pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNABE196.pdf‎
by C Besteman - ‎1988 - ‎Cited by 2 - ‎Related articles
... arising between state leasehold systems of tenure and customary land tenure arrangements; and (d) .... Registered landholdings vary from a few hectares for.

https://awasmifee.potager.org/?p=346‎
31 May 2013 - The villagers, who are the customary landowners, have blocked access to around 10,000 hectares of the land which the company wants to use ...

www.emtv.com.pg/news.../customary-landowners-urged-to-regis...‎
26 Jul 2013 - Prime Minister Peter O'Neill urged Papua New Guinean customary landowners to voluntarily register land and not to sell it.

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Note added at 12 hrs (2013-08-17 09:53:24 GMT)
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Or Land Chiefs, if one can assume that "maîtres de (la) terre" are what are referred to in the paper below (and many other sources) as "Chefs de Terre"

http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/a0297e/a0297e05.htm
"Land access, encompassing access to natural resources such as soil and water, is governed through land tenure systems legally or customarily defined. Regulations of land tenure govern who can use what resources, either land, water, livestock or trees, and under what conditions. In both Senegal and Burkina Faso, the land tenure system is largely a customary one in which a Chef de Terre, or Land Chief, acts as custodian of community land and distributes it among households as needed. This land is then inherited through family lineage from father to son. In recent decades, a shift to intensive agriculture and private tenure has reduced the powers of the lineage land chief. Yet the practice of collective management of family land is still largely observed. (Platteau et al. 2000)

Rights to land, and the tenure systems that govern those rights, are as diverse as uses of land. Just as multiple land tenure systems can co-exist in close proximity, multiple rights to land can be held by groups or individuals to the same parcel of land. They include rights to access, use, control and benefit from land, with different individuals holding different sized bundles according to their position in the family, gender, religion or socio-economic status. Additional rights include the ability to transfer or inherit land, which in many countries, Senegal and Burkina Faso among them, are not extended to women. Monitoring the fate of this bundle, in the face of economic and cultural transformations, is key to ensuring the security of women's well-being and that of their families. Recent field research in Senegal revealed that only a minority of women were granted rights to use plots received from their husbands or families-inlaw, so for the majority of women, tenure on their husbands' plots was of an indirect nature. Since women's rights to land are indirect, i.e. through their relationships with men, broader forces at work in shaping and modifying land tenure systems in general may affect their livelihoods. (Platteau et al. 2000a)

In rural areas, customary tenure systems arise out of traditional social institutions, such as family and marriage arrangements. These institutions generally ensure that women have access, albeit on a limited basis, to resources under community or corporate control, including rights to a plot of land for household food production. Traditional institutions governing family lineage, marriage and inheritance are hugely influential in customary systems, and often strictly adhered to as a means of preserving social order. In regions where customary systems predominate, gender - in that it largely determines one's status in a family and community - determines one's degree of access and control of resources relative to others in the community. As in many other countries, in Burkina Faso and Senegal, cultural norms often dictate that men are heads of household, which means that they receive land from the Land Chief and determine its uses and benefits."