Customary land

Customary land is land held under customary land tenure, a system of ownership and use arising from the traditions and practices of an indigenous or local community rather than from a codified statute, and it stands apart from the statutory land tenure systems that were typically introduced during the colonial period. It is generally characterized by communal ownership and administration through indigenous institutions and customs rather than a central land registry, and many national laws formally recognize it: Malawi's legislation, for instance, defines customary land as all land which is held, occupied or used under customary law, excluding any public land. Customary tenure remains the dominant form of land holding across much of the world, covering an estimated ninety percent of land in Africa and between roughly eighty one and ninety eight percent of land across various Pacific nations. The tension between land held under formally recognized statutory rights and land managed under customary arrangements has been documented as contributing to underdevelopment, conflict and environmental degradation in places where the two systems overlap and compete, making customary land tenure an enduring parallel framework of land governance alongside state imposed property law.