Ed jaw studies in 1958, no subse- Chapter 3 vied on all the ported into the Bent study of land tenure systems has men made, due to limited budget rovisions in the Division of Land LAND AND AGRICULTURE anagement. Until customary land hws of the Territory are codified, the very 20 ciga- .,.. tion‘practices ‘lifer“greatly, throwasBide for the Administration in resolvnot only Seng land problems. Many variations in out the Territory, than cigarettes district to district, but even in some@stoms and practices make codifica- instances among island groups within ton a monumental [askdistrict. These traditional practices” Existing land ownership and land have undergone considerable modifica.” oe mg i sunesrized in tion as a result of the influence fromest" “he VIII are 1étics and toine and other of perfumery, the various administrations. Neverthe.®PP endix otherwise, and tpplications to sks, pomades, t preparations operties—25% non-alcoholic wid Ounces or resent handbook, along with supJementary studies and court opinions Ind decisions, must serve as a basic Land Tenure ess ; . , for ‘MicronenteDevelopby“ “iy In ancient Palau, land was divided R. Nath > P oY OPETtnto public domain (chutem bwai) and ber 066. Astociates, Inc., in Decem. Jan lands (chutem kebliil). The “Still, today the manyeee inhabitable interior of Babelthuap tenure arran , . ion sland was public domain, as were the arrangements which continues, islands, mangrove swamps, seas a. ae often create obstacles tok d reefs of Korer Peleliu Angaur oFtndefined ownechinbesten and the various traditional villages of families and clans. with ee rights ; Pabelthuap. In most cases the village beverages—3¢ iid ounces or beverages— ne gallon. uman con- 1 products, ve and gasid valorem. on the use, the Terriesel fuel at 1 sO used, many, discouragesinvestment ; , YBouncil, the klvbak, controlled the improvement. Land reform is the ane public domain but in some areas the ultimate P lannin solution, 8 and d but. the € eileen council or a group of villages 7 carefulMyithin a district collectively controlled equitable implementa-$pe public domain. Clan lands com- tion ( of a well-conceived land reform§&F ; . . f will t riscd most of the. private lands o i take much expert effort and many aboriginal Palau. These included lands years to achieve. @aving utility value—home sites, taro . Apaddics, woodlots and palm forests— The Administration, aware of the d, except in the vase of the taro complexity of traditional land tenure & winps, were assigned to male lineage systems, is making conscious efforts to meads who in turn assigned parcels to Withinthe Seohh: are solutions male lineage members. Taro paddies and the _ Policy admini w judicial process Bwere assigned to female lineage heads ie administrative framework. Theyho assigned paddy land to its memof the Government is to Bber women and women married into encourage, where possible, ways and She lineage. means to promote understanding of & the need for a single consistent system © of land holdings in the Territory. Since publicat: 74 ae In precontact time the Mariana Islands were divided into districts, each ruled by a local chief who nominally controlled the lands within it. The rights to areas within the district were assigned to kinship groups. The land tenure system began to break down when the Spanish administration gave Chamorrofamilies rights to certain lands on the islands. In the latter part of the 1800’s, when the Chamorros resettled in Saipan, individual ownership was established and each family cultivated its own fields. Present-day land tenure patterns among the Mariana Islands resemble the western system more than do the patterns in any other district of the Trust Territory. The sale of land is an accepted practice. In the Truk District, especially on the atolls, land is more precious than anywhere else in the Territory due to the high population density. Land is identified with food. For example, a Trukese will say, “That is my food,” when pointing to his parcel of land. The land may be owned individually or by lineage groups. Major types of land recognized by the local inhabitants are dry land, fresh water swamp, and the shallow area covered by sea water. Improvements or planting of tree crops, such as breadfruit trees, in any of these areas may be owned separately from the land itself. The size of individual pieces of property may be quite small, seldom more than in Yap, the traditional unit of land oand has been for centuries the ‘ pobinaw, or estate, which consists of ince publication of a handbook on ¥@ll land belonging to a single extended customary land tenure patterns and ghousch old und which may include one Part VI—Economic Advancement ‘ iscal Year 1968 IOaE eM ae ch Sap va ma or more house platforms, taro pits, tracts of sea inside the reef, stone fish weirs, coconut palms, yam gardens, grassy uplands, and timberlots. a few acres, although a person usually has some, but not necessarily sole, interest in a half dozen or moreplots. In precontact time all the land area of the Ponape Islands belonged to the 55 ee eT are v SETI ye eer ape ge ay net eon +