In January 2021 the Franco-Burundian consortium IGN FI/ GEOFIT/ LADEC was awarded the project “Support for implementation of the land certification sub-component of the PRRPB”. Led by the Burundian Ministry for the Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, the land certification sub-component of the Burundi Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project (PRRPB) aims to clarify and secure land tenure rights as well as resolving land disputes in the communes and hills covered by the project. It is estimated that land disputes represent more than 70% of the cases brought before the Burundian courts.
14 months after kick-off of the project the first physical and digital certificates have been issued to the owners of land plots in the communes of Isale and Buhinyuza.
“Providing land tenure security by issuing title certificates is a social and land ownership process which enables customary rights to be adjudicated and publicly recognised, and thus registered formally in law”, explains Aurélia Decherf, expert in land tenure security at IGN FI.
One of the strategic goals of the project will be to contribute to improved access to land for women and the most marginalised ethnic groups (Batwa and other minority or displaced groups). The project is scheduled to be completed in October 2022.
Watch the film showing a World Bank mission on the field to see the under progress of the Landscape Restoration and Resilience Project (in French):