Al llegar al número 100 del boletín virtual quincenal Apuntes y de la serie de artículos Diálogos, la autora, cofundadora y miembro del equipo del Instituto para el Desarrollo Rural de Sudamérica, comparte con las y los lectores algunos avatares y lecciones del proceso.
 
En la ruta
Carmen Beatriz Ruiz*

* Maria Luisa Mendonça
 
En esta nueva entrega del boletín quincenal Apuntes, el Instituto para el Desarrollo Rural de Sudamérica (IPDRS) comparte con las y los suscriptores un tema de actualidad y preocupación permanente: el efecto de la expansión de la frontera agrícola dedicada al monocultivo para la producción de etanol. La autora ofrece información detallada sobre la experiencia brasileña y alerta respecto a los peligros de la práctica, ya notablemente extendida en su país. Como siempre, nuestro sitio queda abierto al debate.

Kenya’s Vision 2030 aims at transforming the country into a newly industrialized middle income country

and infrastructural development is high on the agenda to achieve this. Competing land uses and existing

interests in land make the use of eminent domain by government in acquiring land inevitable. However

most of the land earmarked for compulsory acquisition comprises of un- registered land whose interests

There is widespread belief among development specialists that land tenure security is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic development.

This gender study forms part of the International Land Coalition’s ‘Commercial Pressures on Land Initiative’ Global Study. As stated by the International Land Coalition (ILC), the goal of this initiative is to support the efforts of ILC members and other stakeholders to influence global, regional and national processes on land to enable secure and equitable access to land for poor women and men in the face of increasing commercial demand for land (ILC 2010a, emphasis added).

The nature and significance of China's engagements with African agriculture continues to be hotly debated in the media, academia and policy circles around the world. Although China has been engaged in Uganda’s agriculture for more than 40 years, the recent jostle for agricultural land by private Chinese investors is dystifying and justifies the need to conduct a scientific study to provide clear evidence before the issue gets bundled into the messy anecdotal media inquiry.

The tool presented in this guide aims to assist policy-makers and land administrators to adopt appropriate technologies and methodologies for land administration services more efficiently, cost effectively and with options most appropriately tailored to national and sub-national contexts. It was developed after recognizing the need to modernize the budgetary approach to land agencies and to provide effective, cost-efficient, affordable and sustainable services, particularly in developing countries.

This guide aims to support the process of valuation of unregistered land and property for the public and private agencies that undertake this exercise. It will be relevant for policy makers, local authorities, international finance institutions, investors, property developers, banks, civil society organisations, citizens, land owners, local communities and women’s groups.

Across Africa, Asia and Latin America, investors are increasingly approaching rural communities seeking land for logging, mining, and agribusiness ventures. Even in those situations where the investors have followed FPIC guidelines and undertaken a formal “consultation” with the community, these consultations are generally conducted in a context of significant power and information asymmetries. Part of the power imbalance comes from communities’ lack of information about the value of community lands and natural resources.

The potential contribution of land based financing to the development of sustainable and equitable cities and properly serviced communities is often underestimated. Land based financing is a collective name given to a range of instruments by which local governments could expand their revenue base and generate funds that will help them to deliver services and infrastructure development and achieve their maintenance goals.

The absence of a clearly defined land use policy in Kenya after years of independence has resulted in a haphazard approach to managing the different land use practices and policy responses. Land use continues to be addressed through many uncoordinated legal and policy frameworks that have done little to unravel the many issues that affect land use management. The Constitution of Kenya 2010, Kenya Vision 2030 and the Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2009 on National Land Policy all call for a clear framework for effectively addressing the challenges related to land use.

In the recent past, high profile cases involving land governance problems have been thrust into the public domain. These include the case involving the grabbing of a playground belonging to Lang’ata Road Primary School in Nairobi and the tussle over a 134 acre piece of land in Karen. Land ownership and use have been a great source of conflict among communities and even families in Kenya, a situation exacerbated by corruption.