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INTERVIEW-New global standard on land to improve rights, boost investment

by Magdalena Mis | @magdalenamis1 | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Thursday, 14 July 2016 16:39 GMT

A woman harvests wheat stalks in a village near Abbottabad in Pakisan in this file photo. REUTERS/Erik de Castro

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Globally-recognised system is first to record key land information such as registration, ownership or land classification

By Magdalena Mis

ROME, July 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A new global standard for recording land information will help to improve land rights, food security and boost economic development, the backers of the initiative said on Thursday.

Land and property rights are key to tackling poverty but some 70 percent of land and property around the world is not officially registered. At 90 percent, the number is even higher in Africa, experts say.

The International Land Measurement Standard will be the first to create a globally-recognised system to record key land information such as registration, ownership or land classification, its creators said.

"Having a simplified land reporting process means that (land) rights will be formalised on a much quicker basis," said James Kavanagh, director of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a member of the coalition developing the new measure.

"It should help smallholder farmers realise their rights a lot quicker and enable them to pass those rights on a lot easier," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

According to experts, securing land rights of smallholder farmers is essential for food security because when their right to land is protected by a legal document, farmers are willing to invest in it, assured that the food they grow is theirs to eat or sell - a powerful incentive to grow as much as possible.

Formalising people's property through an internationally adopted land standard would also help to encourage investment in poor countries, he said.

"In the developing world, particularly Africa and South and Central America, and Southeast Asia there's a real need to be able to compare like-for-like across borders," he said.

"So if you're looking at a piece of property or land for investment in Ghana then you can compare the same kind of principles in Botswana."

Kavanagh said the standard, which he hoped would be ready for implementation by the end of next year, would also help governments with issues including land acquisitions and compensations for land.

The 28-member International Land Measurement Standards coalition includes the RICS, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Bank, among others. (Reporting by Magdalena Mis; Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

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