by Al Burton

There is a lot of concern in the air regarding a proposed Law for Coasts. The current proposal before the National Assembly is based on the Agrarian Law of 1917, an arcane piece of legislation that stipulates that the State is owner of the land for two kilometers from the high-tide line and for 800 meters from lake shores and the banks of navigable rivers.

That law applied to lands not already titled to private parties by the time it was enacted, thereby establishing a sort of Federal or Crown land zone, as exists in many other countries. Not much attention was ever paid to it. An attempt to revive that law under a new legal framework has caused consternation among tourism developers and shrimp farm operators along the coast, while cattle ranchers in the interior wonder how it will affect their ability to water their livestock.