Bathurst, Australia 17 - 23 October 1999
Workshop on Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures for
Sustainable Development
The Workshop on Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures for
Sustainable Development brought together 40 international land
administration experts from 23 countries representing all continents to work
in a series of workshops and plenary sessions to develop the Bathurst
Declaration in Bathurst, Australia from 17 - 23 October 1999.
The Workshop was followed by an open International Conference
held in Melbourne at which the Bathurst Declaration was presented. Both the
Bathurst Workshop and the International Conference was attended by
- United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs,
Division for Sustainable Development, New York;
- United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), Nairobi;
- United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Rome;
- United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa;
- World Bank, Washington DC;
- Meeting of Officials of Land Administration (MOLA) under the direction
of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); and
- Permanent Committee for GIS Infrastructure for Asia and the Pacific
(PCGIAP) which was created by the United Nation Regional Cartographic
Conference (UNRCC) for Asia and the Pacific.
The Workshop in Bathurst was sponsored by the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Statistic Division, New
York and FIG and particularly Commission 7 (Cadastre and Land Management) of
FIG. The workshop was sponsored also by the New South Wales Government and
industrial sponsors (Hewlett Packard, Kodak Aerial Imaging and MapInfo) as
well as by the Land Information Centre of New South Wales and the
Institution of Surveyors Australia and Charles Sturt University.
The whole Bathurst Declaration can be found at the home page
of the University of Melbourne. It will be launched on the FIG home page
within some weeks.
The Executive Summary of the Bathurst Declaration is
as follows:
Almost all societies are currently undergoing rapid
change brought about by a diverse range of factors that include growing
population pressures on the land, especially in urban areas. The world's
population has already reached six billion people. The poor are becoming
increasingly concentrated in slums and squatter settlements in our
ever-expanding cities. The gender inequities in access to economic and
social opportunities are becoming more evident. Within 30 years, two-thirds
of the world's population will live in cities. Fresh water availability is
now approaching crisis point. At present consumption levels, two-thirds of
the world’s population will live in water-stressed conditions by the year
2025. The challenge is not only to meet world population needs for food,
shelter and quality of life, but also to ensure that future generations can
also have their needs met.
Insecure property rights inhibit use and investment in
rural and urban land. They hinder good governance and the emergence of
engaged civil society. Uncoordinated development, poor planning and
management of land and its use, and the increasing vulnerability of
populations to disaster and environmental degradation all compound the
difficulties of meeting this challenge. Without effective access to
property, economies are unable to progress and the goal of sustainable
development cannot be realised.
The world is, however, changing. Growing awareness of the
issues, better understanding of the consequences of actions, and greater
capacity to secure and use relevant information are helping to bring about
the necessary changes. These issues are forcing the re-engineering of land
administration systems to ensure that they support sustainable development
and efficient land markets. Land administration frameworks will be forced to
respond rapidly to these unprecedented changes.
The joint United Nations and International Federation of
Surveyors Bathurst Workshop on Land Tenure and Cadastral Infrastructures for
Sustainable Development has responded to this challenge. Land administration
institutions and infrastructures will have to evolve and adapt their often
inadequate and narrow focus to meet a wide range of new needs and
technology, and a 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 Workshop examined the major issues relevant
to strengthening land policies, institutions and infrastructures and, in
particular identified the following:
- future humankind/land relationships;
- the role of land in sustainable development;
- food, water and land policies;
- land tenure and land administration systems;
- how land markets, land registration, spatial planning and valuation
interact; and
- re-engineering land administration systems.
For each of these key areas, the Workshop reviewed the
existing situation within the rapidly changing land administration
environment. It investigated and provided recommendations as to how land
tenures, land administration institutions and infrastructures and cadastral
systems should evolve to enable the challenges of change in the 21st
century to be met.
The Bathurst Declaration on Land Administration for
Sustainable Development calls for a commitment to providing 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 Workshop proposes a set
of recommendations. The policy and institutional reform recommendations must
ensure that there is a balanced and integrated approach to addressing all
tenure relationships in both urban and rural society. Full and active
participation by local communities in formulating and implementing the
reforms is recommended. The need to develop land administration
infrastructures that effectively address the constantly evolving
requirements of the community is critical. Finally, information technology
is seen as playing an increasingly important role in developing the
necessary infrastructure and in providing effective citizen access to it.
Sustainable development is not attainable without sound land
administration
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