Local land tenure administration : the case of the land tenure office in Ankilizato commune - AD2M
Resource information
Date of publication
January 2008
In a country where most people live from the land, land tenure law is of vital importance. However, it is a thorny and still largely unresolved issue. For more than a century, the Malagasy State has been the sole owner and manager of most of the country’s territory – unregistered land – which has meant a general insecurity for poor farmers without the means to purchase a title deed.
The Government’s first attempt, in 1999, to put an end to this insecurity of tenure was not enough to regularize the tenure system. The State has thus been undertaking implementation of a new land tenure reform since 2005, with the aim of decentralization and “reconciliation of the legal and the legitimate”. In other words, it is seeking to formalize unwritten land tenure rights and give those who farm the land the possibility of formalizing their ownership rights.
In support of the Malagasy Government’s efforts, since 2006 the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has been financing the Project to Support Development in the Menabe and Melaky Regions (AD2M), one of the objectives of which is to support the country’s land tenure policy as part of the National Land Policy Programme by facilitating the process of securing land tenure and land rights at the regional level.
Local land tenure services
The country-wide cover of the local land tenure administrative offices that have been in place since the project started has facilitated the decentralization of land tenure management. These communal services manage the untitled land ownership system and have the aim of allowing the poorest farmers to secure their access to the land they work. Malagasy citizens now have the choice between registration of title, a long and expensive process managed by the Land and Property Rights Directorate, and certification managed by land tenure offices, a simple and less expensive process.
The land tenure office of Ankilizato commune (or fokontany) on Madagascar’s west coast is part of the initial network of six pilot offices set up in 2006, and is also the first operative office in the Menabe region. When the 13 other offices financed by the project are up and running, the Ankilizato office will act as a land tenure resource and information centre – an intercommunal office handling data and drawing up land tenure certificates.
Ankilizato commune is the site of an irrigated area of 1,000 ha, with farms averaging 1 ha in size and a predominance of rice cultivation.
A concerted effort
Land tenure activities are coordinated by the AD2M project, the Regional State Land Service and the National Land Policy Programme. The Millennium Challenge Account donor provides support for the furnishing and equipment of the land tenure offices, and also supplies the necessary images to draw up maps of local land use. These land-use maps are a new cartographic information tool based on satellite images of the zone in order to allow rational land management. The Millennium Challenge Account is also financing 17 land tenure offices in the region, 6 of which are already up and running. Another essential factor in the working of the offices is the establishment of local recognition commissions, with the task of supporting land tenure office agents in recognizing ownership rights and resolving disputes, not as judges but as mediators. Eventually, the communes will take charge of running the land tenure offices on the basis of moneys received from decentralized land tenure management, and the commune’s own resources derived from land taxes.
Some preliminary observations
Despite the establishment of the system and the effective inception of land tenure reform, the results are still meagre. Applications received have been steadily decreasing, with 19 received between January and June 2008, as against the total of 215 applications to date – far short of the 40 a month anticipated by the National Land Policy Programme. In two years, only 78 land tenure certificates have been issued, with the delay due in large part to a lack of the satellite images needed for the demarcation of plots.
Land tenure offices have been able to operate in only 2 of the 13 communes because of the lack of satellite photographs, while most of the images that are available are unclear owing to the presence of clouds. While waiting for the land-use maps, anticipated for the end of 2008, an alternative was approved, consisting of application of the more traditional procedure with orthophotographs, supplemented by reference maps on which titled land in particular is marked. This method will be applied in the communes where there is little or no titled land, in order to avoid errors. However, this is not the case in Ankilizato. With the arrival of “true” images in order to draw up the land-use map, the two-year pilot phase of the Ankilizato land tenure office must be scaled up. In the near future, it will be possible to analyse the working of this intercommunal land tenure office, the pilot example for offices located in the most vulnerable zones. It is an innovative initiative, inasmuch as the concept of land tenure resource and information centres is only just now being tried out in the Menabe region.
Improvement in the quality of the applications received indicates the effectiveness of the awareness-raising activities carried out by agents of the land tenure office, as does the considerable increase in women’s access to land, so that 42 per cent of the holders of land tenure certificates are women. However, women seem to be sidelined in discussions and decisions over land tenure issues, for there is only one woman member of all the local recognition commissions.
“The fact that the offices are close at hand and the inclusion of local decision-makers such as fokontany leaders and other people of note in the local recognition commissions have considerably speeded up local people’s acceptance of land reforms,” says Benoît Thierry, Madagascar Country Programme Manager. “Local leaders and village notables are in fact the best informed and the most likely to know the land and be able to resolve conflicts between villagers. Out of an estimated 6 per cent of objections, all have been resolved amicably. Disputes are usually over the demarcation of boundaries between neighbours or conflicts between heirs.”
On the other hand, the absence of deadlines for payment of the second instalment of the certification fee is still a problem, for payment may be made very late. In all, 51 land tenure certificates drawn up in 2007 were pending in January 2008, and 10 were then issued in seven months. The main constraint mentioned by users of this system is the excessive costs of certification fees (albeit much lower than those for title deeds), given the farmers’ limited income. The fees range from 30,000 to 35,000 ariary (12 to 15 euros).
The project also examines two other cases : that of colonial titles and that of abandoned land – which is plentiful in Ankilizato. Laws are being drawn up based on the principle of releasing titles and transferring this land to the communes. The rules and regulations do not in fact allow the land tenure offices to secure secondary rights, despite the fact that non-owner operated rights are very widespread. With regard to vulnerable groups, the project recommends a more proactive approach and more targeted attention, although this would entail additional costs. Adult literacy training, for example, which is proposed by the project, is indispensable for the effective transfer of knowledge and know-how. The relationship among literacy, land tenure and the development of production is vital to sustainability of the project.
If the overall demand for security of land tenure is growing in the Ankilizato rural commune, some farmers do not view certification as a priority, especially in the absence of problems of land tenure insecurity. This situation runs counter to the initial hypothesis that conflicts and court cases have increased in recent years. Conflicts are in fact caused mainly by people from outside the community who can acquire the land of others through such legal procedures as titrage. This practice disturbs the peace and upsets local social dynamics by going against traditional rules.
It is vital to understand the various issues at stake between the indigenous Sakalava and immigrants in Ankilizato. In fact, in a country such as Madagascar, marked by progressive biological and cultural “miscegenation”, each group in a locality stems from the successive waves and dynamics of migration, leading to the establishment of rules that make up the fihavanana or “Malagasy wisdom”. The land tenure insecurity that is seen today is primarily a result of a conflict with modern law, which is seen as ill-suited to traditional situations. Changing mind-sets is a long, delicate process, so that awareness campaigns have an important role to play.
A case study in vivo
Study of the workings of the Ankilizato land tenure office explains the principle of decentralized land tenure management proposed by the land tenure policy, and also the real problems encountered on the ground, which were hitherto mere suppositions. It is thus possible to make corrections on the basis of experience. In-depth reflection, nourished by critical evaluation, analysis and the experience of the first land tenure offices, is still needed, with regard both to land tenure policy and legislation, and also to support for the establishment of such offices throughout the country, with a refocusing of their jurisdiction. The improvement of reforms according to the principle of participation must be based on consultation with the beneficiaries, and also on studies of the sometimes complex rules of traditional systems. The ideal would be to propose “modern laws” inspired by “traditional rules”, although this entails a certain flexibility in order to adapt to the varying situations throughout the country.