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## **VILLAGES AND LAND MANAGEMENT**

# **The Village**

1.13 Most unreserved forests and woodlands fall within, or are adjacent to, the boundaries of rural communities. These communities - or 'villages' (in Swahili, _vfijii;_ sing. _kijzi) -_ are able to elect their own governments, or Village Councils, which in turn have the unusual characteristic of being independent legal bodies able to 'sue and be sued,' hold property and enter contractual arrangements. In addition, Village Councils have considerable executive and legislative powers, together with a wide range of responsibilities and rights. In this capacity, a Village Council acts on behalf of its constituent member households, known as the Village Assembly.<sup>7</sup> The Village Assembly is obliged by law to meet at least quarterly, in order to hear from the Council and to consider actions or policies that the village govermnent wants to put into effect.

1.14 Of equal relevance is the social and spatial cohesion which underwrites the identity of 'village.' At the time of its establishment as a legal 'Village,' its core member households are registered, and the Registrar of Villages is provided with an idea of its physical identity. This is the 'village area' (Swahili, _Eneo la Kfijii)._ The village area represents a discrete area, the boundaries of which have been agreed with neighboring registered villages. 'Villagization' began in the mid-1970s at which time some 7,500 existing and new villages were registered. Today, there are around 9,000 villages, an increase which derives mainly from population growth. Very few rural people live outside of registered villages, and rnost of Tanzania's countryside is a mosaic of these village areas.

1.15 Inevitably, the size of village areas and the precision with which their boundaries have been determined vary widely in response to population pressure and intensity of agriculture. In much of the central and western part of the country, village areas tend to be very large and include sometimes **va-** . tracts of grazing lands and woodland. Areas of settlement and cultivation tend to be concentrated in one or several parts of the wider village area. As population grows, large villages frequently apply to be split into two or several villages. In addition, 'sub-villages' _(vitongoji)_ play an increasingly important role in local level management and governance. The elected chairmen of each sub-village have, since 1992, held _ex officio_ seats in the Village Council.

# **Villagers and Village Land**

1.16 Over the last quarter century, Tanzanian land policy and law have built upon the emergence and consolidation of what is arguably the most decentralized and devolved regime of governance in sub-Saharan Africa, where local government is lodged -first and foremost at the village level, supported by local government at the district level.

1.17 An initial effort to consolidate the control of local people over their own land areas was framed in the 1983 **National Agricultural Policy** which launched a program of village titling. As a result of this policy, Village Councils were able to obtain long leaseholds over their respective village areas and to sub-lease parts of these to member villagers, for settlement and

> 7 The core legislation which describes these relationships is the _Local Government (District Authorities)_ **_Act_** No 7 of 1982, amended in 1992 and again in 1999.