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how chiefs might collect ground rents in their areas of Trust and Reserve Lands and similarly retain
a portion of those rents for local development projects.
The ministry should not attempt to develop an independent capability for ground rent
collection. It must take advantage of the capabilities of these other institutions but will
be able to do so effectively only if they themselves have some direct interest in the
revenues to be collected.
28. There is a need for the ministry to develop an effective program of training and public information
concerning land policy generally and titling specifically. This implies the creation of a training and
information unit within the ministry.
There is a need to give the circular much broader distribution but also a need to
provide more "how-to" information, which might be disseminated not just through the
ministry but through an NGO such as the National Farmers Association of Zambia.
In the Trust and Reserve Lands in particular, the need is not just for information but
for genuine exchanges on the role of titling. The ministry will need to carry out more
formal training in procedures and record-keeping for its own provincial staff and for
employees of other agencies on which they must rely, especially council staff.
29. In framing land policy for Trust and Reserve areas, there is a need for a frank admission that
abuse of the titling process for land-grabbing is not just a potential problem. It has been taking place,
permitted by inadequate safeguards within the ministry's land allocation system. The 250 hectare limit
from the circular should be enacted in law for farms; clear criteria should be created for exceptions
to this limit; and the approval of such exceptions be entrusted to a national board consisting of
respected figures.
The ministry should set up a task force to think through how landgrabbing can be
avoided in the future. An effective and economic ground rent will be the first need,
but even then difficult cases will arise. There will be requests which tax the ability of
officials to estimate real land needs, like one currently pending at district level in
Northern province for a 15,000 hectare game ranch. Should the commercial farm
community find that this ceiling is prohibitively low, a study should be commissioned
to arrive at a more efficient and acceptable standard or set of standards.
30. For Trust and Reserve areas, the supply of titles and land delivery for outside investors, though
an important element, should be secondary to the development of a viable strategy for protecting and
enhancing the land rights of local farmers and communities.
To date, policy has focused almost entirely on the supply of titles, which is in no
sense a comprehensive land policy for these areas. Such a policy needs to be
developed. There is time to step back and think through the needs of these areas more
systematically than in the past, time provided in part by the availability of
considerable good, arable land in the State Lands.
31. The recognition of value in land should be an element in this policy as it is in State Lands.
Government (and donors) must recognize customary property rights and should pay compensation for
land taken for development by others.