In total, 59 Certificates of Claim to land rights were registered, mostly between 1892 and 1894, covering an area of , or 15% of the total land area of the Protectorate. This included in the North Nyasa District that the British South Africa Company had acquired for its mineral potential and which was never turned into plantation estates. Except for this large grant in the Northern Region, much of the remaining land, some of estates, included much of the best arable land in the Shire Highlands, which was the most densely populated part of the country.