CADASTRAL SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

by

Tommy Österberg
Technical Director
Swedesurvey
SE-801 82 Gävle, Sweden
Tel:+46-26-63 38 50, fax: +46-26-65 18 19
Email: tommy@swedesurvey.se

ABSTRACT

This report reflects and summarises the activities, discussions and conclusions from the activities of Working Group 7.2 of Commission 7 of FIG on Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries during the period 1994-1998.

The working group has organised seminars and symposiums and carried out an inventory of ongoing cadastral projects. The conclusions are presented together with ideas on future activities related to the cadastral systems in developing countries.

CADASTRAL SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Commission 7, Cadastre and Land Management established at the FIG conference in Melbourne, 1994, among others a working group to address questions related to cadastral systems in developing countries. The commission later adopted a workplan for the working group at a meeting in Fredricton, Canada in October 1994. The Working Group has arranged a number of activities as follows:

1. A questionnaire regarding cadastral projects
2. A seminar in Gävle, Sweden, May, 1995
3. Contributed to seminar on Women’s accees and to land and security of tenure in Gävle, Sweden, October, 1995.
4. Contributed to a UN/FIG expert meeting on cadastral systems in Bogor, Indonesia 1996
5. A symposium in Penang, Malaysia 1997

The Work Plan is enclosed as Appendix 1. This report tries to summarise the different activities, discussions and findings of the working group.

CADASTRAL SYSTEMS

The presentation in this paper is based on the concept of a cadastre as it is presented in the Statement on Cadastre by FIG. This means that the cadastre is seen as a land information system, which gives information on rights, use and value of land. Land administration is the process of managing the cadastre and other legal instrument for management of the land tenure system and land market policies.

MAIN REASONS FOR CADASTRAL REFORM

One question of interest has been the reasons for cadastral reforms. The reasons are many and varied between different countries with different traditions and with different political priorities.

One reason for cadastral reforms is the desire to promote political stability and social justice. The reform can be connected with land reforms, aiming at redistribution of the land assets between different owners or to create more protection for the land use by a special group of people, for instance land tenants, squatters, ethnic minority groups, women. It can also mean the restoration of the land use division that existed before land was nationalised.

Another reason for cadastral reform is the desire for improved management of natural resources, both to promote exploitation in different forms, more efficient production in sustainable manners and protection of natural and cultural environment.

Protection of land use rights and establishment of security of tenure for land users is another major reason for cadastral reforms. Better protection can improve the rule of law and respect for property rights, reduce land disputes, promote investments for economic development and also contribute to more sustainable land use methods. A special reason for reform is the desire to protect rights of land based on customary tenure.

The desire to promote land markets and to make them more efficient and also to promote economic investments, the use of land as collateral for loans etc. is another reason for cadastral reforms.

Cadastral reforms can also mainly be aimed at collection of land taxes and other fees for land use to improve the revenue by the state or other communities from the use of land.

Another group of reasons for cadastral reforms has to do with the methodology and technology applied, organisation and responsibilities. They might aim at introduction of more efficient modern information technology, more efficient methods for surveying and mapping, improved and more appropriate legislation and organisational reforms, including less duplication of work, decentralisation and other measures to make the information more accessible.

CADASTRAL PROJECTS

The working group has made an inventory of cadastral projects in developing countries. Answers to the questionnaire have been received from about 42 projects in 33 countries. The questionnaire is presented in another lecture during the Brighton congress. The main experiences from the answers on the questionnaire can be summarised as follows:

• Aerial photos and photogrammetry are accepted for cadastral mapping and surveying
• Digital methods for records and mapping are common
• Simplified procedures for customary and informal tenure are tested
• Involvement of traditional leaders and local communities is common
• Improved co-ordination between public authorities is usually part of projects
• Improved cost recovery is commonly included in the projects
• Public relations and awareness campaigns are common

WOMEN'S ACCESS TO LAND

An international workshop was organised in Gävle, Sweden in October 1995 as part of the preparations for the UN Habitat II congress in Istanbul 1996. The workshop discussed women’s access to land and security of tenure and was attended by experts from all over the world. The working group has continued to discuss these matters and the result is presented in a separate report to the Brighton congress. The recommendations from the Gävle seminar discuss concrete actions in the following areas:

• To create an enabling environment to ensure that women and men have equal access to land and property rights.
• To review, modify and clarify existing legislation
• To implement and enforce law
• To promote communication, education and monitoring.

CADASTRAL ISSUES AND OPTIONS

Most of the activities of the working group have been devoted to discussions about which are the important cadastral issues and the important options for cadastral development. The discussions have been divided into four main areas namely land policy, land legislation, institutional and technical issues. The issues and options were identified and discussed during the seminar in Gävle and at the meeting in Bogor. The Bogor Declaration includes a comprehensive presentation of these discussions and conclusions. The symposium in Penang aimed at development of the issues and options to more operational tools. The discussion was divided under four main headings, land policy, land legislation, institutional issues and technical options.

Land Policy

The Bogor declaration states as follows:

"8.2 Land Policy Options

8.2.1 Land policy is a part of the national policy of countries. Such policies generally relate to economic development, social justice and equity, and political stability. The land policy may for instance include or promote the provision of security of tenure, improve access to credit, land reform, land titling and the resolution of issues relating to traditional or customary tenures, facilitate special attention to provision of land for the poor, ethnic minorities and women, facilitate land use and physical planning, real property taxation, measures to prevent land speculation and land disputes. The meeting emphasised the need to establish a coherent national land policy to guide policies within different sectors.

8.2.2 The cadastre can support land policies by providing a legal framework for administering land rights. A land rights framework supports structural change, environmental protection and sustainable management and control of natural resources and environment. It supports land markets, information for planning and monitoring of land use and also provides tools for the implementation of land policies, for instance land consolidation, resolving land disputes or compulsory acquisition of land."

The declaration gives examples of several areas for consideration under land policy from promotion of land markets, investments, land reforms to real property taxation and prevention of land speculation. It is obvious that the relevant questions in regards to land policies very much are depending on specific conditions and political priorities and preferences in specific countries. On the other hand, the international society in a number of ways, for instance in the field of environment and humans settlement is trying to establish policies relating to land and also coastal and marine policy. Policies are dynamic and change over time due to changes of the environment in which political decisions are made. A coherent national land policy is not very common. Instead policies tend to develop as answers to specific problem areas, for instance agriculture policy, housing policy etc. It might therefore be more appropriate to talk about policies with impact on land instead of national land policies.

The framework of land policies includes several policy areas including the physical environment, the economic, fiscal and social areas.

The physical framework is connected to the decisionmaking regarding the use of land for various purposes. Whether the land is owned or leased by different users, there is an increasing need of land use planning, not only in connection with physical constructions on the ground, but also for the protection of the natural environment and cultural values. The planning will in principle determine the allowed land use and thus define land values.

The economic and fiscal framework has to do with economic systems, such as market or centrally planned economy. The policy will have fundamental importance for land administration, for instance in regards to ownership of land versus buildings and other constructions, which in turn will determine the administrative structure for land, buildings and planning.

The political and social framework has to do with fundamental questions, such as accountable democratic decisionmaking and protection of human rights. Land use and traditional ruling are historically connected and are still major questions in countries with areas under customary tenure systems. The relation between the community/state and the individual in decisionmaking regarding rights and obligations for land use is always a major political issue. Social issues are connected for instance with questions of access to land for landless people, for housing, agriculture production or other needs. Special vulnerable groups in a society, like women, ethnic minorities, poor people might need special attention in the land policy.

The conclusion is that it is not meaningful to talk about options for land policies. What is needed is a better understanding of the interaction between policy choices and land use and how this relationship might work in the specific circumstances of a given state and effective set of criteria against which judgements on policy can be made. These criteria must be different according to the direction a state wishes to follow and according to the area of policy under consideration.

The translation of the framework into practice includes the legislation process and the implementation of the legislation. It is equally important how these processes are organised, if they involve different parties, expertise and experiences and if they have access to relevant information and have the capacity to make use of the information for relevant implementation of the policy.

Example of land policy criteria for a country in transition from a central planning economic system to a market economy system including the establishment of a land market.

Land Legislation

The Bogor declaration states as follows:

"8.3 Legal Options

Within the policy framework, particular legal issues must be addressed including:

• Appropriate land registration legislation to include questions on provisional titles and procedures for registration
• Adjudication
• Indefeasibility of title and adverse possession
• Protection of different levels of rights and interests in land such as ownership, long- and short-term leaseholds, easements, shares in real properties, group rights, rights to apartments, rights to jointly owned facilities etc.
• Land acquisition including compulsory purchase
• Land allocation and land consolidation or reapportionment
• Land parcel mutations (subdivision, consolidation, boundary readjustment)
• Strata, cluster and community titles
• Copyright and data protection when cadastral data becomes a marketable commodity
• Quality assurance and licensing of practitioners"

Land legislation is a mean for implementation of land policies. The legislation is affected not only by policies but also by historical circumstances such as traditions and cultural heritage. Land legislation can be concerned with many different questions such as:

• definitions and rules regarding land tenure and connected property rights
• rules and regulations for an efficient land market and credit system with land as collateral
• rules and regulation for the management of land motivated by public interests, regarding for instance land use planning, environmental protection, building control
• rules and regulations regarding definitions of real property units, structural changes of real property units and the provision of information on the division of land into real property units
• rules and regulation for land registration
• land market rules for intervention in the land market motivated by different public interests
• regulations regarding intellectual property such as ownership of information and ideas, protection of data and personal integrity.

Land legislation is dealing with individual property rights and with the relation between individual property rights and more general public interests, motivated from the public demand on sustainable and efficient use of land and other natural resources, appropriate planning and construction of physical environment and concern for the protection of the environment. The state plays different roles in land management, sometimes as land owner or user, sometimes representing the general public interest in decisionmaking regarding land use. In regards to the public interest, the state has at least three main areas of interest namely the protection of property rights and the land market, the land use control and the interest to promote efficient production and construction on the land. Individuals have mainly interest in land use for production of commodities, for settlement and for recreation.

The following figure illustrates the relations:

BASIC LAND LAW

The basic land law in regards to land ownership typically should fulfil the following functions:

• Clarify different forms of land tenure
• Create suitable division of land into parcels
• Stipulate conditions for transfer of land
• Stipulate rules for use of land as collateral for credit
• Stipulate conditions for rent, lease and other limited rights to land
• Stipulate rules for land registration

CUSTOMARY AND OTHER INFORMAL TENURE

Customary tenure will here be used to characterise tenure forms that are not formalised in a written law system. These forms are usually not connected with the idea of a defined ownership right to land and the individual rights to dispose of a real property on the market. Access to land in customary tenure systems are usually connected with some kind of community control and approval. The right to use land is usually connected to the right to use the land for a specific purpose and the right will exist as long as the use of the land for that purpose exist. Different rights often overlap each other. Customary tenure is also often a part of a different administrative system, which can be obsolete or not acceptable from democratic point of views in a modern society. It is also connected to traditional and cultural values, which also deserve to be respected. Formalisation of customary tenure system and of other informal land tenure systems is therefore usually desirable, but must be done in a sensitive manner, starting with areas where a true demand on formal land titles exist.

Customary tenure can be characterised as follows:

• Right to use land for specific purpose
• Right to management with community approval
• Access and transfer need approval of community
• Unlimited in time as long as it is utilised

REAL PROPERTY AND ITS PROPERTIES

A real property need to be defined on the ground and in a written documentation, which can serve as evidence of the extent of the real property. The description can be done verbally, but more reliable by help of maps.

The definition on the ground can be made in reference to natural features, such as stones, streams etc., to constructions such as fences, walls, roads, houses. Most common, at least when new boundaries are created is that they are marked with some kind of visible mark on the ground, a peg, a stone, a wooden pole etc. Boundaries may be surveyed and described on maps with distances, bearings and with coordinates in reference to a co-ordinate system. The legislation should express some demands on the legal boundary and how evidence for replacement of a destroyed or disputed boundary should be considered.

CREATE SUITABLE DIVISION OF LAND INTO PARCELS

The structure for land control or land administration is given by some kind of division of the territory of a country in administrative areas, where traditional or formal governments exercise control of the land use. The smallest administrative area under the control of a family or an individual is called a parcel. Social and economic development put strong demands on change of the shape and area of the parcels over time, so called structural changes. Population growth and lack of neighbouring vacant land often lead to fragmentation through splitting of existing parcels between heirs. The economy of scale and technological development on the other hand put pressure on consolidation of parcels into bigger and more accessible units. Urbanisation and industrialisation put demands on making land available for new purposes with a totally different structure. Such changes need to be supported by legislation for real property formation.

LAND MANAGEMENT LEGISLATION

Land management legislation is usually created from the public interest of promoting an efficient land management for different purposes. The legislation is of mainly five different kinds:

1. Comprehensive land use control legislation for the physical environment (physical planning) or for housekeeping with the natural resources
2. Legislation for protection of specific interests such as nature conservation, environment protection, water protection and cultural conservation
3. Legislation to promote the efficient use of land for specific use like agriculture, forestry, fishery, exploitation of oil, minerals and gravel.
4. Legislation to promote and control construction of houses, industry and infrastructure (development planning, planning and construction of roads, water and sewerage, pipelines etc., including access to land and possible obligations to pay for services).
5. Legislation for access to land for public purposes, to prevent land speculation and to control the access to the land market, land acquisition control.

This legislation is of interest for the cadastral system in different ways. It establishes regulations for land use, which is necessary to give publicity in an information system. It establishes administrative regulations and obligations on seeking permissions or provide information about activities on land beforehand. The legislation includes procedures for planning, consultations, participation, decision-making, appeal etc. The rules often include compulsory means for acquisition of land or rights to land for different public interests.

IMPORTING LAND LEGISLATION

The land legislation system should be a comprehensive and coherent system, covering a number of possible events. The system usually includes different laws, sometimes with different administrative bodies responsible for the application. It comprises a system, which can be very cumbersome to work out from scratch. Often, it can therefore be useful to import an already functioning legal system and adopt it to the circumstances in the country in question. In several cases legislation has been borrowed from one country and introduced in another country with success.

Before choosing a system for introduction in a new country, it is essential to look into certain aspects, as for instance if the administrative systems between the two countries are rather similar and if the legal traditions are of the same character. Different solutions can for instance exist between civil and public (administrative) law regulations. Legal system should not be copied uncritically, but should be adapted to the situation in the new country, due to political, cultural and organisational aspects. The advantage of borrowing an existing system is the system as such, not how different questions in detail are solved.

A warning should be issued for borrowing of piecemeal legislation originating from different law families and try to put them together into one system. For instance are common law concepts difficult to combine with approaches based on civil law concepts.

Institutional Issues

The Bogor Declaration summarised the institutional issues, which arise when selecting the most appropriate organisational structure for managing a cadastre. These include:

• whether there should be combined land registration and cadastral surveying and mapping functions or whether these should be separate organisations
• whether the system should be centralised or decentralised
• how to establish linkages between different authorities responsible for maintaining records on the ownership, value and use of land
• whether the activities of the cadastre should be commercialised, corporatised or privatised
• the extent of participation by private surveyors in a state run cadastre
• the role of professional bodies and NGOs and the administration of licensing boards
• regulation of responsibilities, accountability, quality assurance
• funding arrangements for the creation or development of a cadastre
• education training and continuing professional development
• research and development
• international cooperation

Examples of institutional issues:

Technical Options

Laws and other administrative rules and guidelines for a uniform implementation of the system should regulate the technical demands on a land registration system like the cadastre. These regulations should as well includesome technical demands and rules for using the system and for maintaining it.

• The cadastre should be a parcel-based system (a piece of land belonging to a defined person or group of persons), i.e. information is geographically referenced to unique, well-defined units of land. These units are defined by formal boundaries marking the extent of land. Each parcel is given a unique parcel-number.
• Parcels are described with graphical and textual data. The cadastre shows their scope and the part of the surface to which they extend. All relevant facts, such as designation, location, size and use, plus the boundaries are based on cadastral surveys in which technical way ever.
• All information should be stored in a retrievable way, maintainable and updated by using the most economic methods in surveying and storing the data. The cadastre should be the only basic information system in the country. All users should be committed to use it for their own parcel-based special information systems so interrelations between different systems are possible.
• The cadastre should be accessible to the general public in accordance to the rights of protection of individual interests.
• The users of the cadastre should pay the services offered by the cadastral agencies. The provision of information from the system should be more or less based on cost recovery.

CADASTRAL RECORDS

Minimal elements of the cadastral records should be the parcel number, the name of the land owner and the size of the parcel. Additional elements can be registered as well but this is always a balance between cost and benefit and should only be registered if the maintenance is organised. Stored details for each parcel in the cadastral records may be

• name, date of birth, address, shares of the land owner,
• location of the parcel, like street-name, house number, centre-coordinates,
• district and parcel-number,
• area of the parcel,
• type of land use,
• results from official soil assessment,
• internal information about year of creation of the parcel, year of maintenance, number of cadastral map, number of survey plans,
• number of folio and property in the land register,
• additional details about the parcel, like parcel is part of a consolidation project, polluted soil, historical monuments, parcel is part of a nature reserve or a water reserve etc.

Examples of content on cadastral maps:

• parcel boundaries and point markings,
• numbering of parcels,
• boundaries of districts,
• survey control points,
• outlines of houses and buildings,
• house numbers,
• street names,
• results from official soil assessment,
• type of land use,
• topographical details like kerbs, cycle tracks, trees, embankments, walls

PHOTOGRAMMETRY

More and more cadastral surveys are undertaken by using aerial photographs. The accuracy of the surveyed coordinates of parcel boundaries, buildings and other topography depends on the scale of the photographs. High accuracy and efficiency can be obtained using analytical or digital photogrammetric methods but even using analogue methods can be much more efficient than ground survey methods. Terrestrial works has to be done only by marking the boundaries and surveying the ground control points. Using the Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation of the aeroplane can minimise the costs for ground surveys drastically.

In urban areas the scale of the aerial photographs should range between 1:3000 and 1:8000. So the accuracy for each stereoscopic measured point can be about some centimetres. In regions not very populated even satellite images can be used.

GROUND SURVEY

Ground survey methods for cadastral surveys need control points measured from trigonometric points of the national land survey authorities. The measurements to create and maintain this grid of control points are very cost-intensive. These costs can be minimised by using Differential GPS (DGPS).

Cadastral surveys can be undertaken using low-cost or high sophisticated equipment. The method chosen will be influenced by the accuracy demanded. In rural areas even the plane tables may be the right equipment. This is only dependent to the budget that will be available. The most cost-efficient method is the Total station that calculates already the coordinates and guarantees a good data flow from the survey to the digital map. The major principle of surveying boundaries and buildings is controlling the work by an independent second measurement.

In areas with a high accurate cadastre and where the coordinates represent the legal boundaries it is possible to create new legal boundaries from existing plans by calculating without surveying in the field.

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)

GPS is a world-wide operating system of satellites for navigation. In the field of surveying with high accuracy (some centimetres) GPS can be used as DGPS with a reference station on a surveyed control point. GPS is used for cadastral surveys especially in rural areas. Mostly hybrid methods of using GPS where it is possible and using Total stations where GPS doesn’t work (under trees or near buildings) are very cost-effective.

QUESTIONS OF INTEREST FOR FUTURE ACTIVITIES

During the meeting in Penang 1997, the working group identified the following issues of interest for continued activities in the commission:

• Improve questionnaire on cadastral projects
• Study different approaches to customary tenure
• Study different approaches for regularisation of informal tenure
• Investigate different approaches for women’s and other vulnerable groups access to land
• Develop cadastral options and issues into models
• Study simplified and more participatory procedures
• Study and compare need of legislation for new technology, computerised titles and mortgages, change of coordinate systems
• Develop guidelines and advice for cadastral development under different circumstances

LIST OF REPORTS:

1. Proceedings from Seminar on Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries, May 1995, Gävle, Sweden
2. Report on International Workshop on Women’s Access, Control and Tenure of Land, Property and Settlement, October 1995, Gävle, Sweden.
3. Report on the United Nations Inter-Regional Meeting of Cadastral Experts, March 1996, Bogor, Indonesia.
4. The Bogor Declaration, March 1996, Bogor, Indonesia
5. Technical Papers from symposium on Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries, May 1997, Penang, Malaysia
6. Cadastral Systems in Developing Countries, July 1998, report to the Brighton Congress, Great Britain.

APPENDIX 1 WORKING GROUP CADASTRAL SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Workplan

Terms of Reference

1. Examine the specific problems in establishing, maintaining and modernising cadastral systems in developing countries.
2. Explore mechanisms to encourage participation of developing countries in the work of Commission VII and specifically its working group on cadastral systems in developing countries.
3. Produce an annual progress report for presentation at the Commission´s annual meetings, organise a one day conference on the subject of cadastral systems in developing countries and prepare a major report on the findings of the working group for the Brighton Congress.

MAIN AREAS OF INTEREST

The working group will try to focus the debate within the Commission concerning cadastral development in developing countries on specific problems related to developing countries. Such problems can be connected to the need and appropriateness of cadastral systems, development of methods and the use of appropriate and affordable technology, the relation between cadastral systems, traditional land tenure and state ownership of land, management, training and financial questions etc.

One important element of the discussions within the Commission is the possibility for members from developing countries to participate in the activities. Therefore, attention should be given to possibilities to encourage such participation.

Another element of the work will be to encourage exchange of information about experiences from research project, field projects, and from daily operations. This can be done between the members of the Commission but also through other information activities, for instance a newsletter. Recipients of these information activities can be professionals within the surveying society but also a more broader group, representing both policy makers and managers of other activities, which in some way or another are using or producing land information. A special group of interest are decision-makers at multilateral and bilateral donor organisations.

Based on the collected information about experiences and discussions within the working group, it should be possible to draw some common conclusions about suitable solutions to common problems. These common conclusions can be summarised and spread through FIG, FAO, HABITAT and through other information activities as some kind of good advice and a common message from Commission VII.

Research and development of methodology should be encouraged through contacts with universities, training institutes etc. Of special interest is the growing interest from FAO for cadastral questions as well as the world conference on human settlement in Istanbul 1996 (HABITAT). Of special interest is also to co-operate with OICRF in information activities.

Activities

October 1994 Adoption of workplan and formulating of different tasks for different members of the working group.

May 1995 Progress report to the Commission at the meeting in the Netherlands

June 1995 Seminar in Gävle, Sweden a joint activity with the Commission III working group on land information systems in developing countries and Swedesurvey.

1996 Progress report to the Commission meeting in Hungary

1997 One day seminar in connection with the Commission meeting in Malaysia.

1998 Working group report to the Brighton Congress

Special contributions highlighting specific topics within the field of interest for the working group.

Members of the working group should be encouraged to actively participate in activities organised by UN, its regional bodies and its special bodies like FAO and HABITAT.

Working Group Secretariat

Chairperson Tommy Österberg

Secretary Agneta Ericsson