by
Ian Williamson
ABSTRACT
This paper traces the involvement of the FIG in one of its many initiatives with the United Nations (UN). First it identifies the role of the FIG in the 13th UN Regional Cartographic Conference (UNRCC) for Asia and the Pacific held in Beijing in 1994 where an invited paper from the FIG resulted in a resolution which in turn led to the joint UN-FIG Inter-Regional Meeting of Experts on the Cadastre held in Bogor, Indonesia, in March 1996. The primary objective of the Meeting was "to develop a document setting out the desirable requirements and options for cadastral systems of developing countries in the Asia and Pacific region and to some extent globally". As a result of the success of the resulting ‘Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform’, the FIG presented the Declaration at two subsequent UNRCCs for Asia and the Pacific (14th) in Bangkok and for the Americas (6th) in New York in 1997.
One of the recommendations of the Bogor Declaration was a resolution from the Bangkok UNRCC to organise by 1999 a global workshop on land rights, land responsibilities and restrictions and suitable cadastral structures and systems appropriate to the needs of governments for their sustainable development with the expert assistance of the International Federation of Surveyors and other relevant organisations. The planning for that Meeting is summarised in the paper.
BACKGROUND TO BOGOR MEETING
The 13th UN Regional Cartographic Conference (UNRCC) for Asia and the Pacific held in Beijing in 1994 resolved as follows:
The United Nations with the expert assistance of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and other relevant organisations support the preparation of a regional and global compilation of optional components of a cadastre, including legal aspects, land policy, institutional arrangements, technology and economics.
The preparation of case studies of cadastral systems and cadastral reforms, such that countries of the region engaged in establishing or reforming a cadastre may be aware of various options and learn from the success and failures of others.
This resolution was the result of a request to the FIG from the UN for a position paper to be presented to the 13th UNRCC in Beijing (Williamson, 1994). That paper included a recommendation for a joint UN-FIG initiative to undertake a range of case studies to describe the optional components of a cadastre, including legal aspects, land policy, institutional arrangements, technology and economics. The FIG modified the recommendation and had the above resolution approved by the Conference.
As a result, an Inter-Regional Meeting of Experts on the Cadastre was held in Bogor, Indonesia from the 18-22 March, 1996. The United Nations worked closely with the Indonesian National Coordination Agency for Surveys and Mapping (BAKOSURTANAL) and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) in organising the Meeting, and received an important contribution from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). In particular this was an important initiative between the UN and the FIG since it was the first major initiative where the UN provided most of the resources but left the organisation and the technical program in the hands of a non government organisation (NGO). It is expected that this model will be utilised increasingly by the UN in the future and hopefully with the FIG.
Due to the international importance of the subject, the resulting Meeting was included in the Habitat II calendar of events entitled "the Learning Years". This activity was also part of the efforts to develop an active response to the problems of land management and environmental protection as stipulated in the Global Plan of Action for Habitat II, and to the recommendations contained in Agenda 21.
The primary objective of the Meeting was:
To develop a document setting out the desirable requirements and options for cadastral systems of developing countries in the Asia and Pacific region and to some extent globally.
The Meeting recognised that all countries have individual needs and requirements, but that countries at similar stages of development have some similarities in their requirements. As such the Meeting primarily examined the requirements of three groups of countries, namely newly industrialised countries such as Indonesia, countries at an early stage of transition such as Vietnam and the South Pacific countries.
The Meeting adopted the definition and description of a cadastre as set out in the FIG Statement on the Cadastre. Reference was also made to the two previous UN meetings of cadastral experts (1972 and 1985) and the Land Administration Guidelines prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in 1996.
The Meeting recognised that the key to a successful cadastral system is one where the three main cadastral processes of adjudication of land rights, land transfer and mutation (subdivision and consolidation), are undertaken efficiently, securely and at reasonable cost and speed, in support of an efficient and effective land market. As such the Meeting concentrated on these three cadastral processes to help identify desirable or appropriate options for cadastral systems. In considering the range of options, differences were highlighted for the three major groups of countries identified.
The Meeting also recognised that increasingly a successful cadastral system is based on a strong and cooperative working relationship between the government and the private sectors. This involves the roles of professionals in private practice, and the roles of professional societies and associations. All discussions attempted to highlight this relationship.
While the Meeting focussed on the needs of the Asian and Pacific region, the Meeting also considered the requirements of three other groups of countries to a lesser extent—namely the western developed countries, Eastern and Central European countries moving to market economies, and the African countries.
Experts and representatives attended from the United Nations, the International Federation of Surveyors, the Indonesian State Ministry for Agrarian Affairs, the Indonesian national Land Agency (BPN), the Indonesian National Coordination Agency for Surveys and Mapping (BAKOSURTANAL) and the following member countries, Australia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, Peoples Republic of China, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom and Vietnam. The FIG was responsible for identifying the delegates from the UN member countries.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The United Nations has been involved in land administration issues since its inception, and in the early 1950s its Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a series of monographs including one on the registration of rights in land. This was written in 1953 by Sir Bernard Binns and published by the FAO. It has recently been revised and reissued. Other notable publications include:
This United Nations Meeting noted all previous activities so as not to ‘re-discover the wheel’ and in particular adopted the International Federation of Surveyors’ definition of cadastre as set out in the FIG "Statement on the Cadastre" (FIG, 1995) as the basis for discussion.
JUSTIFICATION
Many countries already recognise the need for a cadastral system. Agenda 21 and the HABITAT II Global Plan of Action provide additional justifications for establishing and maintaining appropriate cadastral systems to serve the different needs of nations and their citizens. These justifications are included in detail in the Declaration and are summarised below.
In rural areas secure tenure and the formal recording of rights in land are important: in promoting increased investment in agriculture; for more effective husbandry of the land; for improved sustainable development; to support an increase in GNP through an increase in agricultural productivity; and to provide significant social and political benefits leading to a more stable society, especially where land is scarce or under disputed ownership. In densely populated rural areas or areas of high land value a cadastral system also facilitates the operation of an effective land market at affordable cost and allows an equitable land taxation system to be operated.
This is also true in urban areas where a cadastral system is essential to support an active land and real estate market by permitting land to be bought, sold, mortgaged and leased efficiently, effectively, quickly and at low cost. In addition a parcel based land information system (not necessarily computerised), based on the cadastre, is essential for the efficient management of cities. Cadastral systems permit land and property taxes to be raised thereby supporting a wide range of urban services, and allowing the efficient management and delivery of local government services.
The Meeting agreed that the issue is not whether cadastral systems are important and essential, but what is the most appropriate form of cadastral system for each country.
In summary the major reasons for justifying cadastral reform which were agreed were:
THE CADASTRAL VISION
The cadastral vision of the future shared by the Meeting was to:
To achieve effective sustainable resource management and development to support the future world population explosion, simple and effective cadastral structures must be available. These will need to support land use planning, accommodate the greatly increased demand for facilities and resources while ensuring that there is minimum damage to the environment. These cadastral structures must also be the foundation for the orderly and efficient provision of property markets and the supply of land-related services. They will need to provide simple mechanisms for identifying and protecting property rights, responsibilities and obligations, for recognising land use opportunities and limitations, environmental requirements and constraints, and for permitting consistent and acceptable valuation assessments.
The cadastral infrastructures envisaged for the 21st century will need to adapt to the different patterns and rates of population change. They will therefore vary according to the circumstances and population profiles of different countries. Nevertheless, a common cadastral vision is possible and is indeed essential to the progress of all.
The resulting cadastral infrastructure will facilitate access to land, support security of tenure and allow land rights to be traded, where appropriate, in an efficient and effective way and at affordable cost.
The infrastructure can support a vast array of legal, technical, administrative and institutional options in designing and establishing an appropriate cadastral system, providing a continuum of forms of cadastre ranging from the very simple to the very sophisticated. Such flexibility allows cadastres to record a continuum of land tenure arrangements from private and individual land rights through to communal land rights, as well as having the ability to accommodate traditional or customary land rights.
The cadastre will include all land in a state or jurisdiction, including all state and private lands. It will cover both urban and rural areas within a unified system. Each land parcel will be uniquely identified.
The spatial cadastral framework (usually a cadastral map) will be a fundamental layer within a nation's spatial data infrastructure thereby allowing the integration of different forms of spatial data.
While the vision is applicable in general terms to all countries, it is essential that it is implemented to meet the individual needs and different development priorities of United Nations member countries.
The major components of the vision are designed to:
DIVERSITY OF NEEDS
The Meeting recognised that different countries have different needs for a cadastre at different stages of development. While the basic justifications for cadastral systems are economic development, environmental management and social stability, different countries will place greater importance on different areas at different periods of their development.
Western developed countries that have relatively complete cadastral systems tend to be more concerned with increased efficiency and micro-economic reform. Countries which are moving from a command economy to a market economy are more concerned with the rapid creation of a new system in support of economic development and efficient land markets. Likewise developing countries are concerned with economic growth, the protection of land rights and the reduction of land and boundary disputes. In all countries there is a concern that cadastral systems support social justice.
Due to their different stages of development, different countries have different capacities for the development of cadastral systems. In particular human, technological and financial resources will determine the most appropriate form of cadastral system to meet the needs of individual countries. Thus a simple low cost manual cadastre recording only private ownership rights may be appropriate for one country, while a sophisticated and relatively expensive fully computerised cadastre recording a wide range of ownership and land use rights may be appropriate for another country.
CADASTRAL ISSUES
The Meeting reviewed a broad range of issues that affect access to land, security of tenure and the management of land resources. While there was great diversity amongst the countries represented, a common concern was the identification of ownership of rights in land, especially rights of occupancy and use.
There can be little security in the buying, selling, mortgaging, inheriting, leasing and renting, and enjoyment of easements over land without the clear identification and recording of rights. Even where documentation has taken place, there is often a separation between ownership rights, usually administered by a central government authority, and use rights, usually recorded and controlled by local authorities. It was noted that in one jurisdiction there were over 120 statutes which could possibly impact on the use of parcels of land.
There is a need to identify clearly what restrictions and obligations relate to any individual land parcel and to simplify access to this information for the land owner or user. This applies to both urban and rural land and to land held in formal and informal tenures. As a result of this issue a recommendation to organise a joint UN/FIG workshop on this topic was put before the 14th United Nations Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific with a resulting agreement to run it in 1999.
The key cadastral issues identified in the Meeting included:
THE NEED FOR RE-ENGINEERING SYSTEMS
The Meeting recognised that the success of a cadastre is not dependent on its legal or technical sophistication, but whether it protects land rights adequately and permits those rights to be traded (where appropriate) efficiently, simply, quickly, securely and at affordable cost. This requires a focus on the user and landowner as well as the needs of government. As such the Meeting focused on the efficiency of the key cadastral processes of land adjudication, land transfer and mutation (subdivision and consolidation).
In order to improve a cadastral system the importance of focusing on the cadastral processes to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and duplication was recognised. Once the processes have been fully documented and understood it is possible to re-engineer them to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of cadastral services to the user. Such re-engineering often requires changes to legislation, modified institutional and administrative arrangements, and the use of different technologies.
CADASTRAL REFORM OPTIONS
The main objective of the Meeting was to consider appropriate administrative and technical options for the cadastre to serve the different needs of countries at different stages of development. The Meeting considered in general terms administrative options which included land policy, legal, institutional and technical options. In considering all options the Meeting took into account economic and human resource issues and the cost of the various options. While considering economic and human resource issues and the cost of different approaches, options were determined under the following headings:
In summary, the major observations by the delegates were :
RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS
Cadastral reform or improvement has major human, technological and financial resource implications. The Meeting noted that some nations have, for example, one university educated professional land surveyor for every 5,000 population. These numbers support a sophisticated computerised cadastral system. On the other hand some countries have as few as one land surveyor for every 100,000 population, even though the cadastre was not complete and was of a more simple design.
Even recognising that the more developed nations may have systems which are more dependent on highly trained professionals, the discussion within the Meeting did recognise that human resource issues are one of the major, if not the major, limitation in developing cadastral systems in developing countries.
The Meeting identified that inadequate financial resources are a major limitation to improving cadastral systems. It was however noted that cadastral systems do provide governments with an important source of revenue generation but that revenue generation is heavily dependent on maintaining an efficient system.
Human and financial resources were recognised as the major limitations in developing cadastral systems.
THE ROLE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND NGOs
The Meeting discussed the trend in many countries to move towards a more commercial approach to operating cadastral systems and to the increasing use of the private sector where this can be shown to be more cost effective and more productive. In cadastral surveying the use of the private surveyors requires adequate quality control mechanisms to ensure the integrity of the national spatial data archive.
Whereas in many countries this has traditionally been achieved through a system of licensing individual surveyors and conveyancers, and careful scrutiny of their work by government officials, there is a growing trend towards quality assurance and less rigorous government monitoring. In an increasing number of countries, government mapping agencies are themselves being made to compete in the market place and to recover much if not all of their costs.
Semi-privatisation of national mapping agencies has occurred at a time when governments and international agencies such as the United Nations are seeking to make greater use of NGOs. On the global stage organisations such as the International Federation of Surveyors have been collaborating with United Nations agencies while at the national level Institutions or Associations of Surveyors have a role as intermediaries between government and the community and in ensuring the professional standards of practitioners.
BENCHMARKING CADASTRAL SYSTEMS
The Bogor Meeting (and resulting Bogor Declaration on Cadastral Reform) was just one of the initiatives of Commission 7 in exploring ways to make cadastral systems more efficient and effective. The Commission 7 Working Group on "A vision of the Cadastre in the 21st Century" chaired by Jürg Kaufmann (Switzerland) and supported by the Secretary to the WG Daniel Steudler (Switzerland) undertook a research project over several years to ‘benchmark’ cadastral systems. This has resulted in a detailed report by Steudler et al (1997) which is complementary to the Bogor Declaration.
The report is primarily concerned with presenting data based on appropriate performance indicators and does not attempt to draw conclusions from the data. The Commission believes the results of this project will be useful to countries wishing to improve their own cadastral systems. In addition the project identified the very real difficulties in developing appropriate performance indicators for cadastral systems because of differences in the interpretation of cadastral definitions due to cultural, legal, social and institutional differences in those countries involved in the project.
Commission 7 will continue to improve the results from this benchmarking project over the next four years through one of its Working Groups. In addition it will work closely with such organisations as the Meeting of Land Administrators convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and with the United Nations sponsored Permanent Committee for GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific.
IMPACT OF THE BOGOR DECLARATION
As a result of a presentation by the FIG at both the 14th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference (UNRCC) for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 3-7 February, 1997 (Williamson, 1997a) and the 6th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, New York, 2-6 June, 1997 (Williamson, 1997b), the FIG has been able to work with the UN in developing a work plan for future conferences which better reflect the policies of the FIG and FIG member associations. In addition the FIG has been able to influence the mission of future UNRCCs.
Set out below is the new Mission for UNRCCs and one of the key resolutions from the New York UNRCC of relevance to the FIG and Commission 7 in particular. These are in addition to the resolution to support a Global Workshop and Conference on land tenure and cadastral infrastructures to support sustainable development discussed in the following section.
The new mission of the UNRCCs is :
"to provide both a regional and interregional forum for member States, through their government institutions, professional and academic sectors, non-governmental organizations and the private sector, to discuss and share information on related institutional, legal, economic and technical issues and to advise national Governments, the United Nations and other regional and international organizations on policy development options related to cartography, surveying, mapping, charting, cadastre, GIS technology and spatial data infrastructures in support of sustained economic growth for sustainable development and environmental management."
Resolution 5 titled "The role of the cadastre in spatial data infrastructures" highlights the importance of cadastral reform as follows:
The Conference,
Bearing in mind the conclusion of the United Nations Interregional meeting of Cadastral Experts, held at Bogor, Indonesia, 18-22 March 1996, jointly sponsored by the United Nations and the United Nations and the International Federation of Surveyors, and the recommendations in the Bogor Declaration on cadastral reform,
Recalling the deliberations of the Sixth United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas on the need better to understand and appreciate the relationship between land tenure and the physical environment,
Mindful of the outcomes of Agenda 21 which promoted the importance of efficient and accessible land markets based on cadastral systems and appropriate land tenure systems as key factors in support of sustainable development and environmental management,
Recognising the importance of efficient and effective cadastral systems in supporting the development of land markets, in providing security of tenure and access to land, in facilitating the provision of credit to farmers and peasants, and more generally in promoting economic development, social cohesion and sustainable development,
Noting the benefit of integrating cadastral/land tenure information with topographic information in providing an appropriate basis for the support of sustainable development and environmental management,
Further noting the difficulties being faced by many member States in integrating cadastral and topographic spatial data, especially in digital form,
- Recommends that member States and appropriate stakeholders convene, through the proposed Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for the Americas, and under the guidance and with the assistance of the Secretary-General of the Untied Nations, a special working group to determine the role of the cadastre in spatial data infrastructures and, in particular, to discuss technical, institutional and legal issues, problems and solutions concerned with integrating digital cadastral mapping with large-scale topographic mapping, within the context of wider national spatial data infrastructures;
- Also recommends that the deliberations and recommendations of the working group be reported to the Seventh United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas;
- Further recommends that the special working group review the Bogor Declaration on cadastral reform to assess its applicability to the Americas and, in particular, review the need for guidelines regarding:
- Cadastre and associated land administration along the lines of those guidelines recently produced for the Economic Commission for Europe;
- Costs, benefits, risks and value for money of cadastral systems in assisting member States in evaluation support for cadastral projects.
THE GLOBAL WORKSHOP ON LAND TENURE AND CADASTRAL INFRASTRUCTURES TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
As a result of the success of the Bogor Meeting and the contribution of the FIG, the FIG was requested by the UN to make presentations to both the 14th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference (UNRCC) for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 3-7 February, 1997 (Williamson, 1997a) and the 6th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, New York, 2-6 June, 1997 (Williamson, 1997b). The Bogor Declaration and report were accompanied by a number of recommendations to the United Nations, member countries and non government organisations (see Appendix). These recommendations were accepted in principle by the above conferences and included in the report of the two UNRCCs to the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSOC) in New York in 1997.
One of the key resolutions of the Bogor Declaration was
To support a workshop to develop a clearer definition of the form and range of land rights and the responsibilities and obligations which attach to land rights specifically within the Asian and Pacific region.
This resulted in the following resolution being proposed and passed by the 14th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific held in Bangkok from 3-7 February, 1997.
Workshop on land rights, land responsibilities and restrictions
The Conference,
Recalling the conclusions of the 1996 United Nations Inter-regional Meeting of Experts on Cadastre in Bogor, Indonesia, jointly sponsored by the United Nations and the International Federation of Surveyors and the recommendations of the resulting "Bogor Declaration",
Further recalling the recommendations of the Third Meeting of the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific, 1-2 February, 1997,
Recognising the outcomes of AGENDA 21 which prompted the importance of efficient and accessible land markets based on cadastral systems, and the establishment of appropriate land tenure systems, as key factors in support of sustainable development and environmental management,
Assuming that appropriate and efficient cadastral systems are an appropriate tool in supporting sustainable development and environmental management,
Noting that existing cadastral systems are often inflexible and inappropriate to the needs of many countries and especially in their ability to record use rights, responsibilities and restrictions on land in support of sustainable development and environmental management,
Further noting the loss of customary and traditional knowledge relating to land as developing countries move towards a land market economy, and the potential of more flexible cadastral systems in maintaining this knowledge,
Acknowledging the difficulties of integrating informal land tenure systems into formal structures and the resulting need for more flexible cadastral systems to facilitate this move to ensure access to land and security of tenure for all,
Recommends that the United Nations, within existing resources, with the expert assistance of the International Federation of Surveyors and other relevant organisations, organise by 1999 a global workshop on land rights, land responsibilities and restrictions and suitable cadastral structures and systems appropriate to the needs of governments for their sustainable development.
Ian Williamson (Chairperson, Commission 7) and Don Grant (Australian delegate to Commission 7) have assumed the role of co-organisers for the workshop. They have been working closely with the UN and the FIG Bureau to progress the planning for the initiative. Both the New South Wales and Victorian Governments in Australia as well as the UN have committed significant resources to the running of both events. The FIG Bureau has offered its full support.
The following objective has been developed for the ‘Global Workshop on land tenure and cadastral infrastructures to support sustainable development’:
To explore humankind-land relationships for the next millennia in the context of AGENDA 21 and the emerging global village. It will determine a broad vision and a set of guidelines for suitable cadastral structures and systems to support land management and in particular land administration to ensure sustainable development and environmental management. It will focus on the legal, technical and institutional infrastructure required to support such a vision. The workshop will recognise the trend for formal land tenure systems to move from a focus on ownership to one of land rights, responsibilities and restrictions.
The joint UN-FIG initiative will comprise two components.
Firstly a five day workshop in Bathurst, new South Wales, Australia from 17-23 October, 1999 with a select group of 32 participants representing about 25 countries globally. The workshop will follow on from the Annual Meeting of Commission 7 in New Zealand in the preceding week. A number of the Commission 7 delegates will be invited to participate in the workshop. All participants have been chosen as persons who are in a position to contribute fully to the development of the objectives of the workshop. Twenty (20) of the participants will prepare background or theme papers which will be published prior to the workshop. The objective of the workshop will be to prepare a ‘Bathurst Declaration on Cadastral Infrastructures for Sustainable Development’.
Second, the workshop will be followed by a two day conference in Melbourne, Australia from 25-26 October, 1999 which will be open to all interested persons. This is considered essential due to the great interest in the topic. The twenty papers will be presented formally in Melbourne as will the Bathurst Declaration. Any discussion and comment on the theme papers and the Declaration will be included in the joint proceedings of the Workshop and Conference.
In summary three publications will be published as a result of the workshop and conference:
CONCLUSION
The involvement of the FIG with the United Nations Regional Cartographic Conferences is just one example of the successful relationship the FIG has established with UN agencies over the last decade. The successful Bogor Meeting in 1996 and the planned global workshop and conference on land tenure and cadastral infrastructures to support sustainable development in 1999, are just two of the joint initiatives which have resulted from this close working relationship.
This is a relationship which benefits both organisations and allows the UN to have access to and leverage off the considerable human resources available to the FIG. For example it enabled the FIG to make a significant contribution to the re-structuring of the UN Regional Cartographic Conferences in New York in 1997 and to be able to contribute to the Meeting of the Ad hoc Group of Experts on Legislation for Surveying and Mapping held in New York in June, 1997 (Williamson, 1998).
REFERENCES
FIG (1995). Statement on the Cadastre. FIG Bureau, Canberra
FIG (1996). The Bogor Declaration. Commission 7, Melbourne, Australia
FIG (1996). Proceedings of joint UN-FIG Inter-Regional Meeting of Experts on Cadastre Bogor, Indonesia, March 1996, FIG, Commission 7, Melbourne, Australia..
Williamson, I.P. (1994). Cadastral Surveying and Mapping - New Trends in Technology and Their Applications. Proceedings of 13th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Beijing, 9-18 May, 8p.
Williamson, I.P. (1997a). The Bogor Declaration for Cadastral Reform. Proceedings of the 14th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand, 3-7 February, 6p.
Williamson, I.P. (1997b). The Bogor Declaration for Cadastral Reform. Proceedings of the 6th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, E/CONF.90/INF.5, New York, U.S.A., 2-6 June, 10p.
Williamson, I.P.(1998). Surveying and Mapping Legislation - Lessons Learnt. In Report of meeting of the Ad hoc Group of Experts on Legislation for Surveying and Mapping, 6th United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for the Americas, New York, U.S.A., 6 June, 1997, 18p.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Much of the material included in this paper is an extract from the Bogor Declaration or is a summary from the report of the Meeting. The full text of The Bogor Declaration and the Proceedings of the Meeting are available on the Commission 7 Home Page at http://sunspot.sli.unimelb.edu.au/fig7/intro.html
APPENDIX - RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations were agreed by the Bogor Meeting and were passed to the 14th United Nations Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Pacific for consideration. In all the deliberations and outcomes from the Meeting, the definition of cadastre as adopted in the International Federation of Surveyors "Statement on the Cadastre" was adopted, which is a broader interpretation than that adopted in some jurisdictions.
To the United Nations
To national governments
To Non Government Organisations
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Professor Ian Williamson
Address: Department of Geomatics
The University of Melbourne
Parkville
Victoria 3052
Australia
Phone: +61-3-9344-4431
Fax: +61-3-9347-4128
Email: i.williamson@eng.unimelb.edu.au
URL: http://www.sli.unimelb.edu.au/people/ipw.html
Professor Williamson holds the Chair of Surveying and Land Information the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He holds Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate Degrees in Surveying and is a Registered Professional Land Surveyor and a Chartered Professional Engineer. He is both a Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors, Australia and the Institution of Engineers, Australia. Prior to his Academic Career, he worked in a State Government in Australia, an American Engineering Corporation based in the USA and ran his own Consultancy Practice in Sydney. He is Chairperson (1994-98) of Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management) of the International Federation of Surveyors. His interests are in the operation, management and development of land information systems, information systems, administration systems, with particular emphasis on cadastral, land and geographic information systems.