Insecurity of land tenure in Nicaragua

This report reviews the status of tenure security and the ways in which Nicaragua"s legal system can be used to mitigate disputes. Section 1 reviews sources of tenure conflict: negotiated transfers; "forced" transfers; assignment of land by the state to "beneficiaries" of land programs; de facto titling; distribution of state enterprise lands; and the land claims of indigenous communities. Section 2 broadly measures the extent of tenure insecurity, using what little data exist on the topic, while Section 3 reviews attempts being made to mediate tenure conflicts in Waslala; La Concepcion (Masaya); Punta Gorda, Nueva Guinea; San Carlos; by PRODERE (a program sponsored by the United Nations Development Program), and by the Union Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (UNAG). Section 4 describes a program sponsored by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to transfer the ownership of 800 properties that are currently occupied by either excombatants or by people with no legal title, from their previous proprietors to the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (a state agency) which would then assign definitive land titles, and simultaneously update land registries. Key steps in such a legalization effort include: mediating land conflicts and recording local agreements about land rights in the appropriate property registries; upgrading the registries; investigating the rights of indigenous communities; developing mediation and titling methodologies for fragile lands and forest lands; strengthening the coordination of activities for legalizing titles; and supporting the stabilization of land claims established through privatization of former state enterprises.