national and international legal pathways for recognizing customary forms of community-based freshwater tenure rights held by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. It employs a methodological framework and builds on an analysis of community-based water tenure systems that was developed and applied by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in the publication Whose Water? A Comparative Analysis of National Laws and Regulations Recognizing Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendants’, and Local Communities’ Water Tenure. Based on the key findings of this analysis, in particular the frequent dependence of IPLCs’ legally recognized customary water tenure rights on their legally recognized land and/or forest rights, this report further analyzes national constitutions, national legislation governing water, land, forests, environmental protection and other related matters, international and national case law, and international and regional human rights laws, to explore how legal frameworks are recognizing and protecting customary water tenure rights across sub-Saharan Africa. The findings and recommendations provide a basis for analyzing the comparative effectiveness and potential drawbacks of these legal pathways for the recognition and protection of customary water tenure and ultimately for future work refining and improving legislation and assessing progress in its implementation and enforcement.
6 Suhardiman, Diana; Phayouphorn, A.-M.; Gueguen, A.; Rigg, J. 2023. Silent transitions: commercialization and changing customary land tenure systems in upland Laos. Land Use Policy, 126:106541. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106541]
Land tenure systems ; Customary tenure ; Commercialization ; Land access ; Land rights ; Tea industry ; Shifting cultivation ; Land use ; Equity ; Farmers ; Agrarian reform ; Institutions ; Households ; Strategies ; Villages ; Case studies / Lao People's Democratic Republic / Phongsaly / Khwaykham
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051670)
(0.61 MB)
What happens to local institutional arrangements regarding access and use of communal land under the forces of agricultural commercialization? Taking Khwaykham village in Phongsaly province, Laos as a case study, this paper sheds light on this question as farm households in the settlement have progressively transitioned to commercial farming, specifically tea cultivation. Traditionally, farm households’ access and rights to use the land were embedded in their swidden agriculture practices. The adoption of tea has increasingly fixed land use rights, making land sticky at the household rather than communal level. How, why and with what effects this occurs are the focus of the paper. We argue that while this transition to tea cultivation has benefited – in income terms – most farm households in the village, it has also created an agrarian context for increased inequity between those households who rapidly took the opportunity from the tea boom and others who have missed out on it.
7 Mukuyu, Patience; van Koppen, Barbara; Jacobs-Mata, Inga. 2022. Operationalising hybrid water law for historical justice. Final project report submitted to the Water Research Commission (WRC). Pretoria, South Africa: Water Research Commission (WRC). 92p. (WRC Report No. 3040/1/22)
Water law ; Water resources ; Water allocation ; Regulations ; Legislation ; Water policies ; Strategies ; Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Legal pluralism ; Water rights ; Water sharing ; Water use ; Water management ; Catchment areas ; Infrastructure ; Agrarian reform ; Constitution ; Licences ; Smallholders ; Farmers ; Small-scale irrigation ; Rural areas ; Communities / South Africa / Inkomati Catchment
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051685)
(1.46 MB) (1.46 MB)
8 van Koppen, Barbara. 2023. Restoring the commons: a gendered analysis of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of the Commons, 17(1):1-11. [doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1164]
Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Gender analysis ; Women ; Men ; Legal pluralism ; Water resources ; Infrastructure ; Water sharing ; Commons / Africa South of Sahara
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051756)
https://www.thecommonsjournal.org/articles/10.5334/ijc.1164/galley/1207/download/
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051756.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051756.pdf
(0.55 MB) (567 KB)
Customary water tenure in low-and middle-income rural areas has received limited academic, policy, and legal attention as yet. This paper seeks to conceptualize and analyse gender-differentiated living customary water tenure, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. Extensive literature review suggests four gendered domains: first, water needs and uses; second, strategies to meet those needs by directly accessing water sources, and, with increasing wealth by investing individually or collectively in water infrastructure for self-supply, creating infrastructure-related ‘commons’ in the case of collective systems; third, at community scale, the ‘sharing in’ of communities’ naturally available water resources that flow into infrastructure; and, fourth, ‘sharing out’ of those resources with neighbouring communities but also powerful third parties of foreign and national high impact users. Rendering the gendered community more visible as the main agent to manage its water resources as the commons provides evidence for a range of policies, laws and interventions, including gender equitable and community-led water infrastructure development integrating domestic and productive spheres; strengthening customary arrangements to share water resources as a commons within a community or with neighbouring communities, and the long overdue formal protection of customary water tenure against ‘water grabs’ by powerful third parties.
9 Mapedza, Everisto. 2023. Managing African commons in the context of Covid-19 challenges. International Journal of the Commons, 17(1):105-108. (Special issue: Managing African Commons in the Context of Covid-19 Challenges) [doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/ijc.1268]
Commons ; Gender ; Climate change ; Forestry ; Co-management ; Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Communities ; COVID-19 / Africa
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051881)
https://storage.googleapis.com/jnl-up-j-ijc-files/journals/1/articles/1268/64367d2440982.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051881.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051881.pdf
(0.71 MB) (725 KB)
10 Mapedza, Everisto. (Ed.) 2023. Managing African commons in the context of Covid-19 challenges. International Journal of the Commons, 17(1):1-108. (Special issue with contributions by IWMI authors)
Commons ; Gender ; Climate change adaptation ; Climate change mitigation ; Water tenure ; Customary tenure ; Agroforestry ; Co-management ; Institutions ; Women ; Water sharing ; Infrastructure ; Political aspects ; Governance ; Financing ; Communities ; Resilience ; Social aspects ; COVID-19 / Africa / Ghana
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051882)
(0.18 MB)
11 van Koppen, Barbara; Mukuyu, Patience; Murombo, T.; Jacobs-Mata, Inga; Molwantwa, J.; Dini, J.; Sawunyama, T.; Schreiner, B.; Skosana, S. 2024. Principles and legal tools for equitable water resource allocation: prioritization in South Africa. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 24p. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2023.2290522]
Water resources ; Water allocation ; Equity ; Water law ; Water tenure ; Customary tenure / South Africa
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H052564)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/07900627.2023.2290522?needAccess=true
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052564.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H052564.pdf
(0.66 MB) (759 KB)
South Africa’s legally binding National Water Resource Strategy specifies a people-oriented prioritization for the equitable allocation of the nation’s public trust of surface and groundwater resources. This article analyses how the Inkomati–Usuthu Catchment Management Agency seeks to operationalize the three highest priorities in the Sabie Sub Catchment: the Basic Human Needs Reserve for domestic and constitutionally based productive water uses; customary water tenure in former homelands prioritized over the upstream commercial forestry and large-scale farming and the downstream Kruger National Park; and priority General Authorizations overcoming administrative injustices of current licensing. These highest priorities imply curtailment of the lowest priority, high-impact economic uses.
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