OVERVIEW OF LAND TENURE ISSUES IN THE ARAB STATES REGION

1. OVERVIEW OF LAND TENURE ISSUES IN THE ARAB STATES REGION T. Ngaido

2. Page 2 Outline Introduction Land tenure Framework Resource Domain and Islamic land rights Land tenure policies and Islamic land rights Issues Implications Gender Devolution Conclusions

3. Page 3 Studies (ICARDA/IFPRI) Mashreq and Maghreb project: Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia World bank study on property rights and land use conflicts: Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, and Niger

4. Page 4 Land tenure framework

5. Page 5 Resources, users and enabling environments

6. Page 6 Resource users/uses Very complex component heterogeneity of resource users heterogeneity of organizations and internal dynamics of each type of resource users heterogeneity of institutions involved in the management Gap: little discussion on the complexity of decision-making, interests, and competitions and how these associations affect the livelihood of their members and non-members

7. Page 7 Interface between resources and legal and institutional frameworks determines the tenure regime under which resources have been classified into private, state, and collective regimes (this is fundamental for the classification of resources in Islam) deals essentially with management and control and the roles of the state and local institutions resources could be managed under single or mixed regimes

8. Page 8 Interface between users and legal and institutional frameworks Opportunities Incentives Constraints Tenure security Distribution of land rights (women, etc) Negotiation forum between right holders Markets for resource access rights

9. Page 9 Interface between users and resources Complex relationship between multiple users Different land use systems Numerous tradeoffs between uses of land, water, rangelands and forest resources Efficiency and sustainability tradeoffs Temporal issues

10. Page 10 Interface between users, resources and legal and institutional frameworks Critical triangle Equity Efficiency Sustainability

11. Page 11 Resource Domain and Islamic land rights

12. Page 12 Resource Domain and Islamic land rights

13. Page 13 Land tenure policies and Islamic land rights

14. Page 14 Relationship between legal rights and Islamic land rights

15. Page 15 Legal and institutional frameworks Land Recognition of customary ownership rights (Morocco) Privatization (Tunisia) State ownership (Jordan) Agrarian reforms (in all countries but with differences) Water all governments classified water resources as a public good under the management of the state Users were granted only use-rights except in Morocco where the government recognized community and individual ownership rights

16. Page 16 Legal and institutional frameworks (2) Forests State ownership is the most widely used approach and is found in Jordan and Tunisia State domain/ forest regime Classified forests/protected forests Rangelands Tribal ownership (morocco) Private, community and co-management State (Jordan)

17. Page 17 Issues Croplands All the good lands are being optimally used Limited titling of land Land fragmentation Urbanization Salinization Conflicts (inheritance) Common property resources Land degradation Crop encroachment Low ground water table

18. Page 18 Implications of Legal and institutional frameworks Gender Except in the inheritance of parents, male and female family members have equal shares The main issue is that women are not always receiving their shares of land Social security vs. economic security Gifting land to children Appealing to courts

19. Page 19 Implications of Legal and institutional frameworks Devolution failures of government institutions to promote sustainable resource management of these resources has provided a strong argument in favor of devolving the management No controversy around the need to involve the communities in the management of natural resources

20. Page 20 Legal and institutional frameworks (4) But, the remaining questions are: how to best involve them in the process? What are the requirements for effective contribution of local institutions in the management of common resources? Do they need to have “mulk ayni” or would Mulk al manfaa suffice? Is there a need to reorganize these communities to improve their managerial roles?

21. Page 21 Legal and institutional frameworks (5) Challenges of devolution Process has been partial Multiple stakeholders that operate at different levels of power with varying degrees of interest in the resource. Not only are rural communities facing off with the state and international NGOs, but also within the communities, there are significant differences of interests, perspectives and power. Gender, ethnicity, age, religion and wealth characterize and differentiate local communities.

22. Page 22 Conclusions and implications Countries have different resource endowments and are facing different challenges Magnitude of land issues will be different Legal pluralism is critical for This is already operating in the field and have to some extent been integrated to the legal reforms created effective enabling frameworks resolving disputes lowered the transaction costs associated with conflict management

23. Page 23 Conclusions Devolution options cannot be a panacea’ Devolution will be a restitution because local institutions continue to play their roles Devolution may require the creation new institutions Need for flexibility and well defined boundaries for intervention (taking into account resource domains) Devolution may require the reorganization of local institutions