| In its land-related projects, the
Development Law Service typically works as part of a multi-disciplinary
team with other land-related technical units in FAO, particularly
those concerned with land tenure and settlement, land use, soil
conservation, cadastre and remote sensing.
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| Legal work in other fields
(for example, forestry and wildlife law) also frequently has land
law implications, given the obvious linkages between land and other
resources. Indeed, a guiding principle of the Service's work is
that effective land law reform needs to be based on an integrated
vision of natural resource management, requiring well-harmonized
sectoral legislation and a careful balancing of national interests,
environmental protection, food security and individual rights.
While the needs and nature of assistance varies greatly from country
to country, FAO's land law work in recent years has touched upon the
following themes:
Land Rights and Land Markets. Many countries in transition are
engaged in the process of recognizing stronger individual rights to
land, and of creating the basic legal and administrative framework
necessary for well-functioning land markets. The FAO has assisted
in various aspects of this process in Lithuania, Mongolia, Georgia
and elsewhere. Work soon to be underway in Slovenia will focus on
the legal dimensions of a number of inter-related land market issues,
such as taxation, valuation, registration, cadastre and land information
systems.
Community-Based Tenure Systems. Despite the trends in much
of the world, security of tenure cannot automatically be equated
with the introduction of individualized tenure systems and formal
land markets. In large parts of Africa and Asia, customary rules
continue to govern the ownership and utilisation of land. There
is increasing recognition of the adaptability of many customary
systems and the insecurity created by heedlessly replacing
such systems where they remain viable. In such contexts, the challenge
for legal reformers is to design laws that can provide a workable
framework for the co-existence of plural land tenure systems, and
to allow room for their adaptation to changing circumstances and
societal norms. This approach has characterized the FAO's land law
work in many countries, such as Niger, Guinea, Burundi, Tanzania,
Philippines, Laos, etc., as well as recent work in Mozambique, where
FAO is assisting in the comprehensive revision of that country's
land laws. Effective reform in this area requires the participation
of the customary land users in all stages of the process, and careful
consideration of their aspirations, values and practices.
Land Information and Administration. Well-functioning land
markets and land administration systems require efficient, transparent
and accessible systems for recording rights in land and for collecting
and managing other types of land information. Such systems need
to be culturally sensitive, drawing upon local institutions and
norms where feasible. Furthermore, they should be related to technical
standards which are economically realistic in a given context. In
collaboration with other FAO technical divisions, the Development
Law Service recently helped Eritrea to design a legal framework
for land registration that meets these criteria. Several projects
over the last decade in Guyana have also focussed on a number of
these issues. Furthermore, the application of new technologies to
the collecting, sharing and disseminating of spatial information,
all present new and relatively unfamiliar challenges to existing
legal regimes. Areas such as intellectual property rights, evidence,
inter-agency administrative law, etc., are all likely to be implicated.
These areas will be a major focus of the FAO's work in Slovenia.
Land Use and Soil Conservation. The Development Law Service
has collaborated with other technical divisions on an increasing
number of projects concerning land use planning and soil conservation.
A particular focus (in recent work in Tanzania and in upcoming work
in Swaziland) involves identifying and reducing legal constraints
to stakeholder participation in the land use planning process.
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