Land administration in post-conflict areas
Molen, Paul van der and Christiaan Lemmen
Land administration in post conflict areas obviously is a difficult matter that requires an approach that copes with the local situation. But what are those approaches? What are the specific demands of a post conflict situation? To come to grips with this problem, FIG Commission 7 together with the UN/Habitat and the Kosovo Cadastral Agency organised a symposium in Geneva, 29-30 April 2004. This paper highlights the presentations, and attempt to jumpo to some conclusions. In the view of the authors the most important conclusion of the symposium is that there are basically two ways to deal with land administration in post conflict areas: a good way and a wrong way. When -at the end of the day- a land registrar writes down a name of an owner in a land book, and a land surveyor draws a boundary line on a cadastral map, it could be either the start of a prosperous economic development, or the overture to a new conflict. It all depends on how wise and sensitive the peace treaties or (interim) governmental action plans deal with the allocation of land ownership rights and access to land related opportunities that are perceived by the people as being fair and bringing social justice. The proceedings of the symposium are available on the FIG website, the OICRF website, and as a booklet at pauline.vanelsland@kadaster.nl.
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