Land rights crucial to economic, agricultural recovery

In what has been described as an important step to cementing territorial rights, and thereby the country's agricultural and economic recovery, three rural communities in Angola's southern province of Huila will receive title to their land on Friday. Paolo Groppo, a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official in the capital, Luanda, told IRIN that "we are concerned that community rights have not been protected so far" and that "it is clearly important for local communities to have their territorial rights recognised by the authorities". Land tenure issues in Angola "are more than ever a decisive factor for the recovery of the agriculture sector and the ... integrated economic and social development of the whole country," the FAO said in a statement announcing Friday's ceremonial handover. The organisation said land tenure issues should not be isolated from their social and cultural context. "Being aware of the importance of agriculture to the country's economic efficiency should not, therefore, obscure the role of land tenure in reaching equity and social balance," FAO noted. FAO has been involved in interventions related to land rights since 1999, with the primary focus on solving "critical land conflicts" in Huila and the northern province of Bengo. "Since then, our objective has been to evolve towards a more comprehensive and enduring contribution to the land question in the country. Apart from facilitating technical expertise in different areas, such as land policy-making, [setting up] instruments for land administration, land registration and ... instruments for rural land development and land tenure, FAO has continuously maintained its focus on the protection of the communities' rights," the organisation said. It also noted that supporting the right of rural communities to their land by securing their access to it and their use of it was critical in post-conflict Angola. "With the crucial support of important partners - donors, NGOs and governmental institutions - FAO has assisted several communities in the delimitation of their land. Indeed, providing these communities with a formal title to their land is an initial but extremely important step to ensure their rights and livelihood," FAO said. Groppo explained that communities were being granted title to land as a single entity, and not as individuals, and this raised important questions about the role of gender in traditionally patriarchal rural communities. He said FAO and various NGOs had undertaken to address gender imbalances in communities they had assisted to obtain titles. Groppo also noted that the titles being issued to communities were not "full property rights", but rather, recognition of a community's historical ties to a territory and its right to use and manage that land. "We are really working in an enormous grey [area], as the question of the 'tradeability' of titles is not yet clear [in Angolan law]," Groppo added. He said there has been concern that communities "might lose the land" should full title be given to them and the land subsequently sold by local traditional authorities. The current system also provided protection against exploitation by powerful external interests. A controversial new land bill is yet to be enacted. Critics say it does little to address the issue of land held informally and observers are uncomfortable with a clause that gives people just one year to formally request the regularisation of their right to land they currently occupy. Between 10 and 15 titles to land have so far been granted to rural communities in Angola, Groppo said. "And it sometimes takes a year or longer for that process to be finalised - having three titles [to hand over] in one shot [on Friday] is very positive, but it is just the first step in a long marathon," he added. More details