Pawaga Division Officer, Nasson Mwaulesi (Photo by Friday Simbaya)
Iringa District Land and Natural Resources Officer, Donald Mshauri has commended Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) to establish a forum of farmers and herders in Pawaga division to reduce conflicts between these groups.
He said this yesterday during a meeting of stakeholders in land issues in Iringa District, Iringa Region which was organized by the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum.
Mshauri said that the establishment of the forum has reduced conflicts between farmers and pastoralists in Division Pawaga the problem he said has existed for some time now.
He said that there are factors that led to conflicts over land in its territory, including the increase in livestock and an increase of migrants from other districts coming to Pawaga.
"Cattle herders have lived in arid non-sufficient water and pasture when farmers lived in valleys where there is water and agricultural activities is carried out ...," explained the officer's land and natural resources.
He said that these things are motivated by the lack of regulations and an enabling environment enabling cattle keepers not to benefit from resources available in the valley.
On his part, Project Coordinator of the Land from Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF), Godfrey Massey said that TNRF has created a forum of farmers and pastoralists in Pawaga division with the aim of bringing them together to discuss and find ways of resolving challenges facing them together.
He said that the project has provided training on land rights and leadership to the villagers and leaders of the four villages, whereby 200 villagers and 200 local officials have been trained.
Massey said that the villages include Itunudu, Mbolimboli, Kisanga and Isele and the training for eight land observers, two each village by gender were given further training to be teachers and counselors in issues of land in their villages.
However, recent TNRF conducted a public training on land rights and rural governance and provide legal aid to the three villages in Pawaga.
The villages that benefited were Mkumbwanyi, Magombwe and Mkombilenga total of 334 villagers among them 215 men and 119 women had benefited from the training.
Meanwhile, Pawaga Division Officer, Nasson Mwaulesi called on a meeting with all government servants working in his division for reminding them about job responsibility.
The Divisional officer among the other things he introduced new staff to understand each other and be servants with discipline and ethics to the society they live with.
Mwaulesi said that employees are required to have a session with divisional officer every three months and warned them to stay away from politics during this period of general elections in October this year.
On other hand, the trainer Masalu Elias Luhula - TNRF said Administration and Management of land at village level is well provided within the Village Land Act, 1999.
He said The Act gives mandate of administration and Management of village land to two Authorities, the Village Council and the Village Assembly.
The Village Council is the authority entrusted with management and administration of village land on behalf of villagers in the village.
Luhula said the Village Council has the power to allocate land available in the village land. Allocation of land out of the village land affects interest in land of villagers and the village as a whole.
Therefore the law requires that, the village council get approval of the Village Assembly.
This is trainer’s experience from field study. The training was conducted in Pawaga division in Iringa District, Iringa Region from April until August this year (2015) by the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) with financial support from CARE – Denmark under the Ardhi Yetu Project.
During the training, he discovered a number of challenges that face the administration of land at village level.
“It is the fundamental principal of law that no village land can be allocated or dealt in anyhow with the village council without prior approval of the village assembly” he said.
Despite the fact that, land laws became operational since 2001, the village councils in different villages continued to allocate land without approval of the village assembly contrary to the law.
He said this was testified by villagers in Isele village in Iringa district where the village council decided to allocate village land to different people in the village in early August, 2015 without convening a Village Assembly to approve that action.
Also in 2013 at Magombwe village in Iringa District without consent of the villagers, the Village Council together with some elders agreed with other village leaders (Mkuyuni village) that part of Magombwe village land to be taken and form part of Mkuyuni village.
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