State-owned minerals, village-owned land: How a shared property rights framework helped formalize artisanal diamond miners in Cote d'Ivoire between 1986 and 2016

Since 1985, Cote d'Ivoire has employed a unique government/village co-management approach for diamonds produced in its artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector. Parastatal mining company Societe pour le Developpement Minier en Cote d'Ivoire (SODEMI) signs agreements with villages organized as cooperatives inside its industrial research permits. The agreements empower communities to monitor mining and take 12% of sales proceeds for local development, while allowing the parastatal to define where mining occurs, away from primary deposits destined for semi-industrial development. This paper draws upon five years of fieldwork and observations from The Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development II (PRADD II) project in Cote d'Ivoire that between 2013 and 2018 helped revive these cooperatives after the country's 2002-2011 political crisis. Between 2014 and 2016, the system resulted in the formalization of most mine sites and the majority of diamonds registered at the mine level as part of the chain of custody. However, the system was also challenged by local communities who contested access rules around kimberlitic deposits. Taking a land tenure lens to ASM formalization, the paper uses the Ivoirian model of hybrid governance of its diamond sector to illustrate the importance of an adaptable and structured relationship between state and customary mineral rights holders in order to promote local development and reduce illegality and conflict.