The 1999 Village Land Act in Tanzania, specifically its rural land formalization element Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO), is examined in this article. The impact of CCROs on the development of Tanzania is explored with a focus on the efforts of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team to implement the policy in a manner consistent with sustainable and equitable development. What emerges is a holistic picture of CCROs and the observation that it fails on key economic metrics and some social goals, but achieves great success in the area of culturally respectful and equitable development.