Enhancing Tenure Security On Customary Land through Communal Land Associations
Edmond Owor et al.
Since 2011, Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) has been working with the people in the Karamoja sub-region in north eastern Uganda to form Communal Land Associations (CLAs) as provided for in the 1998 Land Act for purposes of protecting communal land from grabbing. Land in Karamoja is mostly held collectively by communities under the customary tenure system which allows the people to practice pastoralism, their main source of livelihood. The land is not demarcated, surveyed or registered. The discovery of mineral resources in the area made the communal land more vulnerable as individuals and corporate entities rushed in to acquire land for mineral exploration, mineral exploitation and other commercial activities. Formation of CLAs was conceived by ULA as the most viable option to protect the land rights of communities in Karamoja. Much as the Land Act provides for CLAs, no attempt had been made to implement this provision. Today, there are 45 CLAs in the four districts of Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto and Napak in Karamoja sub- region which are ready for registration so that they can be recognized as legal entities with powers to manage communal land. Although the registration process is still ongoing, members of the CLAs have started taking part in negotiating terms for investors to access land in the area.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015
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