Communal land reform in Namibia - Implications of Individualisation of land tenure

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gregor Dobler
• Co-Applicants: Professor Dr. Olivier Graefe; Professor Dr. Nikolaus J. Kuhn
• Subject Area: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 220519955

Namibia has a twofold land rights system based in the colonial separation of ‘indigenous’ and ‘settler’ areas. In communal areas, where the major part of the population lives, there are no freehold titles, but use rights are assigned to households by Traditional Authorities. Communal land titles are now registered to make land tenure more secure and thus to increase the likelihood of tenants investing in the land. The proposed research project will accompany the registration process and provide a holistic image of its social and ecological consequences. The project’s main aim is to assess whether more secure land titles can in-deed protect land rights of the rural poor and simultaneously further sustainable agricultural development, and what main factors are determining the likelihood of such an outcome. The interdisciplinary research project will combine methods from social anthropology, as well as social and physical geography to assess the social and ecological consequences of land rights formalisation and provide lessons about land rights formalisation and land privatization in general.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Switzerland