ITC | 18 November 2011

Large scale land acquisition, also referred to as land grabbing, is taking place in many African countries. Driven by the need for large areas of land for food and biofuel production, the purchase or lease of vast tracks of lands by international and national investors has become a widespread phenomenon. Although these investments are considered to stimulate the economy in developing countries, they compete with local communities who are losing access to the resources on which they depend for food and their livelihoods.

The Land Administration Unit (LAU) at Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and its partners: the UNU School for Land Administration Studies (ITC) of the University of Twente, the Netherlands; and MKURABITA, President’s Office, Tanzania; are organizing a one day national seminar on Land Grabbing in Tanzania. The seminar is scheduled to be held at the Courtyard Hotel in Dar es Salaam on 18th November 2011 from 8:00 to 18:00 hours.

The seminar is expected to stimulate a number of discussions among professionals and decision makers on massive land grabbing in Tanzania and the consequences notably on the threat of creating landless communities and the likelihood of fomenting land based socio-economic cum political crises. It will explore the existing weaknesses in the institutional framework and the laws governing land acquisition and ownership and prepare ground for research work on land grabbing pattern and large scale land acquisition in Tanzania.
Prof. Jaap Zevenbergen, from the UNU School of Land Administration Studies, of the University of Twente, has been invited to give a key note speech on land registration and titling approaches to avert land grabbing. Other key speakers at the Seminar are Prof. I. Shivji, Prof. J.M.L Kironde, Eng. L. Salema, Dr. Felician Komu, and Mr. Issangya.
The outcomes of the seminar will be published in the new Journal of Land Administration in Eastern Africa. The Seminar will further generate inputs into the curriculum for the Postgraduate Diploma Course in Land Administration being jointly developed by the Land Administration Unit (LAU) at Ardhi University and the UNU School of Land Administration Studies of the University of Twente.