FIG 22nd General Assembly   31 May and 4 June 1999   Sun City, South Africa

Appendix to item 10: Reports from Chairs of Commission et al.
Appendix 7: Commission 7

Commission 7: Cadastre and Land Management

Report to the 22^nd General Assembly

Sun City 30 May – 4 June 1999

1. General

The completion of Ian Williamson’s term of office as Chairperson of the Commission has seen recognition of the successes that were generated during his term of office and continuing enthusiasm for the generation of positive outputs from the Commission from its many delegates and correspondents.

Professor Williamson was honoured by the award of an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Olsztyn in Poland, one of a very select band of Australians ever to have received a Polish Honorary Doctorate. In fact Ian was not the only Commission delegate to be so honoured during the course of the year. It is a great pleasure to record that one of the Commission’s other antipodean supporters, Bill Robertson from New Zealand, was also awarded the honorary accolade of Doctor by Melbourne University earlier this year.

The Commission’s new secretary, Bob Ashwin of HMLR (the Land Registry of England and Wales) has taken up his post and is proving an invaluable centre for the Commission’s communications and activities: the Commission’s thanks go to Bob and to HMLR for their support. Their support, and our thanks, also extend to the establishment and maintenance of the Commission’s new website (http://www.fig7.org.uk) under the supervision of our excellent webmaster David Mercer. The site logs all of our visitors, and the volume and geographical range of "hits" so far are impressive.

Commission 7's work for the session 1998-2002 got off to an excellent start after Brighton. The Commission's three Working Groups are up and running, and their progress is reported below. This encouraging start is also being supported by Commission delegates' active involvements internationally in supporting and developing the work of the Commission.

The new UK delegate, Peter Dent (who also acts as secretary for Working Group 3 on Land Markets) gave a paper at the FIG sponsored International Symposium on "The Law of Immovables: Dynamics of Development in Cadastral Systems and Land Management" held in Sofia, Bulgaria, 11-12 November, 1998. The Symposium was organised by the Bulgarian member association, the Union of Surveyors and Land Managers in Bulgaria, and the new Bulgarian national delegate to the Commission, Assoc Professor Anni Delieva, was also actively involved.

Andras Ossko, the Commission's national delegate from Hungary, helped to organise the 30 November-2 December MOLA meeting in Hungary on Land Markets, coincidentally the subject area of the Working Group that he is chairing for the Commission. MOLA is the UN Economic Commission for Europe sponsored Meeting of Officials in Land Administration. The Commission's vice chairperson, Paul van der Molen, who chairs the Commission’s Working Group on Land Ownership in the 21st Century: Access to Land was also present and actively involved in the meeting.

Professor Andrzej Hopfer, the national delegate from Poland, chaired the organising committee of the Warsaw Cadastral Congress which took place during November 19-21, 1998. A large number of Commission 7 national delegates, including the past and present chairpersons, Professor Ian Williamson and Paul Munro-Faure, took part. Jürg Kaufmann from Switzerland, chair of the Commission's Working Group 1 on Reforming the Cadastre presented a paper, as did Tommy Österberg from Sweden who acts as vice chair to Working Group 1. The Congress was under the patronage of the Prime Minister of Poland, and has had a material impact on the government’s approach to cadastral issues. The Warsaw Declaration spelled out the Congress’ view of where the future of the cadastre lies, and of some of the issues that Poland might like to keep in mind when addressing problems in this area.

In addition, as chair of Commission 7, Paul Munro-Faure was delighted to be able to bear the news to Skopje in person of the successful election of the Macedonian Association to full membership of FIG and to give a congratulatory address to an extraordinary meeting of the Association. The evening meeting, in October, was attended by more than 50 surveyors from all over the country and was followed by celebratory toasts. Macedonia is going through the upheavals of transition from a socialist to a market economy and is particularly interested in taking part in the work of the Commission in this area. Both in Skopje, and two months later, at an invited presentation of the Chairperson in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the member associations asked particularly for up to date briefings on the workplan of Commission 7

The Commission's involvement with the FIG-wide definition of standards has also got off to an active start with valuable contributions from our German national delegate Dr Winfried Hawerk, chair of the Task Force on Definition of Commission 7 ISO Standards which is working under the Commission’s Working Group 1.

The Commission’s three Working Groups are well under way. Working Group 1, under Jürg Kaufmann of Switzerland, looking at Reforming the Cadastre, has called for directional inputs and views from the delegates and correspondents and already has a linked website up and running. Its inputs into the Federation-wide initiative on standards are already being appreciated.

Working Group 2, chaired by Paul van der Molen, the Commission’s vice chair, is making a big input into the Commission’s Annual Meeting in New Zealand in October 1999. Agneta Ericson, who chairs the Working Group’s Task Force on Women's Access to Land, is working with Bill Robertson, chairperson of the Annual Meeting’s Organisation Committee, to prepare a very important and internationally topical One Day International Seminar on "Women’s Access to Land" as a part of the Annual Meeting. The Working Group has also been involved through Ian Williamson in the Bathurst/Melbourne Meetings looking at Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures for Sustainable Development.

Andras Ossko, the Commission’s Hungarian delegate, chairs Working Group 3 on Land Markets. The Group has circulated its first questionnaire for completion and promises to generate a lot of valuable information that is not available anywhere else.

In the meanwhile preparations continue for the Commission's inputs into the South African Working Week Symposium in May/June 1999 where a small but valuable contribution is planned to the land reform debates that are vital for formulating South Africa's future.

Active preparations for the Commission's Annual Meeting in New Zealand in October 1999, and in Germany in 2000, are under way. New Zealand’s programme, in conjunction with the New Zealand member association’s annual meeting at the Bay of Islands promises to be a productive and focussed week which will provide the opportunity for moving our work rapidly forward.

All in all the next four years are already shaping up to be an exciting period for the Commission.

Paul Munro-Faure
Chair

Contacts:

Paul Munro-Faure
c/o Land & Property Economics Ltd,
Chestnut House
Haresfield
Stonehouse
Gloucestershire GL10 3EQ
United Kingdom

Tel: + 44 1452 883 880
Fax: + 44 1452 722 933
e-mail: pmunrofaure@lapeco.co.uk
paulmunro_faure@compuserve.com

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