Land policy in Malawi reflects changing economic, political, and social circumstances over time.

Colonial land policies appropriated land to the British crown and facilitated settler access to land
via private title. This diminished native land rights. English property law was imposed in 1902,
limiting the evolution of customary land law. The Land Ordinance of 1951 defined land as
public, private or customary, with customary land treated as a form of public land. This further
weakened native land rights.

The Land Act of 1965 did not improve the status and security of customary land rights. The
Registered Land Act (1967) and Customary Land Development Act (1967) were early attempts
at comprehensive land law, but had limited application. Colonial land policies led to
concentration of prime land under white settler farmers, especially in the Southern Region. This
caused lasting land distribution issues.

Since independence, Malawi has lacked a comprehensive land policy. This contributed to tenure
insecurity, environmental degradation, encroachment, land disputes, arbitrary land allocations,
and hindered investments. Recent land utilization studies and the Presidential Commission on
Land Policy Reform highlighted the need for land policy reform to address poverty, food
insecurity, perceived inequities in land access, and promote economic growth.

This National Land Policy aims to provide a coherent framework for determining property rights,
conducting land transactions, controlling land use, and settling land disputes. It also seeks to
encourage the evolution of customary land law and administration.

OVERVIEW OF LAND PROBLEMS:

 Residual Effects of Colonial Land Policy: Concentration of freehold lands under white
settler farmers in the Southern Region led to skewed land distribution. This created a
need for land redistribution in some areas.
 High Population Density: Malawi has one of the highest population densities in Africa,
putting pressure on land resources. The Southern Region is especially crowded.
 Land Scarcity Despite Unused Lands: Around 28% of suitable farmland remains
uncultivated, yet land shortages persist due to speculative holding.
 Provocative Squatting: Squatting in protected areas has increased due to land pressure
and poverty.
  Worsening Land Pressure: Increasing land pressure has heightened tenure insecurity and
land conflicts, despite community efforts to consolidate rights. It has also led to more
land degradation.
 Privatization of Customary Land Access: As the economy becomes more
commercialized, customary land access rights are becoming more private and restrictive.
This causes uncertainty without clear policy.
 Mismanagement of Land Development: Underutilization, illegal development, unplanned
buildings, and obstruction of waterways indicate a failure of development controls across
all land tenures.
 Cross-Border Encroachment: Shared ethnic ties have led to encroachment by nationals
from neighboring countries. International boundaries are often ignored.
 Encroachment on Protected Areas: Displacement of villages to create some protected
areas has caused grievances, making the areas prone to encroachment.
 Uncontrolled Lakeshore Allocation: Unregulated private development along the
lakeshore has displaced fishing villages and threatens their livelihoods.
 The government aims to address these issues through strategies to provide secure tenure,
ensure peaceful coexistence, facilitate investments, and promote planned land utilization.
Resettlement programs, population management, and strengthening of property rights
will also be part of the approach.

PROPOSED LAND TENURE REFORMS:

 Formalize Traditional Land Management Areas by demarcating and registering the

boundaries of each Traditional Authority's communal land area.
 Define a "customary estate" as land allocated exclusively to a community, family, or
individual under customary law. Register these as private customary estates with secure,
perpetual land rights.
 Allow chiefs and traditional leaders to grant private leases out of registered customary
estates without relinquishing ownership.
 Freeze the amount of freehold land owned by non-citizens as of January 2002. Do not
allow non-citizens to acquire new freehold land.
 Reserve freehold ownership for Malawian citizens only. Encourage partnerships between
foreigners and citizens.
 Allow non-citizens to lease land for investment purposes, with standard renewable terms
up to 50 years.
 Acquire and redistribute land to relieve pressure in congested areas. Develop community-
based strategies to ease land pressure.
 Formalize the land administration role of traditional leaders and make it more
transparent. Require recording of land transactions.
 Allow customary land to be registered and protected by law against arbitrary conversion
to public land.
 Equalize inheritance rights of men and women. Register individual and family customary
land titles.
 Install special protections for land rights of minors and spouses.
 Regulate customary land transactions to prevent loss of land by smallholders. Require
approval by traditional leaders and elected committees.
 Restrict sales of family customary estates to non-family members in the first five years
after titling.
 The reforms aim to provide secure tenure, ensure peaceful land access, facilitate
investments, encourage planned land use, and make customary land administration more
transparent and accountable.
THE LAND PROBLEMS IN MALAWI

1. Land Scarcity in spite of Idle Lands: On the basis of estimates made in 1994, 2.6
million hectares of suitable agricultural land remains uncultivated in the rural areas. This
means that approximately 28% of the country's total land area is lying idle. Similarly,
speculative holding of urban plots and lack of infrastructure causes artificial shortages of
urban development land

Proposed solutions from the article

 At present big parcels of land are allocated to individuals, private firms and
foreign investors regardless of their proven ability to develop them. As a result,
large areas of land remain undeveloped or are held for speculative purposes for
several years. This has happened, for example, in the Mulanje, Thyolo and
Kasungu Districts, and in urban centers particularly, Lilongwe and Blantyre. If
due care is not taken villagers in such high population districts and some residents
in urban centers will find themselves without access to land even though vacant
and undeveloped parcels of land exists
 The provisions for preventing land speculation exist under current planning laws
but are rarely enforced due to inadequate capacity in the Physical Planning and
Development Controls division

Solutions from the land Amendment Act

 Any underdeveloped plots shall be divided in accordance with the physical Planning Act
and maybe reallocated
 Section 11 of the principal act