1.1 Secure access to land is a crucial factor in the eradication of hunger and poverty. Providing secure access to land is frequently not easy, and it is particularly complex in situations following violent conflicts. Getting the answer right can go directly to the matter of achieving sustainable peace. Addressing emergency humanitarian needs after a conflict requires finding places for people to live in the short-term under conditions that provide safety for them and which do not threaten the rights to land of others. Building longer-term social and economic stability requires finding more permanent solutions to where people can live and work. Yet too often, initiatives for recovery and reconstruction are planned without considering the need to resolve land tenure problems.
1.2 Violent conflicts arise for many reasons. Some violent conflicts have their roots in disputes over access to land. In many other cases, land tenure is not a fundamental cause of violence although land disputes may add to the tensions. Regardless of the origin of a conflict, widespread violence over a period of years results in the massive displacement of much of the population. People become landless. Vulnerable groups almost invariably include women and children, and may also include ethnic or political minorities. At the end of a conflict, access to land is required by people who were displaced. Many people try to get back their own land. They may face several competing, legitimate claims to the same land as a result of successive waves of displacement. Many others may not be able to recover their lands and have to settle elsewhere.
1.3 The effects of violent conflicts are usually widespread in a country but they can be particularly severe in rural areas. Conflicts often occur in poor countries where much of the population is rural: poor countries have the characteristics of a relatively low level of urbanization and a relatively high percentage of the labour force working in agriculture. Widespread conflicts in poor countries can thus result in the displacement of vast numbers of people in rural areas. Following the conflict, a lack of roads and other rural infrastructure and the difficulty of working in rural areas may limit the attention paid to rural problems.
1.4 Recovery from a violent conflict is hugely difficult. It must address the mass dispersal of people from their lands, widespread death and injury within the population, destruction of critical infrastructure, collapse of the legal system, loss of records and expertise, widespread mistrust, and continued fear and threat of violence. As most countries emerging from conflict were already poor before their spiral downwards into violence, they have limited capacity to address the problems of access to land and land administration.
1.5 Assisting countries to provide access to land and to recreate land administration systems after conflicts is an important part of FAO’s work in land tenure. The Organization has a long record of work in this area, and an initial function was the resolution of land tenure issues in Europe following the Second World War. More recent experience of the Organization and its partners has been used in the preparation of this guide. It aims to provide practical advice to land tenure and land administration specialists who work with FAO in the recreation of systems of land tenure and land administration in countries following conflicts. It also aims to assist people who prepare emergency, recovery and reconstruction projects by identifying land tenure issues that might be considered in the design of projects.
1.6 The guide concentrates on aspects which are typically found in rural areas following conflicts. However, it recognises that land administration should be implemented in a holistic manner that addresses rural-urban linkages, and it identifies other issues such as the need to provide shelter and housing. Many of the new policies, laws and administrative structures to be put in place at the end of the conflict are likely to cut across the urban and rural landscapes.
1.7 Every conflict situation will be different but there are often many common characteristics. This guide looks mainly at these common issues. It can provide only general guidance, and its contents should be assessed and applied in a way that is appropriate to each situation. Some circumstances, and suggested responses to them, may not apply at all in a given setting.
1.8 For the purpose of this guide, the post-conflict period starts when the main hostilities have ceased to the point that international assistance can be provided for emergency activities, recovery and reconstruction. While there is a reasonable degree of security, the environment is not necessarily safe, and conflicts may re-emerge.
1.9 In chapter 2, the guide provides an overview of general conditions such as death and violence, hunger and starvation, and the destruction of crops, homes, infrastructure and government facilities. This chapter is oriented largely towards land tenure and land administration specialists who have limited experience with violent conflicts, and it aims to inform them of the conditions under which they might work.
1.10 Chapter 3 discusses the specific conditions of access to land and land administration that typically exist after a conflict. Information on land tenure and its administration is oriented towards designers of emergency projects who may have limited experience with land tenure. The chapter provides project designers and land tenure and land administration specialists with a description of characteristics that commonly exist in post-conflict settings. It identifies the importance of addressing land tenure issues following conflicts.
1.11 As hostilities come to an end, international agencies may carry out the first missions to assess the situation. Land tenure and land administration specialists should be included in such early assessment missions to identify and analyse issues of access to land and land administration, and to identify possible actions. Chapter 4 outlines issues that should be addressed in such missions.
1.12 Following preliminary assessment missions, the first interventions are likely to focus on providing services of an emergency, humanitarian nature. Chapter 5 identifies key questions on land tenure and its administration that may need to be addressed during this stage. This work should form the basis for the identification of priorities, and for the design of short-term actions that can be implemented relatively quickly.
1.13 As the emergency activities conclude, there is the opportunity to plan for the development of policy. This may include dealing with access to land and land administration within a broad policy framework rather than through a number of isolated policy initiatives. It is likely to include a number of narrower policy decisions such as what types of land claims will be dealt with, who will be eligible to submit claims, and what procedures will be used. Chapter 6 outlines key questions that should be addressed regarding restitution, resettlement and the establishment of an operational land administration system.
1.14 The consolidation of peace efforts allows for land policies, both broad and narrow, to be implemented. Chapter 7 outlines key questions that could be encountered, particularly with the monitoring and evaluation of the effects of such policies. Finally, chapter 8 summarises the roles that land administrators may play as advisors throughout the process.
