Vanuatu National Leasing Profile: A Preliminary Analysis

Public Disclosure Authorized JUSTICE POOR for the BRIEFING NOTE Promoting equity and managing conflict in development Volume 7 | Issue 1 May 2012 69994 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Vanuatu National Leasing Proile:A Preliminary Analysis By Sue Scott, Milena Stefanova, Anna Naupa, and Karaeviti Vurobaravu Alienation of customary land represents a signiicant, and increasing, challenge in many parts of the world. In Vanuatu the 1980 constitution restored perpetual land rights to “indigenous custom owners and their descendants”. Implementing this principle after decades of land alienation often proved to be dificult and contested. Government infrastructure, tourism, business, agriculture, industry, urbanization, and the desire to use land to secure inancial loans are some of the driving forces behind the creation of leases. The Justice for the Poor program’s national leasing proile represents the irst comprehensive attempt to document nation-wide leasing activities in Vanuatu and highlights the importance of maintaining a uniform and reliable database of land lease registration that could inform land use planning decisions. This note summarizes indings from an analysis of Vanuatu national leasing data drawn from the Vanuatu Department of Lands databases for the period of 1980–2010. It provides a preliminary indication of how much of Vanuatu is currently under lease, where land is being leased, how leased land is being used, the length of leases, and the extent that leases have been subdivided. The proile also highlights areas where data collection needs to be improved.1 Context Land alienation has a long history in Vanuatu, from the extraction of sandalwood trees and the establishment of cotton plantations and Christian missions in the 1860s, to the development of copra plantations in the 1900s and the agricultural, residential, and tourism developments that followed. At independence in 1980, the new Constitution restored perpetual land rights to the “indigenous custom owners and their THE WORLD BANK descendants” and proclaimed that the “rules of custom shall form the basis of ownership and use” in the country.2 While the Constitution abolished all existing land titles, the Land Reform Act of 1980 provided for their replacement in certain circumstances.3 The regulation allowed “alienators” who have a freehold or other interest in the land to remain in occupation of it until either a lease agreement is negotiated with the custom owners or payment is made for improvements to the land. The new regulation also provided for the negotiation of agreements between former title-holders and custom owners for the continued occupation of the land. Much of the urban land was owned at independence by the British or French governments, the Condominium, or a municipality (land in the urban areas of Port Vila and Luganville); this land came under the deinition of “state land” in the Land Reform Act and was vested in the government as “public land” at independence. Thus, the land in Vanuatu is either under custom landholding (in rural areas) or government landholding (in urban areas). These features relect the classiication of leases by “rural” and “urban” and shape the presentation of this analysis. Implementing the constitutional principle of custom landholding after decades of land alienation often proved dificult and was frequently contested. Although the leasing arrangement was originally intended to restore investor conidence and maintain agricultural development in newly independent Vanuatu, it soon evolved into the method of acquiring new leases over previously unalienated4 land. Government infrastructure, tourism, business, agriculture, industry, urbanization, and the desire to use land to secure inancial loans are some of the driving forces behind the creation of leases. See the Annex, which highlights the serious gaps in the data. Sections 73–75, Constitution of the Republic of Vanuatu. 3 Chris Lunnay et al., “Vanuatu Review of National Land Legislation, Policy and Land Administration” (Canberra: AusAID, 2007). 4 Land not alienated during the French-British Condominium, which remained in the hands of customary landholders. 1 2 Concerns over actual and perceived problems of land alienation through leasing in postindependent Vanuatu triggered the convening of the National Land Summit in 2006.5 The summit was followed by an Interim Transitional Implementation Strategy and a National Land Review, all of which set the stage for a legislative and administrative reform agenda, and served as a guide to short- and long-term assistance to the land sector.6 This policy guidance formed the basis of the “Vanuatu Short-Term Land Reform Initiatives Project,” funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) from 2007 to 2010. During this time, the Vanuatu Ministry of Lands, with support from AusAID, also inalized a Land Sector Framework 2009–2018,7 which focused on ive areas in need of reform: (i) enhancing the governance of land; (ii) engaging customary groups; (iii) improving the delivery of land services; (iv) creating a productive and sustainable sector; and (v) ensuring the access and tenure security of all groups. To support the implementation of the Land Sector Framework, Australia and New Zealand are jointly funding a ive-year land program “Mama Graon,” which commenced in January 2011. island Eco resort web page, http://www.bokissa.vu/island. html) and Aore (65.3 percent), where there has been a lot of subdivision activity (84 percent of the island’s 291 leases are subdivisions).11 (See table 9 for a breakdown of subdivision plots by island and table 4 for a breakdown of lease class by island.) The map below provides a visual presentation and geographical distribution of leases on the main island of Efate. The total coastline of Efate is estimated to be 215 kilometers. Registered leases along the coast cover approximately 121.5 kilometers, which is about 56.5 percent of the total coastal area on Efate. Figure 1: Map of Land Leases on Efate Number and Area of Leases The total land area of Vanuatu is approximately 12,236 square kilometers scattered over roughly 80 islands. The 2009 population census8 igures suggest a total population of 243,023 persons, of whom 176,816 are rural and 52,207 urban. According to the data shown in table 1, as of December 2010 there were approximately 13,815 registered leases in Vanuatu, covering 1,141.6 square kilometers of land, representing 9.5 percent of the total area of Vanuatu. This includes 5,420 subdivisions, but excludes 989 leases that have been cancelled by the Department of Lands. However, these igures are indicative only and need to be treated with caution, as the quality of the data is questionable. For example, area data were missing for 8 percent of the records, and the approximate backlog of unregistered documents is estimated to be 4,000 leases as of October 2011,9 suggesting that the area under lease may actually be much higher. The area leased is highest in the provinces of Shefa (490.9 square kilometers) and Sanma (452.3 square kilometers). Within these provinces, leasing on Efate and the outer islands (44 percent) and Santo (10 percent) accounts for the majority of the leased land. On Efate (Port Vila), 69.5 percent of urban land is under lease, and on Santo (Luganville), the igure is 69.6 percent. Although the greatest number of leases are found in the urban and peri-urban areas of Efate and Santo, there are some islands that also have extensive areas under lease—for example, Bokissa (90.9 percent), where there has been considerable tourism development,10 (See the Bokissa 2 Urban and Rural Leases Out of the total 13,815 leases, 7,010 are urban leases in Port Vila and Luganville (over government-owned land), comprising 1 percent of the land under lease in Vanuatu, and 5 See “Vanuatu National Land Summit Resolutions” (Port Vila: Government of the Republic of Vanuatu, 2006). The summit resolutions highlighted, among other goals, the need to strengthen group customary ownership; to ensure participation of all groups in decision making about land use; to review the custom owner identiication process; to increase public awareness of land rights and laws; to remove the minister’s power to approve leases over disputed land; to ensure public access to the sea; to ensure fair land dealings between parties; and to comply with environmental and social impact assessment requirements. 6 Lunnay et al., “Review of National Land Legislation.” 7 Land Sector Framework 2009–2018, July 2009. 8 Vanuatu National Statistics Ofice, “2009 National Census of Population and Housing, Summary Release” (Port Vila: Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, 2009). 9 AusAID, “Mama Graon Vanuatu Land Program, Annual Plan,” Report No. C-2.7 (Canberra: AusAID, 2011), unpublished. 10 See the Bokissa island Eco resort web page, http://www.bokissa.vu/island.html. 11 Aore was a plantation island prior to independence and was probably one of the early freehold titles converted to a lease. Table 1. Number of Leases and Area Leased (km2) by Province/Island, December 2010 Province/Island No. of Leases Area Leased (km2) Area of Province/ Island (km2) % under Lease Shefa 9,858 490.9 1,500.6 32.7% Efate/Outer Islands* 9,821 426.4 970.4 44.0% (Efate – rural) (5,399) (418.0) (958.6) (43.6%) (Efate – urban) (4,422) (8.2) (11.8) (69.5%) Epi 21 63.1 445.3 14.0% Shepherd Islands 16 1.4 84.9 1.6% Sanma** 3,706 452.3 4,200.0 10.8% Santo 3,396 390 3,958.9 10.0% (Santo – rural) (Santo – urban) (808) (382.0) (3,946.8) (9.7%) (2,588) (7.8) (11.2) (69.6%) Aore 291 37.9 58.1 65.3% Malo 17 23.8 182.4 13.0% Bokissa 2 0.6 0.7 90.9% Malampa 121 114.2 2,760.6 4.1% Malekula 104 113.6 2,053.2 5.5% Ambrym 13 0.5 675.4 0.1% 4 0.1 32.0 0.3% Tafea Paama 83 80.3 1,613.3 5.0% Tanna 70 13.66 561.6 2.0% Erromango 12 32.4 891.1 3.6% Aneityum 1 34.2 160.6 21.3% Penama 32 2.8 1,193.4 0.2% Pentecost 16 0.3 490.9 0.1% Ambae 14 0.4 400.4 0.1% Maewo 2 2.1 302.1 0.7% Torba 15 1.2 726.3 0.2% Banks 15 1.2 726.3 0.2% 13,815 1,141.6 11,994*** 9.5% Total Notes: Area missing = 8 percent; no missing data for island; includes subdivisions; 989 cancelled leases removed. * Efate/Outer Islands include Emao, Erakor, Hideaway, Iira, Iririki, Lelepa, Moso, Nguna, Kakula, Hat (Eretoka), and Pele ** Includes Ratua, Asuleka, and Parumamasa islands *** This igure is less that the total land area of Vanuatu, as a number of islands do not have leases. Table 2. Number and Area of Rural/Urban Leases, December 2010 Number Area Leased (km2) % Area Leased Rural 6,805 1,125.6 99% Urban 7,010 15.9 1% Port Vila 4,422 8.2 69.5% Luganville 2,588 7.8 69.6% 13,815 1,141.6 Rural/Urban Total Figure 2: Number of Rural/Urban Leases, December 2010 2588 6805 4422 Rural Port Vila Luganville 100% Notes: Area missing = 8 percent; includes subdivisions; 989 cancelled leases removed. Notes: Area missing = 8 percent; includes subdivisions; 989 cancelled leases removed. 3 Leasing Activity Figure 3 shows that there have been three periods since 1980 when the number of rural leases registered has dramatically increased: 1984–87, 1995–97, and 2002–09. Lease activity rose rapidly after 1983, possibly because the Alienated Land Act, which provided the framework for negotiations between settler occupants (alienators) and landholders, did not come into effect until 1982, and also because alienators had to be recognized as such and then negotiate leases with identiied landholders. The greater size of land leased in the early years after independence probably relects the predominantly agricultural nature of such leases, many of which were accommodating existing plantations and farms. The increase in leasing during 1995–97 points to the shift in government policy toward increased foreign investment. This period is also characterized by escalating subdivision and abuse of ministerial power to grant leases over customary land.12 Over Figure 3: Leasing Activity Trend, Rural and Urban Leases 1981–2010 800 Lease Class When a lease is registered, it is assigned a lease class prescribing the purpose for which the land can be used. Classes of lease include agricultural, commercial, residential, special, and industrial. Special leases include a variety of public service activities, such as churches, telecommunications sites, schools, hospitals/clinics, access ways, airports, conservation areas, government buildings, post ofices, and community centers. A range of hybrid lease classes have also increasingly been used in recent years, including commercial/ tourism, commercial/industrial, commercial/residential, and residential/tourism. It is unclear exactly what these categories mean, however, and whether they have been consistently applied. For example, the only use of the residential/tourism lease class in the data set is for 31 subdivisions on the island Figure 4: Lease Class by Number, Urban and Rural Leases, December 2010 Total no. of leases 6,803 are rural leases over customary land, comprising 99 percent of the land under lease. 700 600 500 12000 11000 10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Agricultural 400 Commercial Industrial Residential Special Lease class 300 Rural Urban Notes: N = 12,980. Lease class missing = 6 percent; area missing = 8 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. 200 100 0 818283848586878889909192939495969798990001020304050607080910 Rural Urban Notes: N = 13,000. Year missing = 12 percent; area missing = 8 percent; includes 989 cancelled leases. the last decade (2001–10), an average of 608 leases per year were registered; 895 new leases were granted in 2007 and 1,800 between 2008 and 2010, despite the concerns about leasing expressed at the 2006 National Land Summit. Figure 3 also shows that the proportion of rural leases granted in comparison to urban leases has been increasing since 2000, which may be explained by the greater availability of land to lease outside the rather constrained urban areas. 4 of Aore in 2006 and one new lease on Efate in 2005. Given their relatively small numbers, these three categories have been included in the commercial/tourism category for the purposes of analysis. The majority of leases throughout the country are residential (79 percent), although the land area of these leases is only 4 percent of the total area under lease. The preponderance of these leases are on the main islands of Efate and Santo. A further 11 percent are for commercial/tourism purposes, comprising 9 percent of land area under lease. Agricultural leases, while involving only 6 percent of leases, account for See Ombudsman Reports 98-10; 099-09; 99-06 available at http://www. vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/Online/ombudsman/Vanuatu/Digest/digest_index. html#Digested%20Reports. 12 Table 3. Lease Class by Number and Area, Urban and Rural Leases, 2010 Rural Urban Lease type No Area (km2) Agricultural 785 823.7 Commercial/Tourism 750 87.5 30 2.1 4,561 37.7 251 6,377 Industrial Residential Special Total No. 2 Total Area (km2) % of All Leases No. Area (km2) % of Leased Area 0.9 787 6% 824.6 82% 734 4.2 1,484 11% 91.7 9% 103 0.7 133 1% 2.8 0% 5,654 7.4 10,215 79% 45.1 4% 43.1 110 1.1 361 3% 44.2 4% 994.1 6,603 14.3 12,980 100% 1,008.3 100% Notes: Lease class missing = 6 percent; area missing = 8 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. Table 4. Number of Leases, Lease Class by Island, December 2010 Island Agricultural Commercial / Tourism Industrial Residential Special Ambae 0 0 0 0 13 Ambrym 1 3 0 1 8 Aneityum 1 0 0 0 0 10 42 0 205 1 Banks 2 1 0 2 2 Bokissa 0 1 0 1 0 Aore Efate/Outer Islands 561 1,094 37 7,600 166 Epi 7 7 0 1 3 Erromango 2 0 8 0 1 Maewo 0 0 0 0 2 Malekula 15 47 1 2 35 Malo 12 2 0 0 3 Paama 0 0 0 0 3 Pentecost 0 0 0 0 16 Santo 167 262 86 2,395 63 Shepherds 5 0 0 0 11 Tanna 4 25 1 8 32 176 1,484 133 10,215 359 Total Notes: N = 12,980. Lease class missing = 6 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. 82 percent of the area under lease. The remaining 4 percent are industrial or special leases, making up 1 percent of the land area under lease. Table 4 gives an indication of the nature of leasing activity on each island. The majority of agricultural and commercial leases are located on Efate and the outer islands, followed by Santo and Malekula. It is interesting to note that although the total number of special leases is relatively small (3 percent of all leases), a number of islands (Ambae, Maewo, Paama, and Pentecost) have only this class of lease. Table 5 shows the distribution of agricultural leases and average lease size among the different islands. Notably, despite the large number of agricultural leases on Efate and the outer islands, they amount to a relatively small area of land in comparison to the size of agricultural leases on Santo and Malekula, suggesting that those on Efate are small in area and consist of small family holdings rather than large agricultural enterprises. 5 Island No. of Leases Area Leased (km2) Average Area Leased (km2) N/A Ambrym 1 N/A Aneityum 1 34.2 34.2 10 23.5 2.3 1 N/A N/A 561 300.6 0.5 7 62.6 8.9 Aore Ambrym Efate Epi Erromango 2 32.1 Malekula 15 111.6 Malo 12 23.6 Santo 167 224.4 1.3 Shepherd Islands 5 1.3 0.3 Tanna 4 Total 787 Figure 5: Percent of Rural and Urban Leases for 50 and 75 years, December 2010 Percent by lease term Table 5. Average Lease Size for Agricultural Leases by Island, December 2010 16 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 7.4 Urban Rural Lease type 2 11 2.7 824.9 1.1 Notes: Lease class missing = 6 percent; area missing = 8 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. Lease Term The quality of data on terms of leases is poor, are fully 24 percent of records are missing information. The following igures should therefore be seen only as indicative. The maximum time for which a lease can be granted is 75 years.13 Of the total number of 10,277 leases for which there is data, approximately 98 percent are for 50 years or more, 54 percent are for a term of 50 years, and 46 percent for the maximum 75-year term. This igure is even higher for 50 yrs 75 yrs Notes: N = 10,277. Lease term missing = 24 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. subdivision plots, of which 71 percent are for 75 years. The remaining 2 percent are for between 5 and 49 years. Figure 5 shows that a much higher proportion of these 75-year leases are rural leases, as fully 92 percent of rural leases are for 75 years, compared to only 14 percent of urban leases. Over 80 percent of urban leases, however, are for a term of 50 years. Figure 6: Lease Term by Year for 50- and 75-Year Leases, 1981–2010 800 700 600 Table 6. Percentage of 50- and 75-Year Leases by Cadastre, December 2010 Lease Type 500 400 50 yrs 75 yrs All Leases 67% 33% 100% Subdivisions 29% 71% 100% All Leases 54% 46% 100% 100 Notes: N = 9,926. Lease term missing = 24 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. 0 300 200 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 50 yr Table 7. Percent of Rural and Urban Leases for 50 and 75 years, December 2010 Urban/Rural 50 yrs 75 yrs Urban 86% 14% 100% Rural 8% 92% 100% 99 01 03 05 07 09 75 yr Notes: N = 10,420. Lease term missing = 24 percent; year missing = 12 percent; includes 989 cancelled leases. All Notes: N = 10,277. Lease term missing = 24 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. 6 97 13 Only leases for more than three years are required to be registered. The Land Leases Act (sec. 32) stipulates that a term of lease cannot be more than 75 years. There appears to be an increasing trend to grant leases for the highest available term of 75 years. Since 1997, more 75-year than 50-year leases have been granted; however, the intention of the legislation at independence was that the general maximum for lease periods in rural areas would be 30 years, and that 75-year leases would be granted only for major development projects.14 Figure 8: Number of Rural Leases Signed by the Minister, 1980–2009 250 200 150 100 % of leases by category Figure 7: Lease Term by Lease Class for 50- and 75-Year Leases, December 2010 50 0 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 01 03 05 07 09 Notes: N = 1458. Lessor missing = 29 percent; year missing = 189. Agricultural Special Commercial 75 years Industrial Residential 50 years Notes: N = 10,137. Lease term missing = 24 percent; lease class missing = 6 percent; 989 cancelled leases removed. Figure 7 illustrates that the majority of residential leases are for 50 years; 75-year leases dominate all other lease types, with as much as 85 percent of agricultural leases having 75-year terms. Ministerial Leases over Disputed Land At independence in 1980, while the government carefully considered the return of land to customary landholders, it provided in section 78(1) of the Constitution that “where… there is a dispute concerning the ownership of alienated land, the Government should hold such land until the dispute is resolved.”15 To handle this transition, section 8(1) of the Land Reform Act 1980 gave the Minister of Lands “general management and control over all land…where ownership is disputed.” This includes the power to “conduct transactions in respect of the land including the granting of leases in the interest and on behalf of the custom owners” (section 8(2) (b)) and to “take all necessary measures to conserve and protect the land on behalf of custom owners” (section 8(2)(c)). Given the transitional nature of the legislation described above, it would have been expected that the number of leases signed by the Minister of Lands on behalf of customary landholders after independence would gradually decline, on the assumption that customary landholders had resolved disputes over ownership and had taken responsibility for their own lease negotiations.16 National leasing data, however, indicate the contrary. Figure 8 shows that the number of leases over customary land signed by the Minister of Lands as lessor has increased markedly over time—though it should be noted that lessor information was missing for 29 percent of leases. Table 8. Number of Ministerial Leases by Island, 1980–2009 Island Number Efate – urban 2,404 Efate – rural 1,388 Santo – urban 785 Santo – rural 87 Malekula 38 Tanna 6 Erromango 6 Aore 5 Epi 2 Malo 2 Ambae 1 Pentecost 1 Total 4,725 Note: Lessor missing = 29 percent. 14 Ministerial Statement on Land Policy Implementation (Port Vila: Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, 1980). 15 See section 78(1) of the Constitution of Vanuatu. 16 J. Haccius, “The Interaction of Modern and Custom Land Tenure Systems in Vanuatu,” SSGM Discussion Paper 2011/1 (Canberra: Australian National University, 2011). 7 beachfront) and subsequently subdividing and selling it for residential purposes was identiied as an issue of concern by custom landholders during the National Land Summit. The 2006 Land Summit raised concerns about the unrestricted use of the Minister of Lands’ power to sign leases over disputed customary land. Numerous Vanuatu Ombudsman decisions have also criticized the misuse of ministerial powers with respect to land. National leasing data show that out of the 6,803 rural leases, 1,458 were signed by the minister as lessor. Table 8 shows that the majority of rural leases signed by the minister as lessor are on Efate, followed by Santo, Malekula, and Tanna. Table 9 shows that out of the 13,815 leases in Vanuatu, 5,420 are subdivisions. The highest number of subdivision plots are found on Efate and the outer islands (3,993), Santo (1,141), and Aore (243); 3,798 of those plots are on rural land, compared to 1,622 in the urban areas of Port Vila and Santo. The majority of subdivisions (78 percent) are for land used for residential purposes. Subdivisions Land subdivisions are regulated under the Land Leases Act, in which the leaseholder surrenders the original title and subdivides it into multiple lots/titles. The practice by investors of leasing large tracts of land (often prime agricultural or Figure 10: Subdivision Plots and New Leases by Year, 1980–2010 800 Figure 9: Subdivision Plots by Lease Type, December 2010 1% 700 600 1% 500 400 6% 9% 300 78% Residential Commercial/Tourism Agricultural Industrial 200 100 0 818283848586878889909192939495969798990001020304050607080910 Subdivision New Lease Notes: N = 12,585. Year missing = 12 percent; includes cancelled leases; excludes boundary alterations and combination leases. Notes: N = 5420. Lease type missing = 6 percent; 171 cancelled leases removed. Table 9. Number and Area of Subdivision Plots per Island, December 2010 Island Efate/Outer Islands (Efate/Outer Islands – rural) Number Area (km2) Area of Island (km2) % of Island under Lease % of Island Subdivided 3,993 53.4 970.4 44.0% 6% 3,958.9 10.0% 0% 58.1 65.3% 19% 2,053.2 5.5% 0% 445.3 14.0% 0% (3,220) (52.3) (Efate/Outer Islands – urban) (773) (1.1) Santo 1,141 40.5 (Santo – rural) (292) (38.7) (Santo – urban) (849) (1.8) Aore Malekula 243 31 11 0.1 Epi 7 0 Bokissa 2 0.6 0.7 90.9% 86% Tanna 2 0.2 561.6 2.0% 0% 490.9 0.1% N/A 10% 1% Pentecost Total 1 5,420 N/A 105.9 Notes: Cadastre missing = 274; area missing = 8 percent; 171 cancelled leases removed. 8 11,994 Total no. plots Figure 11: Urban and Rural Subdivision Plots, 2006–10 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Year Urban • Improving data recording quality, particularly for area, rents, premiums, lease term, year registered, and lease class • Collecting data on foreign versus local lease holding as part of the leasing data • Creating a mortgage register to determine the extent to which custom landholders are leasing land • Monitoring the location of leased land—for example, whether it is coastal or prime agricultural land Rural Notes: N = 1,989. Year missing = 12 percent; includes cancelled leases. Figure 10 shows that the number of subdivisions has been increasing over the years. Thus, despite the resolution of the 2006 National Land Summit to place a moratorium on subdivisions, there has not only been no reduction in subdivision activity, there has been an increase since that time, with a total of 1,989 subdivisions registered between 2006 and 2010. Figure 11 shows that the majority of subdivision plots created since 2006 were in rural areas (1,738 out of 1,989 subdivisions). Data Quality Issues This study has revealed a number of data quality issues. For example, there is no single, centralized register of leases, and data used in this proile had to be retrieved from different databases kept by different departments for different purposes. There was also data missing for a number of the variables, rendering it dificult to build an accurate, overall picture of leasing. Of particular concern is the high number of missing values for 2007 and 2008, where approximately 64 percent of records were missing data for at least one variable. This fragmented, incomplete, and dispersed data situation may be attributable to a number of factors, such as data collected and used for different purposes, changes in data programs, and the physical relocation of records. Nevertheless, a uniform and reliable data set is a fundamental requirement for registering land interests. (See the Annex for more detailed information on missing values and data quality issues.) Particular areas that would beneit from improved data management include: • Distinguishing leases that have been surveyed from those that have been registered Annex: Notes on the Data The data presented in this paper are drawn from the following government databases: the e-survey database, the Valuation database, Saperion, the e-registry database, VLAMS, and the Cadastral GIS database.17 These databases vary in quality and coverage, with missing data from the databases for many of the variables. For example, 24 percent of the records are missing data on lease term, 12 percent are missing data on year leased, 8 percent on area, and 6 percent on lease class. The data for renting are poor; 40 percent of the records have no data at all on rent or premiums, and the data that is avail- Table A1. Number Missing of Four Main Variables (Lease Term, Year Leased, Lease Class, Area) Number Missing Percentage 0 59.39 1 26.13 2 12.59 3 5.88 4 0.01 able lacks enough detail to draw any meaningful conclusions. The data set contains 14,802 leases. Excluding 989 cancelled leases, the remaining data set contains 13,813 observations. Examining the four main areas of analysis—lease term, year of registration, lease type, and area under lease— approximately 59 percent of lease entries are complete, with no missing values. As shown in table A3, approximately 26 percent have one missing value, 13 percent have two, six percent have three, and one observation has four missing values. Because these 17 The application number comes from e-registry and Saperion; lease type from VLAMS, e-registry, Saperion, and Cadastral GIS; cadastre from e-survey; lease term from the old valuation database, e-registry, and Saperion; area from e-survey and Cadastral GIS; and rent from e-registry (calculation formulas) and Saperion. 9 values are not missing at random, meaning that certain characteristics are more likely to be associated with missing values, there will be some resulting bias in the estimations. We expect these errors to be small, however, due to the crosschecking done against hard copy leases for the islands of Epi and Tanna. Apart from missing values, only slight inconsistencies were identiied in terms of the accuracy of the data in the national data set when compared with the information on the hard copy leases for Epi and Tanna. unlikely to substantially bias the results. Leases with at least one missing value tend to be smaller than those with complete information, but this difference is driven by a few, very large outlier leases with full information. Rural leases have a higher frequency of missing values, but the difference is only 44 percent with at least one value missing, compared to 37 percent with full information. The average number of missing values (of the four variables of interest) for a given record does not vary between urban and rural designations. Plots with a special designation (as opposed to agricultural, commercial, residential, etc.) are more likely to have missing values, but these are relatively few. Agricultural plots are the least likely to have missing information. In general, the occurrence and frequency of missing values were higher in more recent years, with a large spike in 2007 and 2008. It is unclear whether these omissions occurred in the process of the physical move of the land records or the transfer of information from hard copy to electronic iles,18 or through the under-resourcing of the land records section. It is probably a combination of all of these factors, but the data gaps in this period are of particular concern, especially given the expectations of closer monitoring in the aftermath of the 2006 Land Summit. These correlations are based on simple descriptive statistics (detailed results included in tables A2–A7 below) and no more complex analysis or imputation techniques have been utilized for this preliminary analysis. 18 This period coincides with the launch of the Registry’s Saperion system (from 2007 to 2008), which stopped functioning in 2008 due to software license problems. It was replaced only in July 2009 with the current e-registry system. The other main variables of interest also show some systematic patterns of missing values, but these differences are Missing Data Tables Table A3. Number Missing of Four Main Variables (Lease Term, Year Leased, Lease Class, Area) Table A2. Missing by Variable Variable Number missing Percentage 0 59.39 Percentage Lease Term 24 1 26.13 Year Leased 12.62 2 12.59 Lease Class 6.057 3 5.88 Area 8 4 0.01 Table A4. At Least One Other Variable Missing by Year 10 Year Percentage n Year Percentage n Year Percentage n 1981 0% 1 1991 26% 205 2001 33% 361 1982 0% 1 1992 23% 356 2002 26% 536 1983 0% 2 1993 27% 321 2003 43% 396 1984 27% 313 1994 21% 214 2004 37% 489 1985 25% 718 1995 21% 590 2005 29% 662 1986 21% 678 1996 20% 593 2006 42% 715 1987 18% 367 1997 16% 752 2007 64% 876 1988 21% 173 1998 18% 223 2008 63% 651 1989 25% 202 1999 26% 200 2009 36% 749 1990 42% 89 2000 25% 286 2010 38% 355 Table A5. At Least One Other Variable Missing by Lease Type Category Percentage Table A7. At Least One Other Variable Missing by Area n Area Percentage n Agricultural 26% 787 <1,000 26% 2,968 Commercial 33% 1,483 1,000–1,999 36% 4,854 Industrial 40% 134 2,000–2,999 37% 1,263 Residential 37% 10,216 3,000–3,999 34% 591 Special 54% 361 4,000–9,999 33% 1,136 >10,000 27% 1,308 Table A6. At Least One Other Variable Missing by Lease Term Lease Term Percentage Less than 50 15% 142 50 n 7% 4,462 51–74 13% 39 75 13% 4,475 0% 1 More than 75 Other Justice for the Poor Publications on Vanuatu Towards More Equitable Land Governance in Vanuatu: Ensuring Fair Land Dealings for Customary Groups by Milena Stefanova, Raewyn Porter, and Rod Nixon, J4P Discussion Note, May 2012 Wan Sip, Plante Kapten: Leasing on Tanna Island, Vanuatu by Rod Nixon, Leisande Otto, and Raewyn Porter, J4P Research Report, May 2012 Other Justice for the Poor Publications on Land Historical Tensions at the Gold Ridge Mine, Solomon Islands. By Daniel Evans, Paciic Economic Bulletin, Vol. 25, No. 3 (2010) Arguing “Traditions”: Denying Kenya’s Women Access to Land Rights, by Andrew Harrington and Tanja Chopra, J4P Research Report, January 2010 Simpliied Handbook on the Government of Sierra Leone’s New Operational Procedures and Guidelines for the Diamond Area Community Development Fund (DACDF), January 2009 Towards Institutional Justice? A Review of the Work of Cambodia’s Cadastral Commission in Relation to Land Dispute Resolution, October 2006 Justice for the Poor? An Exploratory Study of Collective Grievances Over Land and Local Governance in Cambodia, October 2006 Land Disputes: Finding Justice through Collective Action, World Bank Newsletter, Cambodia Country Ofice, September 2006 Between International Law, Kastom and Sustainable Development: Cultural Heritage in Vanuatu by Milena Stefanova and Katharina Serrano, in Island Futures: Conservation and Development Across the Asia-Paciic Region, G. Baldacchino and D. Niles, eds., 2011 The Hybrid Courts of Melanesia: A Comparative Analysis of Village Courts of Papua New Guinea, Island Courts of Vanuatu and Local Courts of Solomon Islands by Daniel Evans and Dr. Michael Goddard, with Professor Don Paterson, J&D Working Paper Series, Vol. 13, 2011 Leasing in Vanuatu: Findings and Community Dissemination on Epi Island by Milena Stefanova, Raewyn Porter, and Rod Nixon, J4P Brieing Note, November 2010 Wan Lis, Fulap Stori : Leasing on EpiIisland, Vanuatu by Raewyn Porter and Rod Nixon, J4P Research Report, September 2010 Coercion to Conversion: Push and Pull Pressures on Custom Land in Vanuatu by Justin Haccius, J4P Brieing Note, March 2009 The Price of Tourism: Land Alienation in Vanuatu by Milena Stefanova, J4P Brieing Note, January 2008 11 What is Justice for the Poor? Justice for the Poor (J4P) is a global research and development program aimed at informing, designing, and supporting pro-poor approaches to justice reform. It is an approach to justice reform that: • • • • Sees justice from the perspective of the poor or marginalized Is grounded in social and cultural contexts Recognizes the importance of demand in building equitable justice systems Understands justice as a cross-sectoral issue Justice for the Poor in Vanuatu is part of the AusAID-World Bank collaboration on the East-Asia and Paciic Justice for the Poor Initiative. This Initiative includes work in Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia, as well as on regional thematic activities. Contact us at [email protected] and visit our Web site www.worldbank.org/justiceforthepoor for further information. Justice for the Poor Briefing Notes provide up-to-date information on current topics, findings, and concerns of J4P’s multi-country research. The views expressed in the notes are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Bank. 12