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Land Registration – for peace and development
Background
Since August, 1997, Swedesurvey is fulfilling a two
year contract on Land Registration in Guatemala. The
general background is the following.
Guatemala has since more than 100 years a Land Register
(Registro de la Propiedad de Inmuebles) with titles
to land and a mortgage registration. But there is no
sufficient description of the objects for ownership
and mortgaging, since there exists no land cadaster,
and many land tenants fail to apply for titles. Furthermore
the uncertain and unbalanced land tenancy situation
has caused a lot of land conflicts and even been one
of the reasons for the 36 years of civil war in the
country. The Peace Treaties, finally signed in December,
1996, brought a new approach to the land issue, and
in 1997 the Government of Guatemala adopted a broad
national program on land administration and land management
(Tema Tierras).
It includes:
- the establishing of a cadaster and the modernisation
of the Land Register
- the strengthening and reorganizing of the national
mapping
- the establishing of an entity for solving land
conflicts
- the reforming of the system and organization
of land and property taxation, and
- the establishing of a land fund and other measures
for rural development.
 Different parts of this huge program are being fulfilled
in parallel projects governed by the Ministries of Agriculture
and Finance and the Secretariat for Peace, with a Technical/Juridical
Unit (UTJ) as a coordinator. The Ministry of Agriculture
through UTJ is responsible for the establishment of
a national cadaster.
Swedish expert advice
Swedesurvey is supporting UTJ mainly on strategic
issues concerning cadaster and land register, surveying
and mapping. Swedesurvey also gives an extensive support
on capacitation since there is a serious lack of skilled
personal in these fields. So far Swedish consultants
have been involved in:
- the elaboration of proposals for a cadastral
law and technical standards for the establishment and
maintenance of a national cadaster
- the choice of methodology for surveying, mapping
and for data capture, storage and distribution in connection
with the national cadaster
- parts of the modernization of the National Geographic
Institute (IGN), which is responsible for the national
mapping and basic geodetic networks
- the designing and carrying out of capacitation
programs
- the coordinating of pilot projects being realized
in different regions.
Other issues being influenced are the preparation of
a local project for the transformation and updating
of cadastral information established in the late 60-ies
and early 70-ies in a part of the country, and the preparation
of a document on the possible application of land consolidation
as a mean for the development of existing small farming.
The Swedish input of experts during the project period
will be about 65 man-months. Resident Team Leader and
Cadastral Expert is Mr Sven-Arne Matsson, Swedesurvey.
The project is financed by the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) at a total sum
of SEK 8.824.000 (USD 1,1 million). Sida is also financing
UTJ activities with a corresponding amount (USD 1,1
million).
Perspectives
The establishing of a national cadaster, covering the
whole country, will take more than a decade, maybe two.
So far the job has only started. Still there remains
a lot of work and strategic decisions to develop and
fix the necessary legal, technical and administrative
standards, train and recruit staff, carry out information
campaigns, etc. Guatemala needs international support
for a long time to come, and the kind of support that
Swedesurvey can offer will certainly be asked for also
after the termination of the current project period.
Sven-Arne Matsson
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