Local Land Tenure in the Peace Process

The disintegration of land tenure institutions during armed conflict, and yet the importance of property, land, homeland, and territory to the cause and conduct of conflict presents particular dilemmas for a peace process attempting to reconfigure important aspects of social relations.While land issues can be at the center of many civil conflicts, in subsequent peace efforts they are most frequently addressed in a general framework presented in peace accords, or national-level legislative change.However how land tenure issues play out institutionally across the landscape at the level of the community, household, and individual is not part of peace process 'packages' operated by the international community.Important operative aspects of land tenure during a peace process remain unexamined, and there exists a lack of theoretical and applied tools to address local tenurial issues in the context of postwar social relations.This is of particular concern given the general recognition that the character of current instability often comprises low intensity conflict within nations rather than between them, with their origins buried deep within aggravating problems of inequitable access to resources--including, and often particularly, land resources.An end to armed conflict, especially prolonged civil conflict, creates a situation whereby a significant proportion of the affected population will begin to seek access, re-access, or solidify claim to lands and land resources.Given the size of the rural population pursuing such an endeavor this can come to be one of the primary features of a postwar phase.The result is that local land tenure and property rights issues can be thrust to the fore over large geographic areas in a short period of time for considerable numbers of people.And like the complex histories involving property, land, and territory that lead to conflict scenarios, postwar re-establishment of ownership, use, and access rights will likewise be complicated and problematic.Left unattended, land issues can provide significant potential for renewed confrontation.In El Salvador for example the peace accord was vague with regard to local land tenure, contributing to different expectations, which in turn led to serious stumbling blocks in the implementation of the land question.The land issue ultimately became the final sticking point in the peace process, serving to block complete demobilization.In Nicaragua, the contras re-armed during the peace process over misunderstandings regarding the issue of land access.And subsequent to the end of Mozambique's RENAMO war, there was considerable confusion with regard to land tenure dispute resolution, which significantly aggravated the ongoing peace process.