1. DOING (INCLUSIVE) BUSINESS IN GUINEA BISSAU: RE-ACTIVATING THE 1998 LAND LAW Christopher Tanner Mokoro Ltd, Oxford, UK Camille Bourguignon The World Bank
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2. Overview
: 1,497 land concessions covering some 9% of the territory; impacting local rights and livelihoods
1998 Land Law developed to regulate investment and protect local rights - approved just before civil war
Guinea Bissau emerging from long period of political instability (1998 – 2014)
Massive recent expansion in (poorly regulated) cashew production
Very weak public land administration
Land processes very inefficient (149 out of the 190 countries in Doing Business Report)
Is the 1998 Land Law still valid and appropriate?
Can we improve land administration independently?

3. 1998 Land Law Developed after extensive consultation
Draws on research on customary land use systems
Addresses historical legacy of dualist land structure (commercial and customary areas)
Integrates customary/formal rights in one, unifying law
An INCLUSIVE land management model:
Promote private investment for economic growth
Ensure local populations retain land and benefit from private investment through negotiated land access
Creates the Right of Private Use (RPU) acquired through:
Customary land use; and concessions
Concessions for 90 years, renewable, inheritable
The RPU is marketable

4. Customary rights Law recognizes all customarily-acquired land rights
“rights constituted on land and over natural resources enjoy equal protection whether they result from custom or from law” (1998 Land Law, Art 2(3))
Customary use – rights acquired/managed through customary rules
The ‘Local Community’ (LC) (land holding and management unit)
customary, territorially-based entity [entities], corresponding to the grouping formed by families and individual residents in a certain circumscribed area of the national territory (tabancas or a group of tabancas), for the pursuance of common historical, economic and social and cultural interests and which includes areas of habitation, agricultural and forest areas, grazing land and water sources, sites of cultural importance and the respective expansion areas

5. Concessions Rural Urban
For agriculture, livestock, agro-livestock, agro-industry, forestry and tourism
Issued by General Directorate of Geography and Cadastre
Urban
Land within limits of cities and villages for housing, commercial, industrial and cultural purposes
Can be acquired over customary use land through negotiation with the relevant Local Community
LC has “the right to negotiate freely and directly, the transmission of the Rights of Private Use of which they are title holders (titulares) (1998 Land Law, Art 19(2))

6. Summary – 1998 Land Law
Combines customary use, Local Community management, and mandatory consultation with Local Communities
Creates titled Rights of Private Use (concesssions) that can be transmitted
Provides innovative mechanisms for
protecting local rights
Ending negative impacts of dualism
Allows a de facto land (rights) market
Ensuring livelihoods protection
Ensures INCLUSIVE and EQUITABLE investment process
Creates a nested structure of Land Commissions

7. Institutional innovation – Land Commissions
National, Regional, Sectoral and Section (community level)
Structure and function at each level changes
National and Regional: oversight, policy, and problem solving
Sectoral: supporting land management and development strategy
Section: mediating and facilitating different land use options
Local Communities integrated into the land management structure through role in Section level Land Commissions
Contribute to peaceful and consensual resolution of conflicts between local communities and external interests
Resolve conflicts among Local Communities, and issues arising from changes in customary norms and practices

8. Current situation
Still not regulated (draft in 2004, new draft ongoing now)
Most Local Communities with land under customary use have not been spatially identified and recorded (delimited)
Rapid economic growth hitting land availability in many areas
Massive expansion of cashew plantations
Now roughly 50% of cultivated land
Major source of income for private & local community farmers when individuals convert traditional crops to cash cropping
Expansion of 1990s trend and new private sector rural investment
Cashew trees serve as ‘occupation trees’ holding rights over land
Customary land rules changing or breaking down

9. Relevance of 1998 law today
Main structural challenges are still very similar to those that the Land Law was developed to respond to
Hard to imagine an alternative to devolving management functions and considerable decision-making power to the local level
Still need the inclusive and unifying philosophy of the 1998 Land Law
Concepts and instruments allow for an inclusive and negotiated process to be promoted between local communities and investors
Local Communities as local level land management entities:
Can oversee and legitimize changes to the customs and practices
Promote consensus (working with the Land Commission structure)
The law establishes a devolved land management structure in which local and evolving customary entities play a legally recognized role

10. Other issues – administration
Public services dealing with land management and administration are weak and characterized by arcane and unreformed procedures
True for rural and urban administrations
No investment in public land services for a very long time
Investors with de facto illegal title in absence of effective administration
2017 Doing Business report (World Bank 2017)
a company buying a real property of XOF 17 million in Bissau City must complete 8 processes, wait 51 days and pay 5.5% of the value of the real property to register its rights in the Land Registry
Quality of land administration index: 3/30 points
Guinea Bissau 149 out of 190 countries covered by the report

11. The way forward The 1998 Land Law 1998 Land Law is ‘fit for purpose’
General support for retaining the law and finalising Regulations
The 1998 Law is on the statute book and can be used
Finalise Regulations (building in stronger gender equality provisions)
Establish Land Commission structure and develop training programme
Trial Local Community Delimitations (lesson learning Mozambique)
Revise existing land administration procedures and norms
Capacity building investment project for land administration
Develop rural land tax capacity and start distributing 20 percent of revenues to Local Communities as per the 1998 Law

12. Thank you