Land policy expert cautions government

An expert and a  Consultant on pastaralism and land policy issues in Eastern Africa has said that, Tanzania government needs to prepare a national dialogue for land policy with stakeholders in order to solve land crisis which is slowly emerging in some parts in the country. Alais Morindat of the Arusha based International Institute for Environment and Development made a concern yesterday in Dar es Salaam as a main speaker during a morning policy forum breakfast debate which was organized by Forum Tanzania. A three hour forum debate which had the key discussions on the “Land and forest investments, Challenges and opportunities for mitigating land and forest related conflicts in Tanzania” was attended by experts from government institutions, civil society groups and legal rights organizations in the country.  Alais who spoke in favor of pastoralists who currently are engulfed in such troubles are feeling the pinch following the emerging land crisis in the country. In view of this however he noted that, by having a national dialogue the issue of land crisis is likely to end in the country as it has not yet grown at an alarming stage. In line with the national dialogue, an expert also noted that, the government needs to rectify the current land policy so that it might give the economic opportunity and the welfare of the marginalized pastoralists’ communities in the country. He is ob the view of the fact that, the government does not address properly land related issues that cause frustrations and conflicts among the users. Giving an example of what is currently going on in Morogoro region he said the government should not keep quite at the moment over the issue and instead must take appropriate actions to end chaos. However, he said that frequent fighting over the land does not help except it creates antagonism among farmers and the pastoralists in communities and in view of this, there should be an equal opportunities given on both sides including those investors whom he said are the source of all these troubles. “There should be a win win solution, you cannot evict pastoralists from the land and value an investor just because he pays money to buy the land for the economy”, he said adding that, the government should look at this scenario and include it in the on-going constitution making process to minimize such chaos. During the debate, some stakeholders aired their views over the on-going land crisis in some parts in the country with the majority pointed an accusing finger to the government executives for being the primary cause of all these and yet fails to take any legal actions against perpetrators. Contributing to a debate, Godfrey Massay the program officer of an NGO known as Haki Ardhi noted that, government officials are to blame for failure to minimize the increased phenomenon as related to the on-going land crisis in the country. He said that, negligence of the government to take action is a sufficient indication which shows are the perpetrators of the phenomenon, as from the district levels whereby pasto

ralists are tending their livestock in rural areas. He also noted that, the most surprising to note is that, despite having larger land in the country, about 90 percent of the land in the country is not yet surveyed. This is an aspect which he noted that, investors take an opportunity to annex hectares in collaboration with greedy government leaders a result of which ends up to evict local inhabitants. He mentioned the concerned national bodies such as the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), the Ministry of Land and Human Settlements, District Councils in the country as well as the officials in village land communities which are directly concerned with the safe handling of the land matters, but have proved failure to restore peace in conflict ravaged areas. He said to his dismay in all these government organs there is no proper framework which has formed a mechanism with which to control the menace and handle land issues properly. In view of this however, he has said that, the government should balance its role and take necessary commitments in a bid to avoid its people from becoming landless. Contributing the debate, a retired Professor Adolf Mascorenm noted that, the on-going land crisis in the country has largely been contributed by the poor land policies which the government imposed for the welfare of investments. He noted that, these policies have a negative vision to pastoralists who are denied of various land rights and instead the policies do favors the investors rather than the indigenous group. However, he added that, lack of information about the issue to the local people and the general public is another factor which has contributed to the conflicts.  However, he said that foreigners are left to grab the land from the people giving an example of the new Kigamboni estate which he said the US government has taken to develop a new city.