Land use plans in Tanzania: repertoires of domination or solutions to rising farmer–herder conflicts?

ABSTRACT

Government officials and politicians constantly cite the lack of land use plans as being one of the main sources of growing violent lethal conflicts between pastoralists and peasant farmers in Tanzania. Even so, based on empirical evidence gathered through qualitative methods in Kisarawe and Rufiji districts, this paper maintains that land use plans do not practically resolve farmer–herder conflicts; they instead exacerbate them. The preparation of land use plans is shaped and mediated by powerful actors, notably the state and investors to enclose the land already occupied by peasant farmers and the minority pastoral communities in favor of large-scale farming investments. In Rufiji, for example, attempts to create land use plans contributed to the enclosure of more than half of the land that was in 2006 allotted to pastoral communities. As the concept of “repertoire of domination” would posit, therefore, land use plans in Rufiji and Kisarawe are indeed attempts by powerful actors to exert control over resources occupied by marginalized pastoral communities and peasant farmers. This intensifies land conflicts by pushing pastoralists and peasant farmers into smaller areas with close proximity to each other.

KEYWORDS:

• Land use plans
• farmer–herder conflicts
• Tanzania

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

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2. Fisher and Heilig, “Population Momentum.”

3. Olanya, “From Global Land Grabbing” and McMichael, “The Land Grab.”

4. Foley, Ramankutty, and Brauman, “Solutions for a Cultivated Planet,” 337.

5. Pearce, “The Land Grabbers,” vii.

6. Rudel and Mefroidt, “Organizing Anarchy.”

7. FAO in Rudel and Mefroidt, “Organizing Anarchy,” 239.

8. Mango and Kalenzi, “Report on the Study” and Rudel and Mefroidt, “Organizing Anarchy.”

9. Rudel and Mefroidt, “Organizing Anarchy.”

10. Poteete and Ribot, “Repertoires of Domination.”

11. Leach and Mearns, “Environmental Entitlements.”

12. Poteete and Ribot, “Repertoires of Domination,” 3.

13. Ribot, “Theorising Access” and Ribot and Peluso, “A Theory of Access.”

14. Franks and Cleaver, “Water Governance and Poverty.”

15. Robbins, “Political Ecology,” 179.

16. Poteete and Ribot, “Repertoires of Domination,” 3.

17. Murray, “Images of Community.”

18. United Republic of Tanzania (URT), “Taarifa ya Kamati Teule.”

19. “Wazuri Mkuu Azindua Jukwaa la Ardhi,” ITV [Independent Television, Tanzania], 4 February 2014; and URT, Waziri Mkuu Asisitiza.

20. “Mahakama ya Ardhi Yaongezewa Nguvu,” Nipashe, 20 June 2012.

21. “Jaji Mkuu Aongelea Kuongezeka kwa Kesi za Ardhi Mahakama Kuu,” ITV, 28 January 2014; and Fidelis Butale and Taus Ally, “Jaji Mkuu Aishukia Tume ya Kurekebisha Sheria Tanzania,” Mwananchi, 5 February 2014.

22. URT, Land Use Planning Act.

23. URT, “Taarifa ya Kamati Teule.”

24. “Kikwete: Hatima Bunge la Katiba Jumatatu,” Mwananchi, 5 September 2014.

25. Homer-Dixon, “Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflicts”; Homer-Dixon and Levy, “Correspondence: Environmental Security”; Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity and Violence.

26. URT, Land Use Planning Act, Article 18.

27. Ibid., Article 27(1).

28. Ibid., Article 33.

29. URT, Land Use Planning Act.

30. Sourced from the offices of one of the VEOs in Kisarawe on 3 April 2015.

31. URT, Land Policy.

32. URT, Village Land Act.

33. URT, Land Act.

34. URT, Village Land Act, Section 18.

35. Sikor and Lund, “The Politics of Possession.”

36. Askew, Maganga, and Odgaard, “Of Land Legitimacy.”

37. Hodgson and Schroeder, “Dilemmas of Counter-mapping.”

38. Ribot and Peluso, “A Theory of Access,” 170.

39. “JK Orders RUBADA to Give 32,000 ha to Investors,” Guardian [Dar es Salaam], 7 October 2013; and “Cut the Rhetoric Short,” Daily News [Dar es Salaam], 7 October 2013.

40. Ibid.

41. “Cut the Rhetoric Short,” Daily News, 7 October 2013.

42. Nipashe, “Maendeleo Hayataletwa na Mijadala Isiyoisha,” 7 October 2013.

43. Ribot and Peluso, “A Theory of Access,” 165.

44. Mousseau and Mittal, Understanding Land Investment Deals.

45. URT, Tanzania’s Big Results Now Initiative.

46. Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI), “Participatory Land Use Planning in Practice.”

47. Nelson, “Participatory Land Use Planning.”

48. McMichael, “The Land Grab.”

49. Olanya, “From Global Land Grabbing.”