Responsible consolidation of customary lands

A framework for land reallocation

authored by

Kwabena Obeng Asiama, R.M. Bennett, J.A. Zevenbergen, A. Da Silva Mano

Abstract

Land reallocation is an important step of land consolidation where farmland parcels are reorganised and redistributed. Most current land reallocation approaches focus on the technical aspects, at the expense of the social, cultural, economic, and political factors which are important on customary lands. This paper develops an approach for land reallocation to support responsible land consolidation on customary lands taking these factors into consideration. Using the process model approach, we identify the key characteristics of customary land tenure and the general requirements for land reallocation of these lands; from which a land re-allocation approach is developed. This is subsequently applied to a case study in Northern Ghana. The results show that even though the approach is successful to the extent that land fragmentation (physical and legal) is significantly reduced in the study area; social land mobility, land tenure and cultural practices hinder the application of the land reallocation as this would either increase legal or physical land fragmentation.

External Organisation(s)

Swinburne University of Technology
University of Twente

Type

Article

Journal

LAND USE POLICY

Volume

83

Pages

412-423

No. of pages

12

ISSN

0264-8377

Publication date

04.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Forestry, Geography, Planning and Development, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.02.006 (Access: Closed)