MONITORING LAND-USE CHANGE IN AN AFRICAN TRIBAL VILLAGE ON THE RURAL-URBAN FRINGE

Urban land uses commonly compete favourably with rural land uses on th e rural-urban fringe under the principal of land rents in a free marke t. Where a free market does not exist, complications in land use compe tition may develop and make it difficult to acquire land for the ever increasing demands of urban use. This study uses GIS to quantify and a nalyse patterns of land use change reflecting competition among variou s types of land use in the village of Tlokweng on the rural-urban frin ge of the city of Gaborone, Botswana, over a 26-year period between 19 63 and 1989. The villages in the tribal territories on the rural-urban fringe where Tlokweng is located practise communal land tenure under which individuals are allocated land parcels free of monetary cost. Th e city of Gaborone, on the other hand, has a free land market. Differe nces in the price of land have encouraged migrants to the city to atte mpt to acquire residential plots from the tribal territories on the ci ty's rural-urban Fringe. However, since there are no incentives for ex changing land, would-be purchasers have faced resistance in acquiring plots on the outskirts of the village. During the period of study ther e was no organized expansion of the village and patterns of land use c hange could only be analysed by monitoring the increase in the number of plots allocated to various uses and the aggregate area occupied by these plots. Results indicate that more and more allocations of reside ntial plots are made from vacant land within the older part of the vil lage, resulting in increased congestion. It is recommended that commer cialization of the communal lands, already contemplated by the governm ent, may partially reduce resistance to changes in land ownership and arrest further congestion in the villages on Gaborone's rural-urban fr inge. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd