Guinea-Bissau- Context and Land Governance

^{Village scene near Bandanjan. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)}

Historical backdrop

The histories of Guinea-Bissau and the offshore islands of Cabo Verde are closely intertwined. The first recorded encounter between local African people and Portuguese traders and slavers was in 1446. In 1462 the first Portuguese settlers occupied Sai Tiago in the Cabo Verde group of islands, some 620 km off the West African mainland. Portuguese and Cape Verdean traders known as lançados developed the first trading networks, settling in African villages and marrying local women[3]. This small grouping of Luso Africans emerged at the intersection of colonial power and local African societies.

Cabo Verde became the anchor point for a system of triangular trade involving the enslavement of tens of thousands of people from Guinea-Bissau and beyond – the majority of whom were shipped to Brazil. The Portuguese tapped into existing trade networks and developed relationships with Bijagos coastal raiders located on the Bissagos Archipelago[4].  In 1879 slavery was finally abolished, but was immediately replaced by systems of forced labour in Guinea Bissau and the other Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique. This evoked fierce resistance by local people, prompting the Portuguese to launch a series of brutal ‘pacification’ campaigns from 1913-1915, in which whole villages were burnt and livestock slaughtered. Further repressive campaigns were launched in 1936. However, areas like the Bijagos islands managed to retain a measure of socio- political autonomy[5].

While the Portuguese claimed ownership of mainland Guinea-Bissau, they provided some recognition of traditional authorities or regulados and sought to co-opt them, through systems of indirect rule to administer land resources at the local level[6]. Unlike Angola and Mozambique the Portuguese did not appropriate land at scale, although in Guinea Bissau they also followed a plantation approach to exploiting the country.  The first land concessions (pontas) of the nineteenth century were not taken by the Portuguese, but by Cape Verdeans who migrated to the mainland in order to escape a famine in the 1860s[7]. The early plantation economy was based on the issuing of concessions for the production of groundnuts, sugar cane and rice[8]. Initially groundnuts were the primary export crop, but after independence cashew nuts dominated agricultural output and grew to become the major export earner.

Resistance to colonial rule accelerated with the establishment of the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), which was founded in Bissau in 1956 under the leadership of Amílcar Cabral, one of the pre-eminent revolutionary leaders of the 20th century[9]. The PAIGC initially sought to obtain independence by peaceful means. However, the violent response of the Portuguese to a Bissau dockworkers’ strike in August 1959, in which scores of people were shot and killed, proved to be a turning point, prompting the PAIGC to turn to armed struggle in 1963[10]. In the bitter war that followed one third of the population was forced to take refuge in neighbouring countries. The Portuguese sought to force rural villagers into fortified settlements known as aldeamentos. As a consequence of war, the total area of agricultural production was reduced from 411,000 ha in 1953 to 125,000 ha in 1972[11].

^{PAIGC offices near Bula Bissau. Photo by JPDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-ND-2.0)}

The PAIGC forces made significant advances under the leadership of Cabral. By 1972 they exercised control over two thirds of the country and had succeeded in attracting widespread international support for their cause. In those areas under the PAIGC control, village councils were established with five members – two of whom had to be women[12]. However, social tensions emerged within the PAIGC between mestiços (people of mixed parentage) from Cabo Verde – who were perceived to dominate positions of political and military leadership – and African people from mainland Guinea-Bissau. This inequality was exacerbated by a history of colonial practices which sought to create and promote a tiny minority, who the Portuguese considered to be civilizados and distinct from the overall majority of indigenas[13]. These tensions were exploited by the Portuguese. On 20th January 1973 Amilcar Cabral was shot dead in neighbouring Conakry by a political rival, with the likely collusion of the Portuguese secret police[14]. 

Back in Portugal, mounting popular resistance to the colonial wars and continuing colonial occupation in Africa culminated in a military coup in 1974, known as the Carnation revolution[15]. This resulted in the overthrow of the longstanding New State government. The new Portuguese leadership advocated rapid decolonisation and both Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde obtained independence in 1974 and 1975 respectively. The PAIGC was the ruling party in both settings. Luis De Alemeida Cabral, Amilcar’s half-brother, was elected as the first President in Guinea Bissau which adopted a socialist orientation. Mixed race descendants of the Cabo Verdianos who had dominated pre-independence commerce and politics continued to dominate leadership positions of the PAIGC. 

The warning made by Amilcar Cabral that "when we are independent that is when our struggle really begins” took on real meaning as Guinea Bissau embarked on its new post-colonial path. Similar to Angola and Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau was caught up in the geopolitical struggles of the Cold War era. Between 1974 -1980 the PAIGC leadership sought to put in place a socialist style command economy, seeking agricultural transformation through the establishment of price controls and state marketing boards linked to village committee structures. Land concessions from the colonial period became state farms. This was not a success. This led to the redirection of state resources to state-owned manufacturing projects, which privileged the city rather than the countryside. 

In 1980 Guinea Bissau experienced its first military coup led by Nino Viera, a former PAIGC guerrilla leader and Minister of Defence and then Prime Minister in the government of President Luis Cabral. The coup led to a split with Cabo Verde which did not support military intervention, and which had remained relatively inclined towards the West.  Viera remained in power for 19 contested years. His acceptance and implementation of World Bank and IMF plans for a liberalised free market economy in 1987 met with resistance within the PAIGC. However, despite this discontent Viera managed to retain power when the country transitioned to multi-party politics in 1991, narrowly retaining the Presidency following elections in 1994 and again in 1998. 

The trade liberalisation policies in the 1980’s provided World Bank-funded credit to develop a ‘modern’ agricultural sector and created many tenure conflicts[16]. Various initiatives, including USAID support for private agribusiness and the IMF economic recovery programme contributed to marked increase in land concessions in the mid-1980s. Urban elites were able to leverage their access to state land administration services and make use of the ‘unoccupied land’ category from the colonial 1961 decree to claim large areas for new agricultural projects. This resulted in “an explosion of new pontas controlled by absentee, urban-based “owners””[17]. 

In terms of the prevailing law, the area of a concession was restricted to 2500 hectares. However, the emergence of joint shareholding enterprises owned by several partners enabled the pooling of concession allocations to allow such enterprises to control much larger areas of land. “Insider information on credit policies and projects has enabled a small number of people to gain preferential access to the best agricultural land”[18]. As this land was located along rivers this also ensured preferential access to water, with implications for the surrounding population. However, much of this land remained uncultivated, as it had principally been acquired to gain access to the newly available investment loans and for speculative purposes[19].

^{Swampland near Zuiguinchor Bula. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)}

The economic hardships associated with structural adjustment and the wave of new concessions in the countryside created significant social discontent. When Viera dismissed the Army Chief in June 1998, he faced an attempted military takeover, which was only prevented by calling in troops from neighbouring Senegal. In May 1999 Viera was finally overthrown, following 11 months of civil war which displaced 300,000 people and required the deployment of ECOWAS peacekeeping troops. This conflict reduced GDP by 28% and resulted in a fall in agricultural production by 17%[20].

Fresh elections in 1999 returned the first non PAIGC government led by President Kumba Yalá. However, he was subsequently deposed in a bloodless coup in 2003. Elections were held again in 2005 in which former President Viera, who had gone into temporary exile in Portugal, was once again returned to power.  By this time Guinea-Bissau had become a favoured location for the operation of Colombian drug cartels, which took advantage of government corruption and the difficulty of policing the archipelago coastline to turn Guinea Bissau into a major drug transit point[21]. In 2008 the UN Security Council formally called on the government of Guinea-Bissau to stop drug trafficking and fight organised crime[22]. Political elites continued to struggle for a share of the drug trade, which contributed to a series of coups and assassinations in 2009[23]. There was increasingly violent conflict between the country’s political leadership and the military elite. On 2nd March 2009 the chief of the armed forces Gen. Batista Tagme Na Waie was killed in an explosion. Hours later President Vieira was shot dead by soldiers who held him to be responsible for the General’s death.  

For a brief period, Guinea Bissau was governed under an interim presidency before elections could be held. Malam Bacai Sanhá was elected as President in 2009 in a period of political turmoil. He was widely regarded as having the personal standing and authority to set Guinea Bissau on a new path.  But this was not to be. Sanha reportedly suffered from ill health as a result of diabetes. His period in office was characterised by ongoing contestation with the military. Sanhá successfully faced down an abortive coup in 2011, before he fell into a diabetic coma and died in Paris in January 2012 [24]. 

The death of Sanhá led to another military takeover that brought down the government and prevented further elections. This was widely condemned in the region, and the African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau’s membership. Sanctions and travel bans were imposed by the UN, the EU and ECOWAS[25]. Presidential elections were finally held in 2014 which were won by the PAIGC. José Mário Vas was elected as President. Instability persisted as political elites continued to vie for power and patronage opportunities. 

In 2019, following contested elections and allegations of fraud, Guinea-Bissau briefly had two Presidents for a day – Cippriano Cassamá, the PAIGC candidate and the opposition’s Umaro Sissoko Embaló[26]. Cassamá resigned and the Supreme Court subsequently upheld Embalo’s election[27]. While Embaló is reported to recognise the need for change, he has yet to stabilise the situation in Guinea Bissau, which has remained highly turbulent since his election. The president survived a coup attempt in February 2022 in which several people were killed[28].   

In the face of Guinea Bissau’s troubled history some argue that the ongoing elite contestation for power has fuelled the emergence of a ‘shadow state’ which seeks to appropriate government power and control access to resources and economic markets to ensure enrichment of dominant elites with links to the military[29]. 

Community land rights

Rural settlement and land use is based on the tabanca, a village that is formed by one or several moranças – extended family groupings made up of affiliated fogão, or households. Tenure arrangements reflect the organisational structures of the tabanca. The morança usually has control over a collective field, while individual fogão, have their own fields for their specific consumption[30]. 

The larger territory occupied and utilised by each tabanca was recognised through the 1998 Land Law (discussed further below) as a territorial unit over which the one or more tabancas exercised control and management rights. This includes the communal bolanha wetlands that are re-allocated to households every season, and the use of forests for extraction and hunting. Forests also have important sacred functions. These territories can be delimited and thus formalised to obtain legal protection under the Land Law[31]. 

Land tenure classifications

Customary land tenure systems in Guinea Bissau are complex. Each of the more than 20 different ethnic groups have developed their own version of customary law and land administration practices. Lineage based modes of social organisation, land allocation and production have remained strong in the countryside. Significant social differences are reported to exist around how land and associated tenure systems are conceptualised by different groupings.

A dualistic structure developed from colonial times, where the majority of the population are tabanca village farmers and an elite minority have access to pontas - land allocated first by the colonial state and then by post-independence governments, through the issue of concessions. The concessionaire acquires the right to use the land for a period of ninety years – a right which may be inherited by his successors[33]. 

Conflicts over land tenure have been a central feature of colonial and post-colonial history in Guinea Bissau.  This tension grew significantly however in the late 1980s with the surge in new concessions linked to the structural adjustment programme which created new opportunities for private investment in agriculture.  

Land legislation and regulations

The Portuguese had passed a series of laws relating to land, the first dating back to 1856 which recognised and regulated village access to land. In 1919 the Portuguese colonial authorities passed a law stating that leasehold land concessions would only be issued subject to local approval. In practice however such approval was not always sought. 

As the Portuguese population grew there was more pressure on African land.  In 1961, the Portuguese government issued the Overseas Property Decree covering all its African and other ‘overseas provinces’. This decree distinguished three categories: urban land, 'unoccupied land' deemed by the colonial government to be available for concessions and the rest – indigenous land where customary land governance was allowed to continue. Unoccupied land could be appropriated and made subject to state regulations, although in real terms colonial authorities had total discretion when it came to land classification. The category of ‘unoccupied land’ was frequently used by the colonial government as a way of expropriating land from indigenous communities to expand land available for colonial settlement[34].

Even in the relatively stable period following independence in 1974, the government did not immediately set about developing new land laws and policies, with the exception of Law No. 4/75 which placed all land under state ownership.  Meanwhile, for the purposes of day-to-day land governance, the PAIGC government continued to apply the 1961 decree to issue concessions and later establish state farms.  In community occupied areas, land administration and management functions passed to the Comités de Tabanca, established by the PAIGC[35].  

In 1984 Guinea-Bissau adopted a new constitution which confirmed that all land was owned by the state. A first draft of a new land law was debated in the National Assembly in 1985 but was not adopted.  

Then, in 1987, economic structural adjustment programmes promoted by the World Bank and the IMF led to a wave of new land concessions, as elites leveraged their access to state services to gain state leases over large areas of land, including the best lands that were important to the tabancas[36].  This was partly driven by the surge in world demand for cashew, but it was also a response to new credit being available through the national investment bank, funded by the World Bank structural adjustment programme.

^{Cashews bagged for transport to the market. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)}

Concession requests legally had to be accompanied by projects for agricultural investment, to unlock access to these loans. While small areas were cleared and planted, in fact the loans were primarily used to fund a booming urban-based trading sector, exporting cashew out of the country and importing cheap rice from the Far East.  This process had two deep and long-lasting impacts: the de facto privatization of land holdings which alienated good land from the tabancas, undermining their traditional production strategies; and the ending of the traditional role of the tabancas as suppliers of the national staple, rice, to urban areas, because they could not compete with the price of the imported rice[37].

This process of de facto land grabbing by political elites and influential families created growing tensions over land with the tabancas and their leaderships[38].  The precarious political order that continued throughout the period of structural adjustment reforms and beyond, meant that Guinea-Bissau was slow to address these problems and develop coherent land policies.  Further legislative proposals were presented in 1990, which also failed to attract support. Reportedly the failure to reach agreement on new legislation reflected deep political divisions, with some advocating maintaining state ownership of land, while others supporting the liberalisation of property rights[39].  However, as tensions mounted in the countryside and the uncertainties created by the mix of socialist and outdated colonial land governance was blocking investment into rural areas, the government came under pressure to resolve the land issue.  A parliamentary Land Commission was formed to investigate the situation in the countryside and produce recommendations for new legislation.  

The 1998 Land Law – then and now  

With funding and technical assistance provided by USAID, the Land Commission undertook an extensive programme of consultation with stakeholders, including both the ponteiro community and tabanca leaderships across the country.  A new draft of the land law was developed and finally approved in March 1998 with the expectation that it would be signed into law within 180 days. 

Overall, the act sought to enlarge access to land by individual farmers and resolve the tensions between the investors (ponteiros) and tabanca communities. It did this by integrating customary law and tenure arrangements and statutory forms of tenure within a single, new legal framework.  Although the land law maintained overall state ownership of land, it also recognised the right of private use. This right could be acquired either by a tabanca resident through the formalisation of customary land rights, following negotiations with and approval by the local community, or through the issue of a land concession to an incoming investor.  Moreover, private use rights once constituted, are transferable to third parties, forming the basis of a legal land market[40] and enabling individual tabanca residents to use their land to secure formal sector credit.

The 1998 law also effectively ended the concept of unoccupied land by recognizing the rights and management role of tabancas and their leaders over territories – designated as ‘Local Communities’ in the Land Law. This included land not apparently being used, such as collectively used bolanhas, forests, land in fallow, and secondary or regenerating woodlands.  The only areas that could not be included within these new customarily-defined territories were public domain areas, such as land used for public infrastructure, reserves and national parks.

Importantly, land under communal use included that land which was “already cultivated and inhabited”, as well as “areas and resources that are unexploited but are attributed to residents of the local community by their respective representatives”[41]. The law also recognizes the jurisdiction and management role of the tabanca over its hinterland of forest resources and land that is either used communally or recovering from previous use.  All these areas together constitute the territory of the tabanca, which it has a legally mandated role to manage, including participating in the allocation of land to outsiders[42].   

Community territories could include concessions with already allocated titles, and the law provided for local communities to receive 20 percent of land taxes derived from these commercial land holdings.  The law also provided for new concessions to be allocated within customary or local community territories, subject to a mandatory community consultation, in which the tabanca leadership and the investor have to agree terms for the land to pass from tabanca to investor control.  The negotiated land would then be formally registered as private use land within the context of the formal land administration system. In this way, the investment process can in principle generate benefit-sharing agreements that can then support local development[43]. 

^{Village market Photo by RNW via Flickr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)}

The 1998 Land Law was passed just before the outbreak of civil war in Guinea-Bissau. It would not be formally adopted for more than a decade, due to ongoing state paralysis.  Protracted periods of political instability enabled powerful and politically connected individuals to acquire land outside of the legal framework. Elites within the tabancas and others who had left for the city but retained kinship ties and rights back in their villages, also began to take over land for commercial cashew production. For both groups, their access to their land remained legally insecure. Frequently these transactions were undocumented and rested on little more than” flimsy assertions of ‘local consultation’”.  

In certain areas, the dramatic expansion of cashew nut production was also reported to have led to “a complete change to traditionally practised land allocation and distribution and has practically resulted in a segmentation and "privatisation" of traditional lands”[44] with one World Bank Tenure study observing that “customary land use is not necessarily a synonym for sustainable land use”[45].  Neither was cashew monoculture however, and any kind of agricultural development including at community level was deeply constrained by the chaotic political situation. The rush to plant cashew everywhere was hitting traditional food crops and undermining the food security of the poorer households; and devastating the country’s rich forest and wetland-based biodiversity.  And local rights remained under constant pressure both from urban elites and the more powerful families within tabanca economic and social life. 

With the 1998 law apparently moribund, pressures mounted for a revision of the law, or even a new law entirely. Despite remaining unimplemented for many years, however, the Land Law had introduced important concepts of customary use and recognised both the tenure rights of individuals and families within local communities. Key figures in the social and economic policy area remained convinced that the 1998 law still offered an effective response to the problems of the day. There were further attempts to move towards implementation of the Land Law in 2004[46]. However these also failed to gain traction. It was only after a period of relative stability following elections in 2014, that the government once again undertook to implement the 1998 Land Law and develop the required regulations, this time as part of a new rural and agricultural investment strategy[47]. After several false starts and recommendations from some quarters to put the law aside and start again[48], the General Regulation of the Land Law was approved by the Council of Ministers on 22nd November, 2017 and  finally enacted on 19th November 2018. There is now a National Land Commission, augmented by eight Regional Land Commissions and 38 Sector Land Commissions. In addition ten Section scale Land Commission have been established in the Cacheu Region[49].

Land issues today

Despite the 1998 law now being formally ‘the land law’ of the country, and with implementing regulations in place, it has been observed that state agencies themselves frequently fail to follow the law. In 2017, the EU Land Governance programme sought to support the implementation of the 1998 Land Law through the N’Tene Terra programme, implemented through FAO. This sought to create functioning land institutions, enable the key delimitation of community lands and the levy of associated land taxes. It also sought to support the demarcation of land concessions. However, it has been observed that this process remains complex and expensive, and many investors do not follow the required procedures[50].

Under the 1998 Land Law, traditional leadership institutions and customary law continue to play a key land administration and broader governance role. When there are conflicts, an ECOWAS study reported that many people prefer to use traditional and religious mediators and arbitrators, rather than turn to the police or court system, which are remote and perceived to favour elite interests[51]. Overall, state mechanisms to resolve land related conflicts are perceived to be unreliable and biased, especially when they involve outsiders, whose projects can result in community land being taken over. 

There is long standing evidence of conflict between tabanca villagers and the state with respect to the issue of pontas concessions. Very often the conflict has centred on the use rights of common property resources utilised by the tabancas, which the state has categorised as ‘unoccupied’ and made available for concession.  Conflicts of this kind increased dramatically from the late 1980s onwards, caused by the rising number of concessions[52], and continue to be a major source of tension between communities and investors favoured by the state. Today these include mining operations where resettlement of displaced communities has been causing serious concern[53].

There have also been reports of increasing tensions between pastoralists and farmers over access to land and grazing. This may take on an ethnic dimension, such as reported tensions between Fula pastoralists and Mandingo farmers[54]. In some areas such as the Bafatá region, there have been reports of land allocations to foreigners which have undermined local land rights. 

Meanwhile, the N'tene Terra project is supporting processes of participatory community land delimitation, particularly in areas where there are disputes over boundaries and use rights.

Land use trends

In Guinea-Bissau, savannas dominate the land cover, accounting for about 45 percent of the country’s land surface. The rest used to be mainly primary forest with significant wetland and mangrove areas nearer the coast.  There are three main types of forests in Guinea Bissau: humid forest, savannah forests, and mangroves, covering about 70% of the national territory[55]. Many communities set aside forest portions as sacred spaces where the cutting and selling of trees is forbidden.  The Bijagós archipelago was declared as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1996.

By 2013 agriculture was the second most extensive land cover class[56]. The country is well endowed with water resources. It has strong farming potential with some 1.6 million ha of agricultural land – some 45% of the total land area in the country. Currently, however, just 18% of arable land is estimated to be in production[57]. Despite agriculture accounting for almost 50% of GDP, total public investment in the sector is among the lowest in Sub-Saharan Africa, at below 1 percent of GDP[58]. 

Raw Cashew Nut (RCN) production is currently the main source of income for more than two-thirds of households. RCN exports account for more than 95 percent of the country’s total export revenue. Over-reliance on cashew nuts makes two thirds of the population vulnerable to economic shocks. Nuts are exported with very little added value, and cashew trees have invasively replaced native vegetation[59] as well as being responsible for the deliberate conversion of large areas of forest and food producing land. Over 75 percent of the population in Guinea-Bissau depends on the agricultural sector as a source of livelihood[60]. However, there are increasing challenges relating to the salinization of groundwater and rice fields. Rice remains a staple food in Guinea-Bissau, with locally grown rice produced in the large, communally managed 'bolanha' areas 65that are found between higher forested ground, and in coastal paddy fields where a unique form of salt-water rice production was developed by the Balanta people using reclaimed mangrove swamps[61] . Today, nationally produced rice primarily feeds the rural population. In the urban areas, cheaper, imported rice predominates. 

Grazing land has come under pressure and this is the source of mounting farmer-herder disputes over land access[62]. Revenue from fishing licences is an important source of foreign exchange for the government. However illegal fishing is a problem identified by many local communities who depend upon small scale fishing as a key livelihood source[63]. Local fish stocks are being depleted by foreign commercial boats fishing without licences. There are also disputes with small-scale fishers from Senegal who fish in local waters.

Guinea Bissau is considered to be highly vulnerable to climate change. In 2019 it ranked 179 on the ND-GAIN index as the third most vulnerable country globally[64]. It is drought prone, particularly in the eastern portion of the country and at risk of tidal surges, rising sea levels and associated floods along the coastal zone[65]. Crop production is projected to be impacted by permanent loss of land due to sea encroachment and by increases in flooding and the salinization of fields[66]. Recent case study research in northern Guinea Bissau illustrates how climate change can act as a conflict trigger in situations where there are long standing social tensions and unresolved contestations over land rights[67]. 

As for the extensive forest inventory, central government authority was non-existent in the countryside between the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was eroded still further following the 2012 coup when the military took power, and between 2012 and 2015 there was extensive illegal logging. Timber exports from Guinea-Bissau to China were reported to have increased from 61 tonnes in 2007 to 98,000 tonnes in 2014[68]. This was halted in 2015, following a government moratorium on logging and timber exports. However there have been recent reports that this moratorium was to be lifted, with logging restricted to 14 species that will be subject to specific licensing and quotas[69]. Investigations allege links between high-ranking government figures and Chinese companies in the logging and export of the highly valuable rosewood, subject to tight regulation in terms of the CITES convention[70]. 

There has been significant controversy concerning the establishment of the Cantanhez National Park, established by decree in 2008. Local people have resisted attempts to replace them with external agents responsible for natural resource management. 

“We do not need a project to tell us to protect our forests! If, when they arrived, foreigners saw the forests, it is because we have protected them since the time of our ancestors.” [71]

Under the 1998 Land Law, local communities can in principle have their prior rights over reserve and park areas recognized and then benefit from a share in tourism and other public revenues. However, this provision has never been implemented.   

Mining remains relatively undeveloped although it is rapidly growing in extent, as Guinea-Bissau encourages mining investment. Initial moves to develop a US$500 million bauxite project in Madina de Boé by an Angolan company ran into difficulty due to political instability[72]. Today Guinea-Bissau has 25% of the global known resources of bauxite (aluminium ore), coupled with investment in offshore oil fields[73].  Mining activity has also resulted in the involuntary resettlement of rural communities, causing considerable tensions in some areas. 

Land investments and acquisitions

Terra Ranka, the Guinea-Bissau national development strategy (2015-2025) identifies agribusiness as one of four key drivers of economic growth. The EU has echoed this and recently identified “a real need and potential to support private sector investments in Guinea-Bissau, particularly in agriculture, agribusiness and tourism”[74]. However at the same time the EU highlights the risk of “inter-ethnic tensions, which are likely to increase, due to intense competition over the use of agricultural land, impacted by environmental changes and a short-term logic aiming at the immediate exploitation of natural resources, particularly mining, forestry and maritime resources”[75]. These risks question the viability of agricultural strategy with an agribusiness foundation. 

The EU multiyear programme highlights the need for support for the rule of law and the strengthening and revision of land, environmental, mining, forestry and fisheries regulations, coupled with their adoption and implementation.   

Women’s land rights

During the liberation war the PAIGC placed emphasis on advancing women’s rights with a focus on ending forced marriages and enabling divorce. However, for much of the country’s post-colonial history women have been substantially under-represented in the national assembly and government. Some steps have been taken to address this. A law requiring that women hold at least 36 percent of national assembly seats was passed and promulgated in December 2018. The constitution recognises women’s rights but has been criticised for not making this equality sufficiently clear. The Association of Women Lawyers advocates revisions to the constitution, using a gendered lens, so that women rights are explicitly protected under civil law[76].

^{Women's land rights remain dependent on their marital status. Photo by LVIA via Flickr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)}

Women play a pivotal role in the agricultural economy. While women make up 75% of the agricultural workforce, very few women have secure, independent rights to land. Women’s rights to access land remain largely dependent on their marital status. Their rights to inherit land are often not recognised, due to prevailing social norms in many local communities[77]. 

Urban tenure issues

In 2018 approximately 43% of Guineans lived in urban areas. Thirty of Bissau’s forty planning areas are informal and 85% of dwellings have no direct access to water and electricity. Bissau has experienced a tenfold increase in population over the last forty years[78]. During the 1998 civil war certain neighbourhoods in the city were bombed by aeroplanes, causing most of the urban population (about 250,000 people) to seek refuge in the countryside[79].

Land and property administration in urban areas is inefficient with archaic procedures in urgent need of reform.  

^{The Bissau city property registry in 2018. Photo by Chris Tanner}

In 2017, the country ranked 149 out of the 190 countries covered by the World Bank’s Doing Business report, and in the index measuring the quality of land administration, Guinea Bissau scored only 3 points out of 30[80].  Overall, according to UN Habitat:

All urban centres in the country suffer from unplanned rapid growth, lack of land use planning, inadequate land allocation policies, lack of a property cadaster system for tax collection, weak technical and institutional capacity, and lack of financial resources to provide adequate services at the local level, such as drainage systems and sewage collection facilities[81].

This has resulted in several projects seeking to upgrade informal settlements and improve service delivery[82]. However the impact of these projects appears to be dwarfed by the scale of the urban services deficit. 

^{Urban Centre near Bula Bissau. Photo by JBDodane via Flikr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)}

Contestation over scarce resources and informal urban land sales is reported to have given rise to tensions between nationals of Guinea-Bissau and those of neighbouring countries who have migrated to the capital Bissau[83].

vLand governance innovations

As late as 2006 there was no national GIS in operation and there was “practically no co-operation and coordination with data generators of any kind, in order to enter new data into the system.”[84] In 2020 UNDP launched a project “to support Guinea-Bissau in understanding the potential, limits and challenges for digital governance and in identifying the best entry points that can lead to transformational change”. It is unclear whether land administration and governance features in this programme. 

The N'tene Terra project is exploring participatory community land delimitation as a conflict risk reduction measure in areas where there are land disputes. This is critical as it includes areas that for decades since 1961 at least have been vulnerable to being classified as 'unoccupied' - in the eyes of the state or investors, areas not being directly used in any way. In fact, these areas - that include forests and huge communal rice fields that can seem 'unoccupied' because they are in fallow - are critical for the long term viability of the tabanca mode of production and its future prosperity[85]. FAO reports that between February and March 2022 twelve communities were delimited by the regional brigades in the different regions and sectors of Guinea-Bissau[86].

Timeline – milestones in land governance

1500 - 1876 - Portuguese involvement in transatlantic slave trade

1876 - Slavery abolished to be replaced by systems of forced labour

1913-1915 - Portuguese ‘pacification’ campaign 

1961 - Overseas Property Decree explicitly embodies a dual tenure system. While traditional rights to land were recognized, this did not grant the local communities rights of ownership. All land was still owned by the Portuguese state

1963-1974 - PAIGC wages war of liberation against the Portuguese

1973 - PAIGC leader Amilcar Cabral assassinated in Guinea

1974 - Guinea Bissau obtains independence from Portugal and adopts a socialist policy orientation and a command economy

1974-1980- Unsuccessful attempts at agricultural transformation 

1982-USAID supports private agribusiness

1983- 1986 -IMF economic recovery programme

1984 - Marked increase in issue of land concessions

1987-1995 - Economic structural adjustment

1991 - Guinea-Bissau transitions to multiparty politics

1998 - Land Act passed but not implemented

1998-1999 - Civil war between political and miliary elites. Conflict displaced 300,000 people and reduced GDP by 28% and agricultural production by 17% 

2009 - Further instability and assassinations

2012 - Military coups and the imposition of sanctions

2014 - Restoration of democratic government but power struggles continue within PAIGC. Attempts to revitalise the 1998 Land Law

2017/18 - New implementing regulations for the 1998 Land Law were approved by the Council of Ministers in November 2017 and finally promulgated in November 2018

2019 - Contested elections and the inauguration of two presidents 

2022 - Attempted coup

Where to go next?

The author's suggestion for further reading

This profile was prepared using English language sources. There is significant literature in Portuguese which unfortunately was inaccessible to the researcher. As will have been gathered from a reading of the profile above, Guinea-Bissau has a particularly complex history. Land issues cannot be understood in isolation from the changing political history and context. For those seeking a deep dive into the precolonial and colonial encounters along the Upper Guinea Coast, a book entitled The powerful presence of the past, edited by Jacqueline Knorr and Wilson Trajano Filho will set the scene. There are a variety of accessible video resources examining the life of Amilcar Cabral, widely recognised as one of the most effective anti-colonial revolutionary leaders. Cabralista is a 2011 documentary film by Valerio Lopes available on YouTube, which provides essential background to help situate issues shaping contemporary Guinea Bissau.

With respect to land policy and laws see the reference list below. The work in the 1990’s by John Bruce, Chris Tanner and A. S. de Moura is of great value. Bruce and Tanner also illuminate the relationship between structural adjustment, the explosion in the issue of land concessions and related tenure conflicts. The 2006 Land Tenure Study commissioned by the World Bank contains detailed information about the process of developing land law.  The work of Marina Temudo provides in depth analysis examining the fate of agriculture and contestation over conservation and land rights in Guinea-Bissau. The website curated by Eduardo Ascensao provides valuable perspectives on the challenges faced by urban residents of Bissau. A more recent paper by Tanner and Bourguignon makes the case to reactivate the 1998 Land Law.

See the reference list below for diverse sources and consult the Land Portal library for full text  articles.

References

[1] Lundy, B. D. (2015). Resistance is Fruitful: Bijagos of Guinea-Bissau. Peace and conflict management working papers, The center for Conflict Management.

[2] Vulliamy, E. (2008). How a tiny West African country became the world's first narco state. The Guardian.

[3] Filho, W. T. (2010). The Creole idea of nation and its predicaments: The case of Guinea-Bissau. The powerful presence of the past: Integration and conflict along the Guinea Upper Coast. J. Knorr and W. T. Filho. Leiden, Boston, Brill.

[4] Van der Heijden, T. (2010). Good for who? Supermarkets and small farmers in South Africa – a critical review of current approaches to market access for small farmers in developing countries. Master of Commerce, University of Stellenbosch.

[5] Lundy, B. D. (2015). Resistance is Fruitful: Bijagos of Guinea-Bissau. Peace and conflict management working papers, The center for Conflict Management.

[6] Schoenmakers, H. (1987). "Old Men and New State Structures in Guinea-Bissau." The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 19(25-26): 99-138, Jenrich, D. and J. Schmidt Machado (2006). Guinea Bissau Land Tenure Study. Washington, World Bank and GFA Consulting Group.

[7] Abranches, M. (2013). The Route of the Land’s Roots:  Connecting life-worlds between Guinea-Bissau and Portugal through food-related meanings and practices. PhD, University of Sussex.

[8] Temudo, M. P. and M. B. Abrantes (2013). "Changing policies, shifting livelihoods: The fate of agriculture in Guinea‐Bissau." Journal of Agrarian Change 13(4): 571-589.

[9] BBC Witness History (2021). Amilcar Cabral: An African liberation legend, BBC Sounds.

[10] Urdang, S. (1975). "Fighting two Colonialisms: The Women's Struggle in Guinea-Bissau." African Studies Review 18(3): 29-34.

[11] Galli, R. E. (1995). "Capitalist agriculture and the colonial state in Portuguese Guinea, 1926-1974." African Economic History(23): 51-78.

[12] Urdang, S. (1975). "Fighting two Colonialisms: The Women's Struggle in Guinea-Bissau." African Studies Review 18(3): 29-34.

[13] Urdang, S. (1974). "Translating the Spirit of the People: A New System of Justice in Guinea-Bissau." Southern Africa 8(9).

[14] PA/HO Department of State (1973). Portuguese Guinea: The PAIGC after Amilcar Cabral. Declassified (2006).

[15] Osuna, J. J. O. (2014). "The deep roots of the Carnation Revolution: 150 years of military interventionism in Portugal." Portuguese Journal of Social Science 13(2): 215-231.

[16] Tanner, C. R. (1991). Relations Between Ponteiros and Tabancas: Implications for a New Land Law in Guinea Bissau, a Report Prepared for USAID-Bissau, Cambridge SEPR Associates.

[17] Bruce, J. and C. Tanner (1992). Structural adjustment, land concentration and common property: The case of Guinea-Bissau. P.105

[18] Ibid. P.106

[19] Bruce, J., A. S. de Moura and C. Tanner (1992). A new land law for Guinea Bissau: Needs and opportunities. Madison, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin.

[20] GlobalSecurity.org. (N.D). "Guinea Bissau Civil War: ECOMOG Operations (June 1998-April 1999)."   Retrieved 30 June, 2022, from https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/guinea-bissau-2.htm.

[21] Vulliamy, E. (2008). How a tiny West African country became the world's first narco state. The Guardian.

[22] Taylor, M. (2011). Guinea-Bissau: A Narco-Developmental State?, African Arguments.

[23] Kohnert, D. (2010). "Democratization via elections in an African 'narco-state'? The case of Guinea-Bissau."

[24]Whiteman, K. (2012). Malam Bacai Sanhá obituary: President of Guinea-Bissau and a stalwart of his country's struggle for liberation. The Guardian.

[25] ECOWAS Commission (2017). Guinea-Bissau Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, ECOWAS.

[26] Ibid

[27] Bertelsmann Stiftung (2022). BTI 2022 Country Report — Guinea-Bissau. Gütersloh.

[28] Nielsen, E. (2022). "Umaro Embaló (1972-)." Black Past  Retrieved 7 November, 2022, from https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/people-global-african-history/umaro-embalo-1972/.

[29] UN. (2020). World Urbanization Prospects 2019. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Dynamics. https://population.un.org/wpp/

[30] Bruce, J., A. S. de Moura and C. Tanner (1992). A new land law for Guinea Bissau: Needs and opportunities. Madison, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin.

[31]This system is similar to how these rights are vested and recognised in Mozambique.

[32] World Bank (2006). Guinea-Bissau: Land tenure issues and policy study. P.27

[33] Ibid. P.41

[34] Ouedraogo, H., D. Gnisci and L. Hitimana (2006). Land Reform Processes in West Africa: A Review, Sahel and West Africa Club.

[35]World Bank (2006). Guinea-Bissau: Land tenure issues and policy study.

[36]Bruce, J. and C. Tanner (1992). Structural adjustment, land concentration and common property: The case of Guinea-Bissau. P.105

[37]Tanner, C. (1994). A two tiered evaluation of Africar's PL480 Program in Guinea Bissau. Impact: Food Security and monitoring project, USAID.

[38] Tanner, C. R. (1991). Relations Between Ponteiros and Tabancas: Implications for a New Land Law in Guinea Bissau, a Report Prepared for USAID-Bissau, Cambridge SEPR Associates.

[39] Ouedraogo, H., D. Gnisci and L. Hitimana (2006). Land Reform Processes in West Africa: A Review, Sahel and West Africa Club.

[40] Ibid.

[41] Tanner, C. and C. Bourguignon (2017). Doing (inclusive) business in Guinea-Bissau: Reactivating the 1998 Land Law. Responsible land governance: towards an evidence-based approach. 2017 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. Washington DC, World Bank.

[42] Ibid

[43] Ibid

[44] World Bank (2006). Guinea-Bissau: Land tenure issues and policy study. P.38

[45] Gugushvili, A. (2016). “Money can’t buy me land”: Foreign land ownership regime and public opinion in a transition society. Land Use Policy, 55, 142–153.

[46] Jenrich, D. and J. Schmidt Machado (2006). Guinea Bissau Land Tenure Study. Washington, World Bank and GFA Consulting Group.

[47] Tanner, C. and C. Bourguignon (2017). Doing (inclusive) business in Guinea-Bissau: Reactivating the 1998 Land Law. Responsible land governance: towards an evidence-based approach. 2017 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. Washington DC, World Bank.

[48] Borges, L. (2014). Análise do Quadro Jurídico da Terra em Guiné Bissau. Rome, FAO.

[49] Pers comm. Mario Martins, Chair of the National land Commission.

[50] Tanner, C. and C. Bourguignon (2017). Doing (inclusive) business in Guinea-Bissau: Reactivating the 1998 Land Law. Responsible land governance: towards an evidence-based approach. 2017 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. Washington DC, World Bank.

[51] ECOWAS Commission (2017). Guinea-Bissau Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, ECOWAS.

[52] Bruce, J. and C. Tanner (1992). Structural adjustment, land concentration and common property: The case of Guinea-Bissau. P.109

[53] Tanner, C. and C. Bourguignon (2017). Doing (inclusive) business in Guinea-Bissau: Reactivating the 1998 Land Law. Responsible land governance: towards an evidence-based approach. 2017 World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty. Washington DC, World Bank.

[54] ECOWAS Commission (2017). Guinea-Bissau Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, ECOWAS.

[55] World Bank (2006). Guinea-Bissau: Land tenure issues and policy study. P.39

[56] USGS. (2013). " Land Use, Land Cover, and Trends in Guinea-Bissau." West Africa: Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics  Retrieved 28 June, 2022, from https://eros.usgs.gov/westafrica/land-cover/land-use-land-cover-and-trends-guinea-bissau.

[57] IFAD. (2019). "Investing in rural people in Guinea-Bissau."   Retrieved 20 June, 2022, from https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/-/publication/investing-in-rural-people-in-guinea-bissau.

[58] World Bank (2019). Guinea Bissau: Unlocking diversification to unleash agriculture growth, World Bank. P.12

[59] IFAD. (2019). "Investing in rural people in Guinea-Bissau."   Retrieved 20 June, 2022, from https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/-/publication/investing-in-rural-people-in-guinea-bissau

[60] World Bank (2019). Guinea Bissau: Unlocking diversification to unleash agriculture growth, World Bank. P.16

[61] van Gent and Ukkerman (no date) provide a good account of this unique system

[62] ECOWAS Commission (2017). Guinea-Bissau Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, ECOWAS.

[63] Cannon, J. (2017). "Officials, Greenpeace nab four boats for illegally fishing near Guinea-Bissau."   Retrieved 9 November, from https://news.mongabay.com/2017/04/officials-greenpeace-nab-four-boats-for-illegally-fishing-near-guinea-bissau/, Okafor-Yarwood, I. (2019). "Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and the complexities of the

[64] ND-GAIN. (2019). "Guinea-Bissau: Country Index Rank."   Retrieved 21 June, 2022, from https://gain-new.crc.nd.edu/country/guinea-bissau.

[65] World Bank (2019). Guinea Bissau: Unlocking diversification to unleash agriculture growth, World Bank.P.10

[66] World Food Programme (2021). WFP Critical Corporate Initiative: Climate Response Analysis for Adaptation Guinea-Bissau.

[67] Temudo, M. P. and A. I. Cabral (2021). "Climate change as the last trigger in a long-lasting conflict: the production of vulnerability in northern Guinea-Bissau, West Africa." The Journal of Peasant Studies: 1-24.

[68] Ramalho da Silva, B. (2021). "Guinea-Bissau’s plan to lift logging ban sparks fears for forests."   Retrieved 29 July, 2022, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/20/guinea-bissau-plan-to-lift-logging-ban-sparks-fears-for-forests.

[69]http://Ibid.

[70] Shryock, R. (2021). "Fears for rosewood as Guinea-Bissau prepares to lift six-year logging ban."   Retrieved 9 November, 2022, from https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/fears-for-rosewood-as-guinea-bissau-prepares-to-lift-six-year-logging-ban/.

[71] Temudo, M. P. (2012)."“The White Men Bought the Forests” Conservation and Contestation in Guinea-Bissau, Western Africa." Conservation and Society 10(4): 354-366.

[72] Thomas, G. P. (2012). "Guinea-Bissau: Mining, Minerals and Fuel Resources." Retrieved 30 June, 2022, from https://www.azomining.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=207.

[73] da Cruz, D. M. (2020). "Guinea-Bissau – A hidden opportunity." Retrieved 9 November, 2022, from https://furtherafrica.com/2020/05/25/guinea-bissau-a-hidden-opportunity/.

[74] European Union (2020). Republic of Guinea-Bissau: Multiannual Indicative Programme 2021-2027.

[75] Ibid. P.6

[76] Silva, Y. N. (2021). "Guinea-Bissau: Where land rights are not secure for women."   Retrieved 20 June, 2022, from https://africanarguments.org/2021/10/guinea-bissau-where-land-rights-are-not-secure-for-women/.

[77] ECOWAS Commission (2017). Guinea-Bissau Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, ECOWAS.

[78] Ascensao, E. "The technoscience of slum intervention: Bissau."   Retrieved 30 June, 2022, from https://www.technoscienceslumintervention.org/bissau.

[79] Temudo, M. P. and M. B. Abrantes (2013). "Changing policies, shifting livelihoods: The fate of agriculture in Guinea‐Bissau." Journal of Agrarian Change 13(4): 571-589.

[80] Tanner and Bourguignon (2017:13).

[81] UN-Habitat. (2019). "Bissau 2030 - Sustainable Development Plan." Our City Plans  Retrieved 16 October 2022, from https://ourcityplans.unhabitat.org/planning-experiences/bissau-2030-sustainable-development-plan

[82] Ascensao, E. "The technoscience of slum intervention: Bissau."   Retrieved 30 June, 2022, from https://www.technoscienceslumintervention.org/bissau.

[83] ECOWAS Commission (2017). Guinea-Bissau Country Risk and Vulnerability Assessment, ECOWAS.

[84] World Bank (2006). Guinea-Bissau: Land tenure issues and policy study.

[85] Pers. Comm Chris Tanner

[86] FAO. (2022). "N'tene Terra Project supports land delimitation in Guinea Bissau."   Retrieved 7 November, 2022, from https://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/news-archive/detail-news/en/c/1507036.