Field Method Toolkit
Observation - reading the land
Some of the impact of how tenure is arranged is written on the land. Remember that you will need people to tell you the meaning of what you see. Stay alert to what you see as you walk or drive and ask groups later. OR Take a walk or a drive with people who have been involved in local land rights administration, and talk about what you are seeing.
Possible general probes are "What's happening here? who...? when did.....? why? tell me about...? and then you can use specific probes for land rights administration.
- People building suggests possible new allocations, leasing, sub-letting, sub-dividing ... Talking about this can give you recent examples of how land rights administration is working. People building can also indicate the breakdown of control and land invasions.
- Infrastructural development, like a school, water supply, road, school often requires formal agreements with outside agencies about rights to land - servitudes or permission to occupy or long leases. Ask "How did you get this development?" and probe from there.
- Abandoned homes suggests that that people have left.
- Shops or other businesses raise the question of allocation of land for businesses, and the type of right held, like a permission to occupy.
- Natural resources. Good questions are "Who uses..?" and "Who is excluded?"
- Fields, plantations, cane, grazing. Good questions are "Who uses...?" "How did they get to use ...?" "Who doesn't?" "Why not?"
- Un-used arable land or residential sites. Under conditions of land demand such land can be very significant. Ask "Why...?"