Invited papers of the Habitat Professionals Forum
Markku Villikka,
Director, International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
This paper is part of the Habitat Professionals Forum's contribution to Urban
21 and is therefore based on the goals of the Forum, which means that the focus
is in developing countries and mega cities. The work in FIG and its ten
technical commissions is, however, divided between developed and developing
countries and countries in transition. Most recommendations are based on the
draft FIG Agenda 21 that is produced as surveyors' contribution to implementing
Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda. The draft FIG Agenda 21 is available on the
FIG home page (www.fig.net) and will be launched during the Special Session of
UN General Assembly for Istanbul+5 in June 2001.
Surveyors are contributing to the implementation of Agenda 21 and the Habitat
Agenda on three main areas; land distribution and land registration; land use
planning - both regional and city planning - and property management including
evaluation and taxation, and finally in geographic information for decision
making.
In the World Report the importance of secure tenure is not emphasised enough,
even though it is widely recognised that access to land and security of tenure
are of profound importance in improving the situation of the poor, who are
frequently living in informal settlements without recognised rights to shelter.
The fast growing number of urban dwellers, in particular in non-regularised
settlements, represents a tremendous challenge in combating poverty, ill health,
unemployment and illiteracy. In addition unjust distribution of rights to land
is still causing violence and war like situations in several developing
countries show.
The conditions of the urban poor mainly result from inadequate policies and
actions from the government. We should remember that the lack of secure tenure
discourages residents from improving the conditions through own investments in
houses or in infrastructure that is recommended as a solution in the World
Report.
In many countries, particularly in the developing world, the main proportion
of land is owned by a small percentage of the population, whilst large number of
inhabitants are landless poor. Further in many cases legal, cultural and social
barriers prevent women and other vulnerable groups from having equal and
equitable access to land.
In addition to national policies, security of tenure requires appropriate
institutions like legislation, registration systems and organisations. It is
observed that in many countries the current tenure and cadastral infrastructure
do not render adequate and reliable services to all. Either that result from
high costs, slow procedures, inadequate technical requirements, lack of
co-operation between ministries and agencies, or from corruption. Both former
socialist countries which are re-establishing private ownership, and developing
countries which are introducing private ownership and related institutions for
the first time, are faced with these problems. In the latter group of countries
the issues of customary land tenure and of land grabbing, are frequently not
adequately addressed.
To accelerate access to land and security of tenure as instruments for
sustainable development we should in particular:
- Promote fairness and equity in access to land and to infrastructure which
provides security of tenure, including promoting that women should have equal
rights to possess, buy, inherit and use land;
- Continue to assist in developing international guidelines and models for
property legislation and registration systems;
- Underline the need to develop practically working low cost registration
systems which facilitate the recognition of housing rights and other rights to
land in informal settlements, including registration of co-operative forms of
tenure for social housing;
- Further underline that emerging registration systems, in particular in
developing countries and in transition economies, should not be overloaded with
registering more data than needed to meet urgent needs. These normally are to
secure tenure, facilitate selling and buying of land and to facilitate the use
of real property as security for loans;
- Underline that implementing modern land registration systems must be coupled
with policies and practical instruments that prevent land grabbing, which can
otherwise be the result in economies where only a rich minority have resources
to buy land;
- Underline that the demand for formal land tenure should come from the people
in the area, and that the local inhabitants as well as the local authorities
should take active parts in the related processes.
The joint United Nations and FIG Bathurst Declaration on Land Administration
for Sustainable Development (resulting from the UN/FIG Workshop on Land Tenure
and Cadastral Infrastructures for Sustainable Development held in Bathurst in
October 1999) is another response to these challenges. Land administration
institutions and infrastructures will have to evolve and adapt their often
inadequate and narrow focus to meet the wide range of needs and technology, and
continually changing institutional environment. They also need to adapt
continually to complex emerging humankind-land relationships at the same time as
changing relationships between people and governments. These conditions should
lead to improved systems of governance.
The Bathurst Declaration calls for a commitment to provide effective legal
security of tenure and access to property for all men and women, including
indigenous peoples and those living in poverty or other disadvantaged groups. It
identifies the need for the promotion of institutional reforms to facilitate
sustainable development and for investing in the necessary land administration
infrastructure. This gives people full and equal access to land-related economic
opportunities.
Most significantly, the Declaration justifies and calls for a commitment on
the part of the international community and governments to halve the number of
people around the world who do not have effective access to secure property
rights in land by the year 2010.
To realise this commitment, the Declaration proposes set of recommendations.
The policy and institutional reform recommendations ensure that there is a
balanced and integrated approach to addressing all tenure relationships in urban
society. Full and active participation by local communities in formulating and
implementing the reforms is essential. The need to develop land administration
infrastructures that effectively address the constantly evolving requirements of
the community is critical. Finally information technology is seen playing an
increasingly important role in developing the necessary infrastructure and in
improving effective citizen access to it.
The Bathurst Declaration emphasises further the importance and close
relationship between good land information; better land policy; better land
administration and management; and better land use.
Good land use planning and management of land can reduce many of the problems
mentioned in the World Report. However the environmental impacts are not always
appropriately assessed by politicians, planners and developers. Furthermore the
implementation of zoning plans and regulations are not always appropriately
monitored and enforced.
In addition when discussing the problems of the urban future it is important
to remember that sustainable development at large depends on a balanced
development of both urban and rural settlements. Urban and rural areas are
interdependent economically, socially and environmentally. Ensuring appropriate
urban-rural linkages are of vital importance for making sustainable cities.
To promote best practices in land use planning and land management for
sustainable settlements we should:
- Actively promote transforming the principles and strategies into guidelines
and models for practical use in planning and land management, including systems
for monitoring and reporting on changes in land use;
- Particularly promote the understanding of the importance of up-front planning
and appropriate land management for making sustainable settlements for all
low-income groups, to ensure a minimum standard for infrastructure;
- Promote that planners and land managers should insist on integrated approach
to planning;
- Promote that professionals in planning and land management should insist on
applying processes that actively involve all interested parties, including
women, children, older people and peoples living in poverty.
Thirdly, plans, policies and actions for sustainable development depend on
access to appropriate information. Issues concerning sustainable development are
frequently of a spatial nature. Mapping, aerial photography, remote sensing from
satellites, and geographic information systems are powerful tools in raising
public awareness and in helping decision makers on all levels.
Considerable data exist, but access to data is often hampered by lack of
standardisation, coherence and of adequate services for data retrieval,
including information about what data exist and where data are kept.
There is an increasing gap between developed and developing countries in
their capacities to collect and disseminate geographic information, seriously
impairing the capacities of countries to make sound decisions concerning
environment and development.
To facilitate the optimum use of geographic information in decision making
for sustainable development, we should particularly:
- Help in the collection and dissemination best practices in the application
of geographic information systems and spatial data infrastructures;
- Promote that Internet can substantially improve the value of geographic
information to involved parties on all levels of society, and that governmental
agencies and private institutions holding such information should facilitate
access for all;
- Promote that countries as well as agencies within countries and regions should
facilitate sharing of geographic data to help realising integrated approaches to
planning and management of land, settlements, coastal areas and the oceans.
Finally I would like to invite other professionals like lawyers, valuers etc.
to participate in the work of the Habitat Professionals Forum whether they are
working in private or public sector or being academics. In promoting the
sustainable development it is essential to have a broad view in urban planning
and implementation as well as guarantee rights for participation for all groups
that are involved.
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