THE LANDS USE PLANS AND THE VILLAGES’ SUBDIVISIONS IN THE GLOBAL LAND RUSH: THE CASE OF THE RUIPA SITE IN THE KILOMBERO VALLEY, MOROGORO REGION, TANZANIA

In Tanzania, the struggle for space and resources is embedded in a long history of accumulation by dispossession, shaped by a large web of multi-scalar powers of exclusion. Tanzania is considered a country rich in natural resources, with considerable ‘idle’ and ‘unexploited’ lands by international and national institutions. The former concepts are taken up locally by those who help implement estates, and rhetorically in advocacy discourses during negotiations. In the Kilombero district, more than 80% of the land that covers the Kilombero valley and the surrounding mountains are already enclosed for environment conservation, mining extraction, hydro-power plants or large-scale plantations purposes. Nevertheless, the SAGCOT (Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor) program identified 182,198 ha (28% ofthe village lands) “that could be offered for investment” (SAGCOT, 2012b: 12). On top of that, a complex and institutionalized land demarcation and valuation process is being undertaken: from the introduction of the Certificateof Customary Rights of Occupancy in 2004, the Land Use Planning Act No. 6 of 2007 which “provides proceduresrelated to the preparation of village land use planning in a sustainable and participatory manner” (ibid, 2013: 126),the Tanzania-G8 Land Transparency Partnership (TLTP) in 2013, to the Land Tenure Support Program (LTSP)launched in partnership with the Denmark’s development cooperation (DANIDA), the British Department forInternational Development (DFID) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)in 2016, several huge and heavily-financed programs aim at formalizing land rights and clarifying village bordersand plans. In this paper, I will focus on the Ruipa Site, one particular area of the valley which is highly covetedand is one of the latest “interstices” of environmental conservation. While the establishment of a RAMSAR site1denies access to the wetlands on the east, and the expansion of the Kilombero Nature Reserve (KNR) restricts access to the forest on the west, the central and district governments plan to revive a sugar cane plantation project of 10,000 ha that is highly contested by local inhabitants. During the negotiations for land enclosures, different powers play in the struggle for space and resources. I will first show how the Village Land Use Plans (VLUPs) are used as one of the powerful tools by District and Village leaders to impose their planning objectives. Then I will underline that this plan, anchored in the Local Government Act and the Village Land Act of 1982 and 1999 respectively, highlights the necessity to think about the definition of a “village” and its legal recognition in the “global land rush” in Tanzania