The new law on land management enshrines the State’s full legal ownership of lands in the national land domain. A structural reform that finally clarifies who holds what and who decides what.
The logic of the new law is explicit: all land located on Burkinabè territory belongs, in law, to the State.
The State may transfer a portion to a local authority or an individual for a specific need and under strictly defined conditions and procedures, but ownership itself is not transferred.
This radical change gives the State an unprecedented legal instrument for carrying out its major projects, whether infrastructure, hydro-agricultural development, resettlement programs for displaced people, or presidential initiatives in the agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries sectors.
Another major innovation: the emphyteutic lease is now established as the sole form of transfer of developed land for agro-sylvo-pastoral, fisheries and wildlife use, as well as for sports, leisure and playground use.
In practice, individuals can no longer obtain definitive land titles over these spaces, but only rights of use.
The lease term is set between 18 and 99 years. The lessee has a superficies right and may mortgage the lease, but at the end of the term, the land and all improvements made return to the State or the local authority, without compensation for investments or constructions.
This reform responds to a damning finding. An audit carried out in 2025 revealed that, under the former regime, more than 105,000 plots had been allocated irregularly in Burkina Faso.
Real estate developers were grabbing land on a large scale, plots were allocated several times to different beneficiaries, and land speculation flourished, depriving the State of the means to access land needed for public-interest projects.
The government regards land not as a simple economic asset, but as a central lever for development.
By enshrining State ownership and the emphyteutic lease, it intends to put an end to speculative abuses, direct land resources toward food sovereignty, industrialization and the resettlement of displaced populations.
This reform thus redefines the fundamental legal relationship between the Burkinabe State, the land and its citizens.
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