RICS has entered into an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to provide support in mainstreaming the involvement of leading academic institutions in the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines (VG) on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests. James Kavanagh and John Tracey-White visited the FAO HQ in Rome to attend an inception meeting with FAO land tenure, fisheries and forestry specialists in order to scope out the project design and the next steps to be followed at an expert meeting in London. This meeting will be followed by a special VG workshop at FIG Rome May 2012.
The issues of land tenure/rights, security and sustainable resource use are gaining much media attention of late but have always been of central importance to land professionals. The visit to the FAO offices and the various meetings with their highly knowledgeable and international staff really helped us to get a handle on how important land issues are globally. What was most interesting was how land tenure was dealt with regionally, from the deeply ideological mindset of central and South America where land issue education is ingrained within social, economic and political academic establishments to the post colonial land tenure problems of Africa and the Caribbean. A real issue for the UK is how far we have (in educational terms) almost divorced ourselves from the economic and social drivers behind what many would consider 'surveying' in its broadest sense and have almost painted ourselves into a 'technical' corner with an over emphasis on fast changing technology or outmoded processes.
One can see how economic understanding rides shotgun with social justice when it comes to land tenure. We are also working on a position paper on how to 'value non-Red Book assets (non-market driven)' within the land group, it is this connection to economics and value which provides a surveyors trump card. A freely operating market won't necessarily ride on the back of a successful land titling/tenure project but I would point surveyors towards the 'continuum of land tenure' diagram as outlined with the Land Markets 3rd ed. This concept that a range of relevant land tenure stages exists is important, each stage can be as relevant as another and many may find that the establishment of say 'a non eviction' right is as important to their future prospects (and tenure security) as freehold.
This project with its global, e-learning and UN resources focussing on a subject of critical global importance should enable RICS to re-establishment global contacts and create a strong linked community of land professionals and institutions.