Defusing Land Disputes? The Politics of Land Certification and Dispute Resolution in Burundi

Abstract

There is a growing interest in localized land registration, in which user rights are acknowledged and recorded through a community‐based procedure, as an alternative to centralized titling to promote secure tenure in sub‐Saharan Africa. Localized land registration is expected to reduce land disputes, yet it remains unclear how it impacts disputes in practice. This is an urgent question for war‐affected settings that experience sensitive land disputes. This article discusses findings from ethnographic fieldwork in Burundi on pilot projects for land certification. It identifies three ways in which certification feeds into land conflicts rather than preventing or resolving them. First, land certification represents a chance for local people to enter a new round of claim making, as those ignored or disenfranchised in earlier rounds see new opportunities. Second, it offers an avenue for institutional competition between different land‐governing institutions. Third, certification provides politicians with openings to interfere in tenure relations and to expand their support base. The authors conclude that these problems are not simply a matter of inadequate policy design. Rather, there are crucial political dimensions to land conflicts and land tenure in Burundi, which means that land registration programmes run the risk of inflaming conflictive property relations in rural communities.

Ambiguous Outcomes of Returnees’ Land Dispute Resolution and Restitution in War-Torn Burundi

“…The CNTB was authorised by the central government to adjudicate not only the land claims of displaced people but also the state's claims to land wrongly allocated by former regimes [16]. Although restitution encompasses the return of the property lost, the programme was criticised for its poor coordination with existing land governance structures and for not providing means to formalise the recovered property rights [12,30]. The 2000 APA also provided for alternative restorative mechanisms such as restitution of equivalent land and monetary compensation when the restitution of the claimed property is not possible 5 .…”

Gender norms and differences in access and use of climate-smart agricultural technology in Burundi

“…Whereas the nation's statutory law upholds gender equality in land ownership, customary law in Burundi discriminates against the women (Saiget, 2016;Tchatchoua-Djomo, 2018). Customary law devolves land to male members of the paternal line under intestate succession, while women can have tenure after a will is written documenting their ownership of particular property, such a situation is rare (Saiget, 2016;Tchatchoua-Djomo et al, 2020). Moreover, there is no law on inheritance.…”

Does legal aid improve access to justice in ‘fragile’ settings? Evidence from Burundi

“…Burundi constitutes an interesting case study. As in many fragile and post-conflict contexts, disputes are abundant and often related to land and forced displacement (Kohlhagen, 2009;Falisse & Niyonkuru, 2014;Nyenyezi Bisoka & Giraud, 2020;Tchatchoua-Djomo, van Leeuwen & van der Haar, 2020). Access to justice is limited for at least four reasons that echo the situation of other fragile and post-conflict countries.…”