The Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP)

RECOMMENDED POLICY AND STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

2.0 PERI-URBAN LAND AND ENVIRONMENT

By definition, peri-urban land deals with the "coal face" of one of the most important social phenomena throughout the developing world: rural to urban migration. It must also deal with the urban expansion based upon the natural population growth within the urban and peri-urban population. Peri-urban areas are outside formal urban boundaries and urban jurisdictions which are in a process of urbanisation and which therefore progressively assume many of the characteristics of urban areas.

Peri-urban areas can be defined as areas having all or some of the following interrelated characteristics:

fast and unplanned growth resulting in, amongst other things, negative environmental health issues and environmental degradation
Jurisdiction is unclear or duplicated in matters of planning, land tenure and land transfer.
Tenure of residents is not always based on clearly defined and enforceable title.
Planning and building guidelines and regulations, the Rating Act, and provision of urban services are not applied.
Service infrastructure is inadequate to meet even basic needs.
Social infrastructure does not meet basic needs.
A significant proportion of residents are in lower income categories.
Unplanned settlements to cater to the growing rental market, the rental market alone catering to demand.

As peri-urban areas are in a process of transition they cannot be precisely defined spatially as they change over time. However, there is general agreement that peri-urban areas in Swaziland are primarily those within the corridor from Ngwenya border through Mbabane to Manzini. Other urban centres are also beginning to show some of these characteristics.

Essentially, the peri-urban land and environment policy is to address the land and environment-related problems associated with the spread of urban areas.

It is recognised that the division "rural/peri-urban/urban" has fuzzy boundaries, especially the rural/peri-urban divide. The degree of applicability of this policy in rural areas will depend upon the degree to which the dominant motives for new settlements are urban-related.

ISSUES SUMMARY

General

The current high population growth rate, and the projected increase of the urban population from one third to two-thirds of the population by 2025.
Social and economic costs of unmanaged peri-urban growth.
The interface of rural and urban policies.
The practice of maintaining both urban/peri-urban dwellings and rural homesteads.
The role of the peri-urban informal sector.
The current economic rationality in dwelling in peri-urban areas in:
- free use of facilities paid for by ratepayers
- not having to pay rates
- proximity to the workplace saving time and transport costs
- the relative cost in khonta-ing for peri-urban SNL compared to the cost of freehold land
- lack of legal documentation costs on SNL
- lack of development controls resulting in availability of cheap accommodation.

Management/Institutions

Inadequate management mechanisms to meet the particular demands of peri-urban dwellers.
Public/private sector relationships such as infrastructure delivery.
Coordination of infrastructure provision such as water supply and government land delivery, in particular considering urban boundaries.
The current and future roles of peri-urban traditional authorities.
Effects on land of transfer of governance to the urban authorities under the Urban Government Policy.
Using formalisation of tenure and financing of tenure towards ensuring that the use of peri-urban land helps to establish a culture of entrepreneurship.

Changes in land tenure/land use

Urban encroachment on existing rural uses.
Land supply to meet future demand, more particularly land banking.
Mismatch between land tenure arrangements and social realities. For example, there is a breakdown of traditional systems being replaced by transfers of occupancy without any corresponding transfer of clearly defined enforceable and transferable rights.
Rapid stratification of residents into owners/landlords and tenants.
Changes in land use, with special attention to permanently retaining rural as open space elements in urban areas on the best soils, and maintaining balance between urban and rural land use.

Environment

Environmental degradation and rehabilitation.
Waste disposal, in particular the use of treated urban water and sewage waste on peri-urban agricultural land.
Lack of interest in or attention to retaining functional green areas - arable land, forests, green areas.
The pre-emptive nature of much unregulated peri-urban development against the implementation of adequate health and safety standards.
Little access to protected water supplies in the informal settlement areas, leading to high incidence in diseases and mortality.

SUMMARY POLICY PROPOSALS

The peri-urban land and environment policy has to address the two main land uses in this zone of transition from rural to urban, namely use as green belt (recreation, parks, forests, agriculture, horticulture) and as residential or industrial/commercial, and cross reference with sectoral policies.

There may be no need to distinguish subordinate peri-urban land and environment policies. If so, the complete peri-urban land and environment policy remains at the second level.

Status of Policy

Non-existent, but is to be addressed under the Urban Policy initiative of the Urban Development Project (UDP).

Broad Overall Objectives

To provide infrastructure and tenure in response to demand, the former ensuring adequate health standards and safe services in accord with the requirements for incorporation into an urban area.
To direct and channel urban expansion and market forces towards urban amenity, the latter term including the retention of green areas.
To mitigate the problems related to spontaneous human settlements through policies and programmes that anticipate unplanned settlements.

Policy Principles

Green spaces and vegetation cover in peri-urban areas are to be recognised as essential for biological and hydrological balance and economic development and treated as such.
Securely tenured land be made accessible to as many individual Swazis as demanded in a peri-urban context, within the parameters of affordability, costs and mandates.
The "User Pays" principle be applied to infrastructure delivery.
Peri-urban land be managed on the integrated principle of the protection of existing property rights and the incremental provision of property rights to migrants.
The conservation and sustainable use of peri-urban biodiversity be protected, including forests, local habitats and species biodiversity.
Healthy and environmentally sound agricultural activities be integrated into the planning of peri-urban areas.

Policy Practical Elements

Markets be enabled to work as the prime method of land delivery in peri-urban areas, particularly in reaching levels not currently catered for, i.e. the lower income levels.
Transparent, comprehensive, easily accessible and progressive taxation and incentive mechanisms be applied to stimulate efficient, environmentally sound and equitable use of land. The full potential of land-based and other forms of taxation be exploited in mobilising financial resources for service provision by local authorities.
A Land Development Trading Account be instituted, to be utilised for infrastructure and land delivery.

Policy Supportive Elements

The following supportive elements, already identified at national level, are particularly relevant within the peri-urban areas.

Land information systems and practices for managing land be developed and implemented, including land value assessment, and made readily available.
Comprehensive inventories of publicly held land be prepared, and programmes be designed to make them available for development (or to protect them from development as the case may be).
Further develop appropriate cadastral systems and streamline land registration procedures.
Land codes and legal frameworks be developed to define the nature of real property and the formally recognised rights.

SUMMARY STRATEGY PROPOSALS

General Strategic Approach

It would be practical to approach the peri-urban sphere with an inner and outer zone, and incorporate the concept in the peri-urban policy. The outer zone shows the first signs of urbanization, such as increased settlement for residential purposes (very often commuters) and decreased agricultural activities. The inner zone is characterized by a variety of non rural activities, often non controlled and leading to conflicts over land use, land tenure, etc. Proper planning in the outer zone would have a positive effect on the development in the inner zone. Inner and outer zones shift outwards.

The dynamic over these zones can be divided into three stages:

Primary stage:

To define all property rights. The de facto rights on all land, including freehold, will be made de jure unless they conflict with existing de jure rights. In the peri-urban context, that may be based on the assumption that no urban development rights will be assumed to the owner of peri-urban land. The rights then not expressed de jure reside with His Majesty.
To define which areas are to have which uses in the future. For example, some localities may be retained as green areas, others used for low cost housing, etc.
Once these rights and structure plans are clarified, policy can be effected. The government could then direct market forces towards policy implementation by the zoning-restricted trading or non-trading of the relevant property rights.
In addition to this prime approach, a government land bank could be maintained in the peri-urban areas, and earmark which property rights will never be exercised.

Secondary stage:

To utilise the peri-urban land so purchased in a way that will assist the development of a culture of entrepreneurship, and in enhancing the environment. For example, as towns already have the transport infrastructure, model farms to teach relevant economic and environmental skills and land uses could be located on land designated to be retained as a green area, or only developed in the long term.
To provide the peri-urban land to be developed in the medium term with subdivisional plans, the sites delineated by intermediate tenure, and a certificate of occupancy granted with the holder of that certificate having first right of refusal upon the government's offer of sale when services and full tenure are established.

Tertiary stage:

To supply infrastructure and regularise tenure, using the skills and experience now being gained through the Urban Development Project, and examining other possible options consistent with encouraging a culture of entrepreneurship,
For areas not included in the UDP, such development could occur by releasing unoccupied land for private development.
Government development could be financed through a Land Development Trading Account - a rolling fund, whereby the government develops land using land-created wealth, which funds are then repaid to the fund when the land is sold.
To facilitate the emergence of a well functioning land market in the peri-urban areas by legislation based upon principles of land economics. Well-functioning land markets can only occur with clearly defined, enforceable and transferable property rights in place. They can be recognised by the ease of entry and the ease of performing transactions, both of which depend on the availability of adequate and timely land information delivery, secure tenure arrangements, and registration/recording mechanisms responsive to demand. Thus, land markets work well where these conditions are present in some degree and do not work when they are absent.

Practical Strategy Elements

It is necessary that a single land management authority be formed which has the authority and ability to coordinate the peri-urban settlement process. Moreover, this authority requires a broader view than simply peri-urban areas, in order to be proactive: if it were to focus solely upon peri-urban land, its management would of necessity become reactive.
At the peri-urban level, an integrated functioning of the Natural Resources Board, the Human Settlements Authority, and the Environment Authority is called for. Further, it is essential that the traditional authorities on peri-urban SNL become part of the process of change.

Community Participation Strategy

Community participation would be the key to implementation of the above general strategic approach. The communities in situ would be educated by the proposed authority to ensure that new immigrants comply with the general strategy, insofar as it would be seen to be in the best interests of both the in situ communities and the new immigrants. The form that this community participation would take is a subject of the further development of this policy under the Urban Development Project.

Supportive Strategies

To provide clear and enforced procedures and guidelines to be followed by peri-urban migrants, including delegated areas to settle.
To institutionalise mechanisms which will allow the recognition of incremental property rights, the intermediate definition of survey boundaries and so on (as required by the general strategy) as way stations towards stricter and more formal tenure.
Ensure simple procedures for the transfer of property rights and conversion of land use within a comprehensive policy framework, including the protection of the environment and, where appropriate, arable land.
Establish pilot areas of land to test policies and their implementation.
Land Information Systems, incorporating the regular use of aerial/satellite photography, to monitor the adherence of settlements to the strategy.

KEY REFERENCE MATERIAL

Farvacque/McAuslan 1992. Reforming Urban Land Policies and Institutions in Developing Countries.
GOS/MNRE et al 1990. Urbanisation in Swaziland: Challenges of the 90's.
GOS/MHUD 1996. Habitat II: Swaziland National Report.
Lukhele, S. 1985. Customary Control over Residential Development in the Peri-urban Area of Manzini
McDermott, M.D. 1996(b). Issues Paper for the Economic Vusela and National Development Strategy.
UNCHS 1996. The Habitat Agenda.

MINISTERIAL INVOLVEMENT

Predominantly MHUD with the relevant urban authority, MOAC, MEE, MNRE, MTEC.