Property
Rural Code of 1993 with commissions foncières recording customary rights
Ordonnance n° 93-015 established the Principes d'Orientation du Code Rural, creating a network of commissions foncières that record customary land and water rights, including transhumance corridors, rather than requiring conversion to title.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Commissions foncières at village, communal and departmental level record rights; courts hear appeals.
- Deadline — Recording of a customary right: application to the commission foncière de base
- Deadline — Confirmation of customary title: judicial confirmation procedure under the 1961 statute
Governing law
- Ordonnance n° 93-015 du 2 mars 1993 fixant les principes d'orientation du Code rural
- Loi n° 61-30 fixant la procédure de confirmation des droits fonciers coutumiers
- Ordonnance n° 2010-029 relative au pastoralisme
In practice
Niger's Rural Code is widely cited as an African innovation because it records pastoral as well as agricultural rights, mapping transhumance corridors and water points to reduce farmer-herder conflict, and the 2010 pastoral ordinance recognises mobility itself as a protected right. Implementation is uneven, but the model has been studied across the Sahel.