Consolidating property rights in Albania"s new private farm sector

However, the legislation enacting the land reform is transitional: Parliament is formulating new laws which will define access to and use of real property. This paper reviews the laws and procedures in place and the progress made in land reform thus far. To date, the reform has largely been a redistribution of land collectivized and organized into cooperatives during the 1950"s and 1960"s. Some state farm land will be distributed, but much of the state farm holdings, forestland, and pastureland will remain for the present under state ownership and management. Certificates of ownership have been given out to heads of households, who are almost always men. Women are not legally prohibited from owning land, but they face traditional practices denying them property ownership. Although new owners can lease their land and/or pass it on to their heirs, rights to buy and sell land remain restricted and land not used within one year of allocation can revert to the state. The paper makes both near- and long-term recommendations, focusing on: irregular distributions which have occurred under the reform, and the potential threat to tenure security; compensation of land claims; the development of land markets; women"s access to land and credit; forests and pasture; state farm divestiture; related credit issues; and property registration. Albanian land laws are appended. (Author abstract, modified)