| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
117138
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2012.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Oil palm in Sabah is grown in large plantations or smallholdings, the latter mostly managed by indigenous peoples on untitled customary land. Government development agencies have long focussed on improving the productivity of smallholders for poverty alleviation. For most smallholders, the main issue is tenure insecurity: as long as lands remain untitled they are subject to changes in land allocation and land use at the discretion of the State Government. Indigenous claimants seek recognition of the right to use and occupy ancestral lands via individual Native Titles (NT), as provided for in the Sabah Land Ordinance (SLO). Recent official push for converting such 'idle' customary lands by promoting large scale joint ventures between customary landowners and oil palm companies is creating anxiety among many indigenous groups. The joint-venture approach has been enabled through a crucial amendment to the SLO that promotes the granting of communal titles (CT) with conditions attached. This tenure instrument empowers state-appointed trustees to make key decisions concerning land use where commercial crops (especially oil palm) are favoured and on the eligibility of descendants (pewaris) to participate in the joint venture or not. The complexity of local concerns and official responses is captured via a case study at Lalampas in the Tongod District of Sabah.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
117142
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2012.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Across post-colonial Melanesia, the benefits and costs of 'mobilisation' of customary land for economic development remain much debated among scholars, activists, policy-makers and the donor community. This paper presents a case study from Solomon Islands of a hybrid property space in which smallholder oil palm blocks are being established on customary land through an informal 'smallholder land use approval' system. This system provides salutary evidence of how customary land can be engaged for commercial agricultural activity without recourse to formalisation. It also potentially provides a more equitable pathway for landowners, especially women and young men, to engage in the oil palm sector, with the only current alternative being the registration and leasing of land directly to the oil palm company. However, enthusiasm for the scheme must be tempered by an explicit awareness of the relationships between land, development and conflict on the island Guadalcanal where the oil palm operation is located. The nascent 'informal formalisation' and commercialisation of customary land that is taking place on Guadalcanal is subjected to a conflict analysis informed by both the recent history of violent conflict in the area and comparative experience from the village oil palm sector in neighbouring Papua New Guinea. A number of potential conflict stresses are identified and recommendations made to mitigate them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|