National Land Registration Program for Georgia

Vincent Morabito USAID/EPI Senior Advisor Tbilisi, March 23, 2013

Content
Land Ownership Challenge Land Registration Initiative Objective Principles of Land Registration Process Land Registration Governance: Current Status Functional Breakdown of Land Registration Initiative Land Ownership Scenarios Principal Government Entities in Land Registration Potential Benefits of Land Registration

Land Ownership Challenges

Only 15-20% of land plots registered with electronic cadastral maps with National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR) As part of privatization, around 2.5 million Certificates were issued by the State, representing 800,000 original beneficiaries and allocating around 700,000 hectares of land Many of the original recipients may now be deceased (an estimate of 35%) and some type of transfer of these rights has occurred since 1992 State maintains another estimate of 700,000 land plots with unknown boundaries or registration Several ministries and local authorities involved in some aspects of determining land ownership Laws and regulations governing land ownership are scattered and somewhat incomplete and the relevant data requires centralization

Land Registration Initiative Objectives

Develop and implement a process for the GoG to effectively finalize the privatization of agricultural land that began in 1992 Prepare the conditions for land market development, including land consolidation Enable long-term agricultural and rural sector development in Georgia

Land Registration

Land Market Development

Agricultural and Rural Sector Development

Key Principles of a Comprehensive and Coordinated Land Registration Process

Informationsharing

Transparency

Clear Authority and Org Structure

Joint action plan and implementation

Common Understanding of Issues

Key Principles

ProblemSolving

Successful Land Registration

Land Registration Governance: Current Status

Several national and local government entities are involved with different land registration roles and responsibilities:
Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development (MoESD) Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MoENR) Local authorities

Progress to date:
Prime Minister tasked Minister of Agriculture to coordinate land registration reform An informal committee of ministers representing line ministries has been established Initial strategic working group sessions have been conducted across the ministries

Functional Breakdown of Land Registration Initiative

Strategic Advisory Report to Minister of Agriculture and coordinate implementation of the initiative

Provide strategic and project management guidance, reporting and coordination of all the implementing agencies of the reform, including oversight of all the working groups

Legal and Regulatory

Lead the legal and regulatory aspects of the initiative Data and Information Lead the data and information gathering and sharing aspects of the initiative Public Awareness Lead the public outreach campaign Develop public awareness messages for targeted audiences and conduct public outreach and awareness campaign, providing coordination support to all national and local entities Provide necessary legal and regulatory due diligence and design appropriate legal framework

Gather necessary data and create data repository and knowledge sharing platforms with the objective to facilitate prompt registration of land plots

Land Ownership Scenarios

Scenario A An owner is a beneficiary of the land distribution/ titling programs Scenario B Has a receipt of purchase from the original holder of the land certificate Is actively farming the land, or has leased the land to another who is farming the land, registered or not by local government Has his/her original certificate and has undisputed possession of land that corresponds to what was stipulated on the original certificate Is actively farming the land or has leased the land to another who is farming the land

An owner purchased a land plot from initial beneficiary

Scenario C An owner claims ownership based on inheritance from a person who was a beneficiary of land distribution programs An owner that has or has not in his possession the original land certificate but claims ownership based on inheritance This person has undisputed possession of the land plots as described in the original certificate Is farming land or renting to a farmer, registered or not by local government

Land Ownership Scenarios

Scenario D An owner who has no land certificate or other proof of ownership but is in an undisputed possession of a land plot Scenario E An owner who has a land certificate or other proof of ownership but lost land due to actions by the Government An owner lost his land that he or she was peacefully occupying/utilizing due to actions by the Government: GoG sponsored land auction/privatization process GoG sponsored condemnation and subsequent reprivatization to third parties Owner Claims ownership based on undisputed possession and utilization of the plot for five years or more May have some form of recognition of ownership in the form of a letter or other official document giving him permission to occupy the parcel

Potential Benefits of Land Registration

Flow of Finance -Higher Value of Land -More Informed Investment Decisions -Attraction of Capital and Technologies Land Consolidation -Potential for Improvement of Scale of Operations Best Utilization of Competitive Advantages -Better Specialization -Emergence of High Value Added Agriculture -More Orientation on Boutique Agriculture