Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
survey of 4,026 households in 1994—96, including data on land
tenure. The latter survey noted that 90 percent of farmers surveyed
have access to land, they own two-thirds of the land they
farm, average farm size is 1.7 hectares, and farms average 3.7
dispersed plots. The largest 1 percent of farms in the survey
occupy 10 percent of the land.
In addition to private land, Haiti has large state holdings
farmed by tenant farmers and squatters. By some estimates,
there are around 35,000 leaseholders on state lands, including
large and small holdings. Small farmers undertake most agricultural
activity on state lands. Such activity amounts to perhaps
5 percent of rural households and 10 percent of all
agricultural land. Estimates of state land vary from 100,000 to
300,000 hectares; there are, however, no reliable inventories of
state land.
Community studies and surveys find that landholding in
rural Haiti has the following characteristics. Private property is
the rule. Peasant smallholdings predominate over large holdings
and are made up of several distinct parcels. The vast
majority of peasant farmers are owner-operators of their own
land. Most peasant farmers are both landlords and tenants,
and inherited land is divided equally among all children of the
deceased. Land is readily bought and sold without updating
title. Formal entitlement to land is commonly avoided or postponed,
and land is most often held on the basis of customary
arrangements.
There is immense pressure on the land as an agricultural
resource. Agriculture is in decline while population pressures
show marked increase. Overall population density has
increased from about 207 people per square kilometer of arable
land in 1900, to 401 people in 1950, and 989 people per
square kilometer in 1998. Clearly, the cultivable land base has
far surpassed its carrying capacity (see Land Use and Water,
and Demographic Profile, ch. 7).
Since 1986 a series of highly politicized land disputes and
land invasions have occurred in the aftermath of the Duvalier
regime and subsequent military governments. In the 1990s, the
rapid growth of Port-au-Prince and other urban areas has been
marked by a notable increase in urban squatting. Land disputes
in Haiti are generally not well served by the national system
of justice. The traditional or customary system of land
tenure continues to function fairly well, especially at the local
level in most rural areas. Some grassroots peasant organiza-
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