ch6p06 campesino communities and land use

8/12/2019 Ch6p06 Campesino Communities and Land Use

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E NHANCING A CCESS OF THE P OOR TO L AND AND C OMMON P ROPERTY R ESOURCES 1

Campesino Communitiesand Land Use

T he bond between campesino communities and property is an old one. The concepts of property that are held by the campesinos today

originated in a series of titling processes involvingindigenous peoples properties that started about 150years ago and were built on older principles of land useand possession (cf. Glave, 1992; Diez, 1998).

The campesinos view the history of their land as a series

of struggles and claims, and defense or recovery (itshould be noted, not acquisition) of their ancestralland a process that has been marked by conflict andlawsuits with haciendas, cooperatives, other communities and the State.

Most of the campesinos in the Peruvian Andes are grouped into communities. Majority of thedecisions regarding production are taken within the family, but the communal organizationregulates the general process.

Alejandro Diez Hurtado, Interculturality ancommunities: Collective property and individproperty, In: Debate Agrario No. 36,December 2003.

Alejandro Diez Hurtado, Comunes yhaciendas. Procesos de comunalizacion en lasierra de Piura. Cusco, CBC-Cipca, 1998.

E-mail:

[email protected]@cepes.org.pe

SourceSourceSourceSourceSource


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2 Campesino Communities and Land Use ANGOC & ILC

The community is generally the guarantor of each familys access to land. However, its capac-ity to influence the decisions of each family as well as to control access by the families variesaccording to the type of land.

The community plays a very important role in two political functions connected to propertyand access to resources: (i) it is the first level of authority in settling conflicts among its members; and (ii) it is responsible for defending the land, in whole or in part, against third parties.

The present campesino communities have a management committee with a president, secre-tary, treasurer and other officers, all of whom, according to the law, must be reelected everytwo years. There is also a communal assembly, which is the highest level of authority. Allcommunity members registered in the communal register can take part in the assembly.

With regard to ownership and usufruct (both for the settling of conflicts and in collectiverepresentation with the outside), other organizations and authorities often participate. Water

users committees, livestock farmers committees, community farms, associations of landlesscampesinos and even rural self-defense groups may carry out some functions of regulation,control and defense, and must therefore be taken into account. In many communities, Stateauthorities, especially lieutenant governors and no letrado justices of the peace (a nonprofes-sional, honorary, local official) are incorporated or included in these functions.

The very existence of the communities is a kind of republican pact between communitymembers and the State. Communities of indigenous people were legally recognized by theState in the 1920 Constitution, arecognition later ratified in the1933, 1979 and 1993 Constitu-tions. In all these charters, thePeruvian State granted indig-enous communities the status of juridical persons and set itself upas guarantor of the ownership oftheir lands.

Ownership vs. UsufructWhile the distinction between owner-ship and usufruct may be clear in abstract terms, the two concepts are blurred in practice.Both refer to certain degrees of availability and use of the land; the difference is that usufructexcludes the possibility of sale and transfer.

However, many community members still transfer their usufruct rights, under the guise of both sale and inheritance. Such transactions are always within the limits imposed by the


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ENHANCING ACCESS OF THE POOR TO LAND AND COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES 3

DIFFERENT LAND TYPES

One central element in considering the issue of campesino property is theproduction practice that allocates some portions of land either for family use or collective use based on the production cycle. This practice is sanctioned bycustom and is not only subject to norms, but is supported by a series of communal institutions which decide who can use each piece of land and when,in some cases stipulating penalties against offenders.

Collective and family rights of access and usufruct depend to a large extent on the specific form of production and use of each individual portion of communal land. Broadly speaking, four types of production zone with relative rights of ownership and appropriation can be distinguished incampesino societies:

Irrigated landsIrrigated landsIrrigated landsIrrigated landsIrrigated lands are those where rights of exclusive access for individuals and families are moredeveloped. The owners farm them as family undertakings and can transfer or inherit themwithout submitting to communal control. They are usually located in the lowlands and tend to beof better quality and more productive. Formal ownership of the land is maintained and somecommunal pressure may be exercised through control of the use of water or irrigation systems which is usually effective in fostering communal participation in general.

DrylandsDrylandsDrylandsDrylandsDrylands are those where production depends on climatic variations and the availability of water. They usually have marked slopes and are scattered about various sections of the communalland, possibly subject to a rotation system of irrigation under communal control. Depending on

the geographical zone, the community can regulate turns for use of the land and sometimes alsothe crops that may be sown, and the dates to start sowing and harvesting, when the land is leftfree for collective use.

RangelandsRangelandsRangelandsRangelandsRangelands are generally collectively owned and are used for the extensive grazing of livestock. Greater communal control is exercised over these lands, through charging for grazing or rental rights and leasing out individual plots. Rangelands are usually found in high places andare the least productive of the lands. These lands are considered more communal in terms of ownership than others whose ownership is shared with the families. For the use of these lands,the community usually charges grazing rights according to how many heads of livestock eachcommunity member owns.

Publicly used landsPublicly used landsPublicly used landsPublicly used landsPublicly used lands are those which may belong to any of the previous types of land andwhich correspond to land considered communal but is treated as private property for uses of collective interest. These lands may be worked directly by those holding position during their term in office, or may be rented out to some community members for them to farm.


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4 Campesino Communities and Land Use ANGOC & ILC

collectives. (Most communities only allow intra-community transfer.) Thus, while commu-nity members recognize community ownership, viewing themselves as holders or usu-fructuaries of the land where they work, they nonetheless consider themselves owners ofthese lands.

The collective ownership of the campesino communities presumes a certain fiction of equalityamong their members. In practice, the lands allocated to families tend to be unequally distrib-uted. Not everybody has equal access to lands with collective usufruct generally rangelands from which community members with more livestock benefit particularly.

However, those who do not have real access to the lands are nevertheless equal owners of thewhole communal territory in law. This results in the disparity between formal owners (inprinciple all the community members ) and usufructuaries (who consider themselves own-ers). This problem is exacerbated by two factors: (1) the lack of precision of the communalland registers, which are not kept up to date and moreover do not include all the community

members who have rights over the communal territory; and (2) the emigration in recentdecades, as a result of which a large section of the population is not resident in the communi-ties but retains their rights.

The dynamics within communities hinges on a series of tensions that are inherent to them andsprings from the distinction between the individual and collective spheres. All communitiesshow signs of a permanent tension between the rights of families, the rights of the collectiveand the rights claimed by various factions and groups within them.

Which land should be titled and why?

Irrigated lands should be individually titled. This approach would free family lands frompossible communal pressure, guarantee security of ownership and facilitate transfer. Produ-

Communal controlCommunal controlCommunal controlCommunal controlCommunal control

Indirect via control of use

Control of turns, types of crop, and dates of sowing and harvesting

Charging of grazing dues, rental of ranges

Family RightsFamily RightsFamily RightsFamily RightsFamily Rights

Almost absolute

Limited by collectivity

No family appropriation

A. Diez

TTTTT ype of Land ype of Land ype of Land ype of Land ype of Land

Irrigated Land

Dryland

Rangelands

T T T T T able 1.able 1.able 1.able 1.able 1. FAMILY RIGHTS AND COMMUNAL CONTROL ACCORDING TO TYPE OF LAND


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ENHANCING ACCESS OF THE POOR TO LAND AND COMMON PROPERTY RESOURCES 5

cers would be able to associate freely with others according totheir interests, in the manner and under the conditions that suitthem best. Some restrictions of a collective type on usufruct ofthe land could be retained in the form of owners associationswith functions of control of collective resources if anyexist.

Although there may be no definition or clearpolicy on the matter, the process of com-munal titling should be accompanied by aproposal for a redefinition of the commu-nities functions, reinforcing their role asguarantors of family rights of usufructover communal lands.

RRRRREFERENCEEFERENCEEFERENCEEFERENCEEFERENCE

Glave, Luis Miguel. Vida, simbolos y batallas. Creacion y recreacion de la comunidadindigena. Cusco, siglos XVI-XX, Lima, Fce 1992.

This Resource Book is produced by the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC)[email protected] and the International Land Coalition (ILC)[email protected].

ch6p06 campesino communities and land use

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