Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Securing Communal Land Rights and Enabling Development Investment — Challenges and Opportunities
Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015The World Bank - Washington DC | March 23-27, 2015
TIMOR-LESTE
Shivakumar Srinivas
Keith Clifford Bell
Political Regimes through Centuries Multiple Tenure Regimes Forced Displacements, Relocations and
Persisting Land Conflicts Recent Initiatives to Reform Legal
Frameworks on Land Striking the Right Balance
Presentation Outline
Socio-Cultural Setting• Settlements
distributed along ethnic and clan groups
• Ritually maintained social alliances and authority are critical
• Social connections define relationship to land (access and entitlements)
Origin Groups• The first
possessors of certain areas maintain authority over land and resources
• Individual rights over land are allowed but subject to community traditions and practices
Communal Lands Form Backbone of Tenure
Arrangements in Timor-Leste
Political Regimes through Centuries
Pre-colonial times
Portuguese administration (1500s to mid-1974)
Indonesian administration (1975-1999)
Transition administration under U.N. (1999-2002)
Independent Timor-Leste (2002 onwards)
Portuguese colonial era titles Indonesian titles U.N. issued permits (all of these lease-type permits expired but their current actual status is
unclear)
Customary tenure
Different Governments and Multiple Tenure Regimes
Land areas owned or used by multiple members of the community declared as “State property” (usurping communally held native land rights)
All lands NOT used for agriculture or housing or with Portuguese titles were deemed as “State property”
Portuguese Tenure
Indonesian Occupation (1975-99)
Basic Agrarian Law was implemented and close to 50,000 titles issued (a source of dispute to-date).
“Transmigration program” (moving people from other Indonesian provinces to Timor-Leste).
Focused on “extractive approaches” to land and resource management.
Perpetual “state of conflict” on authority over land areas.
Portuguese colonial period relocation policy for agricultural projects (coffee, sandalwood)
Displacement by civil war in 1975 Indonesian “transmigration” programs
(settlement of Indonesians from other provinces into Timor-Leste) and reshuffling of villages within Timor-Leste (1975-1999)
Social unrest and large-scale displacements (2006-07)
Forced Displacements, Relocations
Categories of Tenure
•Public •Private•Communal
• Public ownership and use (per Law 1/2003)
• Lease of state land (per Decree Law 19/2004)
• Lease of private land or rental (per Law 12/2005 later replaced by Civil Code, 2011)
• Private ownership and use rights (per Constitution, Civil Code, Indonesian BAL, and recent 2011 decrees)
• Land use rights (other than property rights) (as per Civil Code and Indonesian BAL)
• Communal land (per Civil Code, 2011)
• Informal settlements (per Law 1/2003)
Type of Legal Instruments
Persisting Land Conflicts
Nature of land rights remains unsettled and unclearPortuguese and Indonesian titles overlap. YET Authority of the “origin groups” continues to function in parallel in land administration. Large-scale land acquisitions threaten customary rights and the authority of the “original groups”.
Social upheaval and large-scale
displacements in 2006.
RESULT:
Common issues in post-conflict disputes:
Overlapping rights and claims
Lack of relevant land/Natural Resource Management Policies
Dysfunctional land administration
Land grabbing/encroachment
Calls for fair and adequate compensation (or restitution of rights)
Ambiguous, controversial or unenforceable laws
Post-conflict Disputes
Land Dispute Dynamics Displacement, secondary occupancy, illegitimate sale, lack
of transaction records, statutory v. customary law, overlapping titles form past property regimes
Limited Land Administration Capacity Lack of qualified local lawyers, judges, surveyors,
registrars, drafters and policy specialists Land registry still under development Lack of appropriate legal framework
Land Tenure Disputes – The Common Challenges
LessonsLearned
Indigenous, communal land rights and tenure arrangements challenge the conception of a modern State.Protection and recognition of communal tenures should be linked to ongoing reforms.
Land Governance
Develop a thematic approach to assessing land governance that meets the requirements of Timor-Leste.Link these assessments to broader reforms initiated by the government
Striking the Right Balance
Creating an enabling environment for communal lands and customary practices
Addressing overlapping and contested land and property claims, especially in urban and peri-urban areas
Developing precise guidelines for managing communal lands
Setting up regulations and administrative capacity for the proposed Community Protection Zones
Identifying and registering community land areas
Recent Initiatives to Reform Legal Frameworks on Land
• (2008-11) a pilot initiative financed by USAID
Ita Nia Rai (Our Land) Program
• On-going preparation of the package of three land related Bills (i.e., Land Law, Expropriation law and Real Estate Financial Fund).
Land -related Bills
• Building capacity in land administration services to communal lands (ttechnical assistance and grant financed by the World Bank, 2014-18)
Protecting and Recognizing
Communal Lands
A Socio-political Analysis of Communal Lands in Timor-Leste, 2014.
