Abstract: Tanzania’s Land Use Planning Act (2007) empowers community members to participate in the preparation and implementation of land use plans. However, experience shows that local governments have often infringed on the rights of people to participate. In other cases, however, such as Msomera Village in Handeni District, Tanga Region, the central government stepped in to prepare the land use plan. Thus, the question of interest to this paper is – how is the centralization of land use plans helping to increase access to land and resolve land conflicts? The paper argues that the centralization is exacerbating conflicts over access to land. In particular, centralization violates community land rights by imposing the predetermined land use plans of the government. Similarly, the centralization violates the cultural rights of pastoralists. Finally, it argues that centralization has securitized land use plans. The land use plan exercise became a security operation as opposed to a participatory exercise.
Discussant: Dr Chris Huggins is Associate Professor of Globalization & Development at the University of Ottawa
Programme: Presentation by Dr William Walwa followed by comments/questions from Dr Chris Huggins. A short break will then be followed by a plenary discussion facilitated by Dr Lasse Krantz.
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