GTZ - Land Tenure in Development Cooperation: Chapter 3.4

Guiding Principles: Land Tenure in Development Cooperation
Orientierungsrahmen: Bodenrecht und Bodenordnung		Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit Abt. 45 / Div. 45

3.4 Structural Change and Land Conversion

Structural change (in agriculture) leads to a redesignation of land use patterns. In many regions different land use forms compete with one another resulting in conflicts on various levels.
Agriculturally used areas are expanding at the expense of forest land. It has been estimated that already more than eight million km²of the virgin tropical rain forest have been converted for agricultural purposes. Of those, approximately three million km²are used as pasture. Large areas of forest have been cleared especially in Central and South America for agro-industrial projects such as extensive cattle farming.	Forest land converted to pasture or arable fields
Arable farming is moving closer to areas where livestock is raised. For example, in Butana, Sudan, the pasture areas used by pastoralists were reduced due to the continuous expansion of irrigation schemes and mechanized rain-fed cultivation. To achieve this change in the land use pattern, the national government repealed the autochthonous land tenure system, formally converted the land to state property, allowed free access and privatized the most valuable arable areas.	Pasture areas converted to arable fields

The conversion of natural pastures to arable land in Butana, Sudan

The access to resources necessary for survival was secured in the past with a combination of land tenure systems. Natural pastures were common property and wadis and wells were privately owned by families. The social and economic consequences of the lost pastures as exclusive common property were that the pastoralists' mobility was restricted and familiar strategies could no longer be followed. Due to the mechanized crop cultivation on large areas in the South of Butana, the property rights between stock keepers and crop farmers has changed sustainably. New market and dependency relationships have evolved.

While in the past the ethics of the Shukriya enabled the use of pastures free of charge in the area of Gedaref since it was common property, now sorgo straw and water must be purchased in dry years.

(Kirk 1998a)

With the growing urbanization and industrialization, the need for land for non-agricultural purposes strongly increases. Thus, the following uses compete for the limited factor land:

Residential areas and shopping centers,
Industrial plants,
Natural reserves and watershed areas,
Recreational areas and land-intensive places to play sports (golf courses),
Agriculture and forestry,
Transportation/infrastructure measures.

Agricultural and forestry land converted to construction and/or recreational areas

The dynamics of transforming agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes are illustrated with an example from Java. The sites that are selected for conversion are very often ones that are highly productive, can be irrigated, and are easy to access due to a well-developed infrastructure. An efficient land use planning for securing the high agricultural potential of the region and to avoid numerous conflicts over land could help to improve the situation.

Increasing dynamics of land conversion

Photo 5: Transformation of an agricultural area for a golf course

photo5.gif (183007 Byte)

(Source: GTZ)

Transformation of rural land to urban land in Indonesia

The agrarian census of 1993 shows that the land used for agriculture has been reduced from 6.4 million to around 5.5 million hectares in Indonesia in the previous ten years. Particularly painful for agriculture in this case is the high percentage of highly productive sawah land which has been taken out of agricultural production in this period of time. All in all, the amount of the reduction was more than 400,000 hectares within the period 1983 - 1992. This is equal to an average loss of around 1.4% per year and an estimated loss of more than 500,000 tons of rice per year. How quickly the transformation is taking place can be seen in the time period from 1969 to 1985 when 1.2 million ha were brought under irrigation through the erection of new irrigation facilities. At the end of the 80’s, 25% of the land had already been converted to non-agricultural uses.

(Löffler 1996:55)