PCN 10279
Th e National Defense Intelligence College supports and encourages 

research on intelligence issues that distills lessons and improves Intellige

Community capabilities to policy-level and operational consumers 

Th is book is the culmination of research by Douglas Batson while he wa

Offi ce of the Director of National Intelligence Research Fellow at this Col

in 2006-2007. Th e manuscript was originally prepared to fulfi ll part of 

requirements for Research Fellows at this institution. Mr. Batson’s work o

specifi cs on how to assist developing countries in registering property so 

owners have security of tenure. Property rights are at the heart of many probl

in dealing with refugees and in turn with governmental stability. Its publica

off ers an example of the variety of applied intelligence research carried ou

the Research Fellows.

Th is publication is based on open sources, and the views expressed are tho

the author. Th e views do not necessarily refl ect the offi cial policy or positio

the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Photographs and graphics from the American Geographical Society, 

Association of American Geographers, from the Land Titling and Econo

Reconstruction Activity (LTERA-Afghanistan), as well as from the Emer

Markets Group (EMG) and the Terra Institute are used by permission. Ph

and maps from the Mexico Indigena Project are used courtesy of the Unive

of Kansas.

Distribution of this publication is unrestricted. Paper copies are availabl

limited quantities to individuals in the Intelligence Community and to other 

Government offi cials through the Center for Strategic Intelligence Researc

the College. Electronic copies of this and other Center publications are avail

via the Worldwide Web at http://www.ndic.edu. For more information on 

or other publications email the Center’s Associate Director at james.lightfo

dia.mil or phone 202-231-1917. 

Dr. James E. Ligh

Editor and Associate Dire

Center for Strategic Intelligence Rese

ii |
CONTENTS

FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

COMMENTARIES:

Mr. Yaives Ferland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Lt Col Henie Janse van Rensburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Dr. John Peaty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

AUTHOR’S PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

CHAPTER 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

CHAPTER 2: Land and Confl ict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Land is Fundamental to Human Existence . . . . . . . . . . 

Land Confl ict Catalyzes Crises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Crises Catalyze Land Confl ict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

An Increasing but Ineff ectual International Response . . . . . . 

CHAPTER 3: Land-Related Crises in Afghanistan . . . . . . 

Returning Afghan Refugees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Kabul: Victim and Catalyst of Land Crises . . . . . . . . . . . 

Th e Conditions of Land Crises in Afghanistan at a Glance . . . . 

Priorities for Addressing Afghanistan’s Land Crises . . . . . . . 

De Soto’s Proposal: A Viable Solution? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Th e Housing, Land, and Property Triad . . . . . . . . . . . . 

CHAPTER 4: Foreign Intelligence is Geography . . . . . . . 

Recent U.S. Intelligence Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Geography in 20th Century U.S. Foreign Policy and Academe . . 

Recovering Geography in the 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . . 

New Geographical Tools and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . 

Geography as a Tangible Foreign Policy Tool . . . . . . . . . . 

CHAPTER 5: Securing the Land: Th e Pivotal Role of Cadastres 

Nation-Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Cadastre and Controversy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Cadastres Help Rebuild Shattered Nations . . . . . . . . . . . 

Cadastres Aiding Post-Confl ict Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . 

Advances in Land Administration in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . 

Land Policy in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
iv |

CONTENTS (Continued)

Legal Aid in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

A USAID Project Makes Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

A Good Cadastre is a Great Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . .85

CHAPTER 6: Cadastre for Reconstruction and Stability: Th e Land 

Administration Domain Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Titles and Deeds in Cadastres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Challenges in Cadastres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Th e Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) . . . . . . . . 91

LADM Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

LADM Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

LADM: Th e Future of Cadastre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

CHAPTER 7: Applied Geography as a Mainstay of 

U.S. Foreign Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Th e Early Phase of Addressing Land Crises: 

Th e Role of the Military . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Th e Next Phase of Addressing Land Crises: Civil-Military

 Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Addressing Land Crises in the Long Term: Building Land 

 Administration Expertise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Mobilizing Government to Respond to Land Crises . . . . . . . 111

Training in Land Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

CHAPTER 8: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119

LIST OF ACRONYMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

APPENDIXES

A. México Indígena Project Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

B. AGCHO Cadastral Survey Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

C. Engineer Safar’s 3-level Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

D. 500-person Civilian Reserve Corps Skill Mix . . . . . . . . . . 135

E. University of Florida Land Tenure and Administration 

 Course Syllabus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

ABOUT THE AUTHOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

ABSTRACT IN FIVE LANGUAGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
FOREWORD

I fi rst met Doug Batson at the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Washington Navy Yard location in 2005, before he was honored with t

leading to the research and publication of this book. We shared an in

passion in our work with human terrain analytical issues and I came t

Doug as someone I could learn from. 

Doug’s subsequent selection as an Offi ce of the Director of 

Intelligence Rearch Fellow was well deserved. Registering the Human 

A Valuation of Cadastre validates this selection. Th e scholarship tha

is worthy of both study and careful refl ection; this work is a must

those engaging in research, analysis, and policy development regar

important issues of cadastre and human terrain analysis more gener

As Doug points out in his preface, while many in the commun

been focused on the “where” relating to mapping the human terrain, t

tackles the important issue of who is registered to land through property 

Mapping the human terrain, of course, would be greatly aided by the c

processing, and analysis of the kind of data Doug advocates, but the w

goes beyond the furthering of the emerging discipline of human terrain 

to broader strategic and policy environments. Clearly, the case is mad

thering eff orts in registering the human terrain as a means to achieving 

national security and global peace and stability.

As Doug’s work lays out, land issues are oft en at the core o

confl ict, which could be prevented by the development and implem

of land registration systems with formal mechanisms to arbitrate 

and make public record of land ownership rights and adjudicati

United States can lead by assisting developing countries to deve

systems for land tenure and property rights. Th is assistance would 

less controversial than much of our current foreign policy. Th is sy

tion of land tenure and property rights would do much for the 

security of our country, as it is increasingly dependent upon the stabil

developing world. 

Doug’s work here is timely and a harbinger of policy shift s to c

the United States government organizes and re-organizes itself to add

fl ict resolution and promote global stability, we will increasingly reco

value of the human terrain. Registering the Human Terrain: A Val
vi |

data and a way ahead to leverage the power of it. 

Dr. Swen John

Chief of Human Terrain Ana

Socio-Cultural Intelligence Analysis, 

Alexandria
COMMENTARY

Mr. Yaïves Ferland 

Defense Research and Development 

Canada at Valcartier (DRDC-Valcartier)

Th ere are three main aspects of prime interest in Douglas 

book about cadastre as a method to help create a peaceful and pr

civil society aft er confl icts and the return of refugees. First, for the 

and security intelligence community, it represents a step forward 

the comprehension and the application of the socio-cultural and e

dimensions of any confl ict: the structure of relationships to the l

role of land ownership in the fi elds and in cities as a confl ict cataly

cussed extensively. Land is fundamental for all societies and eras, b

are dozens of complicated meanings and circumstances from the p

and dwelling, the soil, and the ground-related activities and cultur

terrain to exploit and the homeland territory to secure. Land crises 

to conquests, depressions, revolutions, and reforms, but oft en confl 

voke crises by physical destruction or population expulsion, separat

centration, or return. For intelligence to reach situation awareness, o

to understand the dynamic of such relationships to land, beyond the 

terrain, as arguments in an actual confl ict.

Second, Batson explores the deep signifi cance of the cada

formidable institution that permits security for a fragile populatio

recovering economy. In any cases, by any means, even temporary tit

registration of land allocation or possession contribute to security, 

levels of Maslow’s pyramid. If well-established and adapted to bo

tional and innovative views of land defi nition, measurement, ident

registration, and conveyance, the cadastre informs and aids eff ectiv

struction, peacemaking, and control of speculation. Cadastre is not 

sal cure and no defi nition is globally accepted, even among land-s

or planners; the cadastre is subject to controversy depending on th

of structural problems to address in diff erent countries, and with r

various legal systems concerning property and land market. Batson 

his experience in post-confl ict Afghanistan to discuss the crucial ro

cadastre in land administration policies and institutions.

Th ird, this contribution fi ts well at the vanguard of a revitaliz

tary geography. Chapters directly engage in the rehabilitation of the 
viii |

no more a question only of geopolitics or geostrategy (which are not mili

by essence), it is full geography as defi ned by the relationships of humans to 

Earth. Geography, a basis of military doctrines for decades since Clausew

but reduced to popular travelogues, for a while considered useful only in 

form of accurate topographic maps, is recovering its standing within defe

security, intelligence, and policy scientifi c domains. Geographical meth

and analysis provide more than information and knowledge about a geo

tially complex situation; they include a conceptual reference and expe

frame for addressing land crises and building a stable land administra

model, as a cadastre.
COMMENTARY

Lt Col Hennie Janse van Rensburg 

South African Military Academy

Batson has produced an easily readable book with a clear theme

land administration is pivotal to sustainable Reconstruction and Stabil

in post-confl ict societies. A link is established between land and its 

for confl ict, as well as how an appropriate land administration system c

in managing and preventing such confl ict. Without a functioning, 

culturally sensitive and locally calibrated land administration system

able R&S will be exceedingly diffi cult, if not impossible, to achieve. He 

focusing R&S eff orts on creating a current cadastre of the post-con

using a combination of top-down planning and community participa

reasoning behind this is that such a cadastre:

a. Is required for an eff ective land administration system and

 provides a platform on which nation-building can take

 place;

b. Provides a platform for securing land tenure, which is fun-

 damental to building peace and stability within a society;

c. Provides a platform for solving local land disputes before

 they escalate to violent confl ict, thus assisting in maintain

 ing peace;

d. Is sustainable because it is embedded in the societal fabric

 of the area. 

Policy makers and R&S specialists will do well to read this book 

note of Batson’s arguments. Th e book is written with a U.S. audience in 

is evident in Chapter 7: Geography as a Mainstay of U.S. Foreign Polic

as in the use of Afghanistan as a case study. Having said that, the boo

appeal to all countries faced with reintegrating displaced persons into t

societies, land restitution issues or having to manage R&S, both inside 

side their national boundaries. 

A secondary theme that Batson expounds is the importance 

graphic knowledge in relation to foreign intelligence, in the setting of a

ate foreign policy as well as establishing and maintaining peace. Con
x |

aside, good knowledge of human and physical geography leads to better un

standing of the international political arena and Batson does well to remind 

reader thereof. Of course, this secondary theme would be totally out of pla

this book if it did not somehow relate to the main theme – which it does so 

clearly. An essential part of a cadastre is the geographic description of the 

contained in it. Such a description answers the fundamentally important q

tion: where? Without the answer to this simple geographic question a cada

cannot exist. Taking this into consideration, geographic knowledge becom

cornerstone in building peace and stability in post-confl ict societies.

A key to the success of any R&S operation is sustainability. If a cadast

to be sustainable it has to be integrated into and accepted by the local c

munity. Batson demonstrates a much-needed sensitivity in considering 

needs of local communities in establishing a cadastre. He aptly notes 

the “... problem in post-confl ict societies is that cadastres have been desig

to serve the interests of governments and outside powers, not the local 

ple, who are usually poor.” In order for a cadastre to be successful it mus

designed keeping the end user in mind. Th is begs an important quest

who is the end user? Is it the society under reconstruction or the soc

driving the reconstruction? Colonial expansion into Africa in the late 18

and fi rst half of the 1900s provided Africa with infrastructure such as 

roads, railroads and harbours. Unfortunately, these infrastructural deve

ments were geared towards resource extraction and not the developmen

the local communities. Very little local development resulted from the 

infrastructure during colonialism and also proved hopelessly inadequate 

development in the post-colonial era. Th e U.S. faces a similar situatio

Afghanistan and Iraq. Expediency is one of the biggest Delila’s that the 

government is currently facing in the Middle East. An expedient, top-d

approach that is focused on the need of the U.S. government, instead of 

countries under reconstruction, will result in a situation similar to the A

can colonial experience. Th e cadastre resulting from such an approach 

not be sustainable and neither will the peace be. Th e U.S. must show pati

in engaging the local population in order to establish a cadastre that is 

turally sensitive and locally calibrated — as encouraged by Batson. 
COMMENTARY 

Dr. John Peaty 

Defence Geographic Centre 

Ministry of Defence, United Kingdom 

Douglas Batson, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

Analyst and a staff member to the U.S. Board on Geographic Na

researched and written a study which he has titled “Registering the Hu

rain: A Valuation of Cadastre.” He has looked in detail at the case of 

stan and the study could well have retained its name from the original p

“Th e Repatriation of 4.6 million Afghan Refugees: Answering the Whe

tion with Property Intelligence.”

Coalition intelligence agencies have learnt and are continuing 

many hard lessons in Iraq and Afghanistan to include the uncomfortab

that cultural factors were under-appreciated and that cultural knowl

awareness were lacking and/or not used eff ectively. As a result, the I

rightly preoccupied with “Mapping the Human Terrain.”

But as Batson correctly points out, one must fi rst “Register the 

Terrain.” He argues that the “cadastre” is the key to predicting and res

to global crises, a point well-known in Europe but virtually unknown in 

I believe Batson has written an important, valuable and timely study o

cial problem of land tenure and property rights in Afghanistan. I furthe

that his conclusions have a far wider application, well beyond Afghani

Batson further argues that the European-developed Land Admin

Domain Model is compelling because it makes explicit the various type

rights, restrictions, and responsibilities. It may well record land tenure 

based on the traditional cadastral parcel.

In his conclusion Batson puts forward practical recommendati

ognize the importance of land in confl ict prevention; Expand the defi 

national security to include security of land tenure; Construct states c

administering land; Build local capacity in resolving land confl ict. Hi

suggestions on how to engage multiple actors in land-related recon

and stability activities are especially commendable. 

I was privileged to collaborate with Batson by reviewing his dra

met with him at the International Conference on Military Geography a

ogy (ICMGG)). He is to be congratulated for researching and writing t

and the National Defense Intelligence College is to be congratulated fo

it publicly available. 

AUTHORS PREFACE

Living and working for the U.S. Department of the Army in G

from 1979 to 1992, I observed world-changing geopolitical tensions 

umphs: the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in that 

the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and German reunifi cation. As I 

the refi tting of a recently-closed U.S. military base into a German gov

asylum processing center, with barracks for thousands of Eurasian and 

refugees instead of American soldiers, I unknowingly witnessed the t

from Cold War stasis to an era marked by unprecedented global migra

later career, full-time at the then-U.S. Immigration and Naturalization 

and part-time in the U.S. Army Reserve, and attending successive U.S

Command Southwest Asia symposia, alerted me that the mass displac

people is due largely to land confl ict. My selection as an Offi ce of the 

Figure 1. A Map of Afghanistan’s Ethnic Mix. Source: CIA, 1997.
xiv |

the Human Terrain.

A term now in vogue to describe the rendering of socio-cultural in

mation to a map is “mapping the human terrain,” which is also an intellig

topic of increasing salience. Ethno-linguistic maps, such as Figure 1 depic

languages spoken or religions practiced in a given area, are plentiful. 

However, this book is NOT about mapping the human terrain, 

about registering the human terrain: tying a “person,” an individual, a gr

or a non-natural person such as an organization, to a geographical p

through property records. Th is book manifests how to answer the “w

question with the same precision the U.S. Intelligence Community answ

the “where’’ question.

In addition to off ering intelligence value, strengthening land tenure 

property rights in volatile countries is an auspicious fi eld of international de

opment for the U.S. to assert its “soft power.” I am grateful for the time 

Figure 2. 1:1000 Scale Parcel-based Cadastral Map, Kabul, Afghanistan. Sourc

Emerging Markets Group (EMG).
Washington-based U.S. government colleagues, a very small cadre of 

ure and property rights practitioners, took to educate me on their unsu

and to review my draft s. Th ank you to Dr. Jolyne Sanjak, Senior Direct

erty Rights and Land Tenure Operations at the Millennium Challeng

ration; Mr. Greg Garramone, Economic Policy Advisor in the Depar

State, Offi ce of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stability, and D

ory Myers, Senior Land Tenure and Property Rights Specialist, U.S. Ag

International Development. I trust that this 

book will attract a new generation of land 

tenure and property rights experts into your 

ranks. Many thanks also to: 

Dr. J. David Stanfi eld of the Terra Institute, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, USA, whose 

passion for land tenure and property rights 

and years of labor in Afghanistan is inspiring. His interest in my study, reviews of my 

draft s, and introductions to his Afghan colleagues prior to my research trip to Afghanistan were invaluable. Figure 4. The Author.

Figure 3. Persons Tied to a Cadastral Parcel. Source: Bhuvana Anand, EMG
xvi |

Geodesy and Cartography Head Offi ce cadastral department; Ms. Reb

Gang, former Project Coordinator in Herat of the Norwegian Refugee Coun

Information, Counseling, and Legal Assistance program; Dr. Gregory Maas

Chief of Party, Emerging Markets Group Land Titling and Economic Rest

turing (EMG) project, for the time and eff ort to show me EMG’s endea

on the ground; to Mr. Gregg Badger, National Geospatial-Intelligence Age

(NGA), for the daily logistical support in Kabul.

In the Netherlands, to Prof. dr. ir. Peter van Oosterom and Mr. d

Jaap Zevenbergen, associate professor, both with the OTB Research Inst

for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology, 

to Ir. Christiaan Lemmen, assistant professor at the International Institut

Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at Enschede, and 

chair, administration of International Federation of Surveyors Commissi

“Cadastre and Land Management,” for bending your respective schedule

accommodate my visit while en route to Afghanistan, and for introducing 

to an opportune cadastral model.

For editing my multiple draft s, Dr. James Lightfoot, Center for Strat

Intelligence Research, National Defense Intelligence College; Dr. Joel Ka

maki, U.S. Government Printing Offi ce, and Mr. Yaïves Ferland, Def

Research and Development Canada, Valcartier, Quebec. 

For pointing me in the right direction aft er receiving the DNI Award

former U.S. Geological Survey colleague, John Moeller.

For encouragement from my home offi ce, the NGA’s Political Geogra

Division: Glen Lauber, Brian Hagan, David Eldridge, Jennifer Faraon, Dr. P

Viechnicki; from elsewhere in NGA: Randy Flynn, Al Human, Bruce Kira

Dr. Virgil S. “Steve” Lewis, Carter Edgeworth, Adrian Gomes, Tim Mclen

Brian Pope, and Wendy Zeller. 

I thank my loving and supportive wife, Terri, who greeted news of 

fellowship award with excitement just three months aft er we had wed, and 

labored arduously on the footnotes and bibliography.
CHAPTER 1:

Introduction

Seldom does an alert of potentially cataclysmic humanita

ses occur in open-source press releases. An exception occurred 

2007, in a little-reported story whose headline ran: “All Afghan Ref

be Repatriated from Pakistan by 2009.”1 Th e announcement, mad

Pakistani government, foreshadows events that will no doubt paral

already underway in Iran, where 100,000 unregistered Afghan migra

deported in a six-week period.2 Yet, neither Iran’s stepped-up dep

of its one million illegal Afghan migrants nor the announced Pakist

egy for sending back its remaining 2.4 million Afghan refugees by th

2009 has been met with alarm. 

Alarm is the appropriate response to this impending scenar

every mass deportation of similar size in the last century—Ar

from Ottoman Turkey during World War I and Chechens to Cen

under Stalin—has been a recipe for further confl ict even generatio

An astute regional analyst would have anticipated Pakistan’s prepar

deport its Afghan refugees. First, a four-month, by-name registrati

paign of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, completed in Februa

identifi ed 88 percent of the refugee population.3 Second, several dec

Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan were closed in 2007.4 Th ird, the P

government has reiterated that aft er 15 April 2007, Afghans with no 

Registration Cards will be subject to the laws of the land—deportat

Th e international community regards forced repatriation as a vio

international law. But Pakistan is not a signatory to the 1951 Conventi

ing to the Status of Refugees and subsequent protocols. Even if it were, 

stani government might have ignored this commitment and pursued it

1 Syed Irfan Raza, “All Afghans to Be Repatriated by ‘09,” DAWN Group of Newspap

edition, 16 February 2007.

2 “Afghans Protest Eviction of Refugees by Iran,” Hong Kong AFP in English — 

service of the independent French press agency Agence France-Press (AFP)e, online e

JPP20070501969040 Hong Kong AFP in English 0952 GMT, 1 May 2007.

3 “Second Generation Afghan Refugees Prefer Living in Pakistan,” Lahore Daily Tim

English edition, no. SAP2007030527002, 5 March 2007. Cited hereafter as “Seco

tion Afghan Refugees.”

4 “Over 200,000 Afghan Refugees Said to Leave Pakistan after Deadline Expiry,” 

Press of Pakistan (APP), online edition, no. 20070424950088 Islamabad APP in E

April 2007. Cited hereafter as “Over 200,000 Afghan Refugees.”

5 “Over 200,000 Afghan Refugees.”
2 |

policy, to forcibly deport the estimated 1.5 million Pakistan-born refugees 

will not return voluntarily to an Afghanistan they have never known.6 S

2002, three million Afghans have repatriated from Pakistan to an Afghani

ill-suited to absorb them.7 Another 2.4 million refugees pushed onto its bor

would likely trigger a large-scale humanitarian crisis; the reversal of many h

won gains from Afghanistan’s six-year, United States (U.S.)-led reconstruc

and renewed confl icts over land, housing, and other land-related rights, 

fl icts that the Taliban and anti-coalition militias would immediately exploit

Th e refugee crisis brewing in Afghanistan is the most vivid examp

a threat to regional stability, world peace, and national sovereignty, conc

that fall under the purview of intelligence analysts and civil reconstruc

specialists. Th e crisis is slowly but inevitably unfolding, and U.S. civil 

military planners are inadequately prepared to deal with a titanic reorde

of the human terrain.

One of the critical omissions in U.S. eff orts to anticipate and then add

regional confl icts is the failure to appreciate the relationship between pe

and their land, information typically registered in a cadastre. For exam

spikes in property transactions, inexplicable from market forces alone, 

6 “Second Generation Afghan Refugees.”

7 “Over 3 Million Afghans Helped by UN for Repatriation from Pakistan since 2002,” I

abad Associated Press of Pakistan in English — government-run press agency, online edition

IAP20070409950077 Islamabad APP in English 1250 GMT, 9 April 2007.

Figure 5. Internally Displaced Refugees Arrive at Destination. Source: 

Photo courtesy of Luke Powell, http://www.lukepowell.com. 
ligence Community, analysis of heretofore unavailable layers of 

data has the potential to identify a group’s ideologies and economic p

tying a name to a place a cadastre can answer the diffi cult “who” quest

is behind a given problem? A cadastre can also provide military com

with detailed knowledge of the human terrain, identifi cation of powe

on the ground whose support or obstruction may determine mission 

More specifi cally, this book tells U.S. civil and military planners how 

information, where it exists and where it has been maintained, might 

multi-lateral reconstruction and stability (R&S) eff orts. Especially in p

fl ict societies, land tenure and property rights (LTPR) are a much large

cadastre is one of many solutions through which stability and peace ca

Conversely, by assigning land ownership or rights to one claimant, a 

can extinguish de facto rights and unleash further confl ict by empo

nouveau elite at the expense of other claimants. Th us, knowledge an

ence in sequencing changes to LTPR are critical to nation-building m

Lastly, with a common and well-informed understanding of cadas

deployed U.S. civilian R&S teams could work more eff ectively with mu

partners such as the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Orga

the Organization of American States, and non-government organiza

programs for emergency humanitarian aid, for refugees, and for inter

placed persons resettlement, and infrastructure and economic recov

ning, taking into account vital LTPR issues. 

Th e term cadastre, a French word of Venetian and Byzantine 

is used deliberately. Its infrequent use in American English, coup

its varying meanings throughout the English-speaking world and in 

civil codes, serves the author’s intent to defi ne an ambiguous term 

introduce an unfamiliar concept. Among a dozen current alternat

International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) defi nition is used here.

A cadastre is normally a parcel-based, up-to-date land information system containing a record of interests in land (e.g., 

rights, restrictions, and responsibilities). It usually includes 

a geometric description of land parcels linked to other 

records describing the nature of the interests, the ownership or control of those interests, and oft en the value of the 

parcel and its improvements.8

8 Fédération Internationale des Géomètres (FIG), The International Federation 

ors Commission 7, Cadastre and Land Management, The FIG Statement on th

(Copenhagen: The Surveyors House, 1995), URL: <http://www.fig.net/commission

cadastre/statement_on_cadastre_summary.html>, accessed 24 September 2007. C

after as FIG, The FIG Statement on the Cadastre.
4 |

 Cadastres have registered the human terrain for centuries. Ting 

Williamson chronicled the historical relationship between land and pe

and the evolutionary steps in cadastral and land registration systems, w

fall into four major phases:9

• From the age of agriculture to feudalism, human beings were physi

tied to land. Land was the primary symbol and source of wealth. In 

phase, the cadastre publicly recorded ownership for fi scal purpos

• During the industrial revolution, strong physical ties to land bega

dissolve and land became a conceptual, tradable commodity and 

primary source of capital. Th is environment gave birth to land mar

and so cadastre took on another focus—a tool in land transfers.

• Post-World War II reconstruction and an increasingly mo

growing population began to see land as a scarce resource that 

not be suffi cient for the world’s needs. With this came growing inte

in urban and regional planning, an important new application 

cadastres.

• In the 1980s the earlier focus on land widened to include issue

environmental degradation, sustainable development, and social eq

All of these issues have tempered short-term economic imperat

Planning has broadened to address community interests and deta

9 Lisa Ting and Ian P. Williamson, “Cadastral Trends: A Synthesis,” The Australian Sur

4, no. 1 (1999): 46-54, URL: <http://www.sli.unimelb.edu.au/research/publications/

CadastralTrendsSynthesis.html>, accessed 25 September 2007.

Figure 6. Old Cadastral Map of District 7, Kabul, Afghanistan. Source: EMG.
and land use has fueled a market for multipurpose cadastres

Satellite imagery has for decades been the primary way the U

ernment (USG) has answered the “where” and “what” questions, tha

it has tracked conventional adversaries and identifi ed their num

strength, for example, when it monitored Warsaw Pact T-72 tank re

during the Cold War. Today’s adversaries are not conventional ar

nameless, tenacious, and adaptive individuals who trump superior U

tary power “by refusing to mass together and by submerging them

urban seas.”10

To date the USG has invested little in collecting or creati

related information that can answer the ‘who’ question, for exam

is behind poppy cultivation, ethnic cleansing, or attacks on United 

(UN) peacekeepers. Open source and human intelligence collection 

deliberately sought to associate a personal name with a property. N

traffi ckers, warlords, and insurgents fi nance their destabilizing an

activities with wealth, wealth that oft en is tied to land property. Th u

ses made with layers of cadastral data would likely increase the a

USG policymakers to deal proactively with non-conventional foes 

world crises. An intervening military force, emergency humanita

and long-term nation-building all require an understanding of wh

interests have been aff ected by natural disasters or warring factions

In its booklet, Land and Confl ict: a Toolkit for Intervention, 

Agency for International Development (USAID) aptly notes the 

relationship between land and confl ict and also the crucial role of land 

istration in post-confl ict and post-disaster reconstruction and stabi

People have fought over land since the beginning of recorded 

history. Population growth and environmental stresses have 

exacerbated the perception of land as a dwindling resource, 

tightening the connection between land and violent confl ict. 

Land is oft en a signifi cant factor in widespread violence and is 

also a critical element in peace-building and economic reconstruction in post-confl ict situations.11

10 Ralph Peters, “Out-Thought by the Enemy,” New York Post, 1 June 2007, UR

www.nypost.com/seven/06012007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/out_though

enemy_opedcolumnists_ralph_peters.htm>, accessed 24 September 2007.

11 USAID Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, “Land and Conflict: A 

Intervention” (Washington, DC: USAID, 2005), URL: <http://www.usaid.gov/our_w

cutting_programs/conflict/ publications/docs/CMM_Land_and_Conflict_Toolkit_A

pdf>, accessed 24 September 2007. 
6 |

lems. It provides USG offi cials responding to high-profi le international 

ses a framework to assess land-related confl ict, factors to consider w

developing interventions, and suggestions on how to monitor and eval

those interventions. Th e Toolkit was soon followed in 2005 by the sign

of National Security Presidential Directive 44 (NSPD-44), Managemen

Interagency Eff orts Concerning Reconstruction and Stability. In concert 

current eff orts to implement NSPD-44, this book outlines the relevanc

cadastral data to determine, and to achieve, desired political outcomes 

post-confl ict and post-disaster areas. 

Th e book consists of eight chapters. Chapter 2 considers the relat

ship of land to confl ict. Chapter 3 identifi es the risks to stability pose

rapid urbanization and unresolved refugee plights, drawing from the r

gee situation six years into Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Chapter 4 m

the case that collection and analysis of cadastral data are crucial to 

dicting threats to regional stability, world peace, and national soverei

expected of strategic intelligence. Chapter 5 examines the security of 

tenure in the developing world and the role of cadastres in reconstr

ing post-confl ict countries, most notably in Afghanistan. Chapter 6 p

ents the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM), a likely fi rst ste

an internationally recognized standard for a cadastre. Th e author’s M

2007 research trip to Afghanistan convinced him that the LADM’s fl exib

for capturing both Western-style, registered land rights and the custom

informal land rights and interests typical of the developing world mak

worthy of adoption as, or to serve as a model for, a cadastral data rep

tory. Chapter 7 identifi es training in land administration as the founda

for a coordinated whole-of-government eff ort to address land-related 

ses. Chapter 8 recommends how and why cadastral and land administra

expertise should be incorporated into USG R&S capabilities for a new di

tion in U.S. foreign policy. 
CHAPTER 2: 

Land and Confl ict

Land confl icts appear at all geographical scales and take 

forms. Th e March, a futuristic novel about mass migration turned in

British fi lm, explores racial and political tensions that emerge when 

change forces millions of Africans to march en masse to the coasts of 

It was not for economic gain or for political asylum, but for sheer su

the story, a perplexed European Union Commissioner, trusted to n

with the march’s organizer, Isa El-Mahdi, is dumbfounded when the 

declares the marchers’ intentions to major media outlets: “We bel

when we stand before you, you will not let us die. If you don’t help 

we will all die. You will be forced to watch how all of us die and may 

merciful to us all.”12

In the years since the making of the fi lm, misery on the Afri

tinent has descended to a point so abysmal as to make the novel’

William Nicholson, wonder if he had penned fi ction or not. In 1

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) originated the 

Development Report, also known as the Misery Index, to measure a 

growth not by economic fi gures, but by statistical profi les of its pe

what they can expect from life. In the 2000 UNDP Human Deve

Report, 30 of the 35 countries at the bottom of the index were sub

African nations.13 Among the factors the index examines are the a

ity of schools, clean water, and medical care, and whether all citi

play a role in politics, governance, and justice. Although these fa

related to human well-being, one major agent of social stability e

prominent in Th e March tends to be overlooked: the paramount 

ship between land and people. Th e social-legal-economic-cultural s

of this relationship, in its variety of expressions, must be questione

tigated, and understood.

12 The March, starring Malick Bowens and Juliet Stevenson, directed by David 

British Broadcasting Company, 1990, based on a novel by William Nicholson.

13 Barbara Crossette, “Misery Index of U.N. Panel Finds Africa Is Worst Off,

Times, 5 July 2000, URL: <http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/07050

html>, accessed 13 June 2007.
8 |

Land is the place of all shelter, in the city, the town, the village, and the home. It is the source of food, of materials 

for construction and manufacture, of coal, gas and oil, of 

springs and rivers and other essentials for life. Indestructible, 

immovable, it is the foundation of all human activity. Houses 

and factories, forests and farms, river roads and railways, 

mines, quarries, and reservoirs are all fashioned from the 

land. It off ers endless opportunities for development and 

discovery. It is the source of all wealth.14

In this speech, delivered on the eve of WWI, Sir Charles Forte

Brickdale, Chief Land Registrar of Great Britain, lauded the bountiful fr

of the land secured by a century of peace in Europe. Due in no small mea

to the growth of good governance during the 19th Century, when citi

were granted security of land tenure, Western Europe and North Ame

advanced from agricultural to industrial societies. Th e Industrial Rev

tion saw not only a preponderance of factories, but also the ascendanc

classical liberalism. Noted for its defense of free economic markets and 

political thought, classical liberalism also advanced private property rig

Th e principal advances in liberal land reform in the United States occu

with the Homestead Act (1862) and in Canada with the Dominion Lands 

(1872), both of which granted free frontier land to settlers. Th ose who b

on the property and lived there at least fi ve years were promised even

freehold titles. Hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe, who n

could have dreamed of becoming landowners in the “Old Country,” t

advantage of the Acts’ provisions and laid the foundation for the econo

vitality of North America’s heartland. Th e good governance responsible 

the prosperity that justifi ed Brickdale’s laudatory description of the 

resulted from secure land tenure made possible by a century of burge

ing legal frameworks, democratization, industrialization, and commerc

Western nations.

Most developing countries never experienced an industrial rev

tion, one of the key ingredients to the progress Brickdale hailed. Instead

developing world was rushed, in the 1980s and 1990s, into a neo-liberal 

nomic market by globalization, that is, by the rapid convergence of busi

practices skewed toward the patterns long established in developed co

14 Cited in United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Working Par

Land Administration, Social and Economic Benefits of Good Land Administration,” 2d ed., Ja

2005 (London: HM Land Registry on behalf of UNECE WPLA), 5.
Figure 7. The Sahel. Source: LTC Francis A. Galgano, A Geographical Analys

Un-governed Spaces.

tries. Th roughout the developing world, people face grave uncertain

and threats to, their land: legal ambiguity, corruption, poor governa

of enforcement, competing claims, armed landgrabbers, and even 

ments bent on arbitrary eviction or expropriation of private prop

land. Such threats to property rights, says Timothy Frye, can exp

underdeveloped countries remain underdeveloped, even following 

infusions of foreign aid: landless people “have little incentive to e

productive economic behavior.”15 It has become clear in recent y

secure property rights anchor economic development. Noted ec

Hernando de Soto claims that rule of law defi nes the relationship 

land and people and that formalized property rights bring social ord

land rights are accessible and formalized, properties can be easily c

exchanged or inherited using protected, aff ordable, legal means. 

owners, and their countries, then prosper.

“Th e relationship of people to land is fundamental to 

existence.”16 So begins a 2005 United Nations Economic Commi

Europe (UNECE) Working Party on Land Administration pub

15 Timothy Frye, “Credible Commitment and Property Rights: Evidence from Rus

ican Political Science Review 98, no. 3 (August 2004): 454.

16 United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Working Party on Land A

tion, Social and Economic Benefits of Good Land Administration,” 2d ed., January 200

HM Land Registry on behalf of UNECE WPLA), 4. Cited hereafter as UNECE WPLA, 

Administration.
10 |

Such a system can

• Guarantee ownership and security of tenure

• Be the basis for land and property taxation

• Provide security of credit

• Guarantee the result of judicial procedures relating to land rig

including rights of repossession of land

• Reduce land disputes

• Develop and monitor land and mortgage markets

• Protect state lands

• Facilitate land reform

• Promote improvement of land and buildings

• Facilitate reliable land use records

• Improve urban planning and infrastructure development

• Support environment management

• Produce statistical data as a base for social and econo

development

From this UNECE list, it is clear that good land administration b

fi ts all: state and local governments, the business community, and indivi

and family property owners.

Land Confl ict Catalyzes Crises

Th e dissolution of the former Soviet Union markedly changed 

global geo-political landscape, ushering in an era, typifi ed by Afghanis

where failed states pose more of a threat than does an adversarial su

power. In his 2007 Th reat Assessment, the U.S. Director of National Int

gence (DNI) stated that “globalization is contributing to confl icts, instab

and reconfi gurations of power and infl uence” and that “violent confl ic

a given state, as we see in Africa today, can swift ly lead to massive hum

tarian tragedies, and potentially, regional wars.”18 While the internati

community is aware of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Karol Boudre

a senior research scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason Uni

sity, points out what is less well known: “much of what underlies the c

17 UNECE WPLA, Good Land Administration, 6.

18 John D. Negroponte, “Annual Threat Assessment of the Director of National Intellige

report to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Washington, DC, 11 January 2007, 

<http://intelligence.senate.gov/070111/negroponte.pdf>, accessed 26 January 2007.
entire African continent.

All across Africa, from the Sahel [a large swath of land at 

the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert] to Congo, tens 

of thousands of people are at war. You might think these 

struggles are about religion, or ethnicity, or even political 

diff erences but oft en you’d only be partially right. In a great 

many of these African struggles people are fi ghting their 

neighbors, they are not fi ghting because the neighbor worships God in a diff erent way or has a diff erent set of genes. 

Rather, they are fi ghting because this is the only way left 

open to them to determine who “owns” which fi eld, or who 

has what rights to graze animals, or who should control the 

revenue from the mineral wealth below people’s feet.20

Crises Catalyze Land Confl ict

Not only do disputes over land trigger major crises; they 

eff ects of world crises. History is replete with examples of how w

natural disasters have prompted large human migrations. Yet, eve

absence of armed confl ict between warring groups, each year o

lion people are dispossessed piecemeal. Th is large-scale human m

known as forced evictions, escapes media coverage and therefore 

attention. Because land is so fundamental to human existence, its lo

ultimate catastrophe.

Few experiences are more harrowing than being forced from 

one’s own home. Every year many millions of people are left 

with no other option than fl eeing their homes, lands and 

properties against their will. Whatever the cause, displacement is always nasty, always brutish, but all too rarely is it 

short. Millions of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons 

(IDPs) who desperately want to return to their original 

homes are unable to do so because restitution rights are 

not treated with due seriousness by relevant authorities and 

international actors.21

19 Karol Boudreaux, “Property Holds Africa’s Answer,” Enterprise Africa! 23 S

2005, URL: <http://www.enterprise-africa.org/publications/pubid.2449/pub_d

accessed 8 January 2007. Cited hereafter as Boudreaux, “Property Holds Africa’

20 Boudreaux, “Property Holds Africa’s Answer.”

21 Scott Leckie, “New Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights,” Force

Review, no. 25 (May 2006): 52.
12 |

ing international human rights organization campaigning for the protec

of housing rights and the prevention of forced evictions. Th e tenth edi

of the COHRE Global Survey22—based on information received from ev

ees, the media, and from an expanding global network of contacts, inclu

individuals, grassroots groups and other organizations—informally rep

4.3 million forced evictions from 2003 to 2006. Th e real number, curre

unknown, is much higher. Over 95 percent of these evictions occurre

Africa (nearly two million) and Asia and the Pacifi c (over 2.1 million)

indication and warning of the nature, extent, and pervasiveness of the p

lem. Forced evictions, covered in the COHRE Global Survey, occur most 

ibly in situations of armed confl ict and ethnic cleansing, or in their aft erm

but also as a result of development projects, discrimination, urban rede

opment schemes, government delineation of parklands, and so forth. 

22 Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions COHRE, “Global Survey on Forced Evict

2007, URL: <http://www.cohre.org/view_page.php?page_id=10>, accessed 10 May 2007

Figure 8. A Result of Violence on the Outskirts of Johannesburg, South 

Africa. Source: Agence France Press.
or customary property rights have for centuries secured the tenure 

homes and fi elds, cannot challenge the results of forced evictions 

formal, documented property records exist or these are not ma

Once uprooted, they migrate from rural areas to cities or from city 

During the 1990s, the world’s urban population grew by 36 

At the turn of the last millennium, 924 million people lived in s

estimated 1.4 billion will do so by 2020, and 3 billion by 2050.23 Th 

urbanization of the world brings mounting disaff ection to the slum 

borhoods.24 “Th e increasing polarization of cities caused by ne

globalization is providing many conditions that are ripe for extr

civil and military violence.”25

Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai foresees the coming urban 

of increased rural-to-urban migration, calling it an “implosive fo

folds into neighborhoods the most violent and problematic reper

of wider regional, national and global processes. Furthermore, d

persons have migrated to numerous city-scale refugee camps for 

lion people worldwide, creating a new phase in the life of cities, w

concentration of ethnic populations, the availability of heavy weapo

the crowded conditions of civic life create futurist forms of warf

where a general desolation of the national and global landscape h

posed many bizarre racial, religious, and linguistic enmities into s

of unrelieved urban terror.”26

An Increasing but Ineff ectual International 

Response

In April 2006, Refugees magazine carried a photograph of wh

on the surface, like a normal day at the beach. A bikini-clad woman 

bare-chested male companion sit on the sand with a cooler of cold 

shielded from the sun by a large umbrella. Further down the beach

person lies on the sand, fully clothed. Th e third person’s repose is s

contorted, unnatural.

23 United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), Millennium 

ment Goals/Overview, 2001, URL: <http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=2

=312&typeid=24&subMenuId=0>. Cited hereafter as UN-HABITAT, Millennium De

Goals/Overview.

24 World Bank, Urbanization, 2007, URL: <http://youthink.worldbank.org/issu

ization/>, accessed 10 September 2007. 

25 Manuel Castells, cited in Cities, War, and Terrorism: Towards an Urban Geopoliti

phen Graham, ISBN 13: 978-1-4051-1575-9 (Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishing, 20

26 Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, vol. 

Worlds Series (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 152-153.
14 |

Refugees (UNHCR), Angelina Jolie, in a subsequent issue of Refugees, lam

that the couple in the photograph cannot “see the stark reality lying a few y

further up the beach. An immigrant or a refugee, sprawled across the san

dead. We’ll never know who he was or why he ended up there, and the co

on the beach apparently couldn’t care less. It is a pretty sad picture.”27

If only time would stand still, perhaps the global community co

focus on one geographic region at risk or a single development issue 

bring about the desired results. However, since the end of the Cold W

the accelerated dynamics of high birth rates in the developing world, ru

to-urban migrations, and globalization impede such efforts. For exam

to recognize the dire circumstances of the world’s urban poor in the 

2000, the UN made a Declaration on Cities and other Human Settlem

in the New Millennium. Among the UN Millennium Development G

is Target 11 Goal 7: “by 2020 to have achieved significant improvem

in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.” Trends in popula

patterns suggest this worthy goal, even if it were attainable, would be n

27 Angelina Jolie, “Solving the Global Refugees Crisis,” Refugees, October 2006, 

<http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/4523cb392.pdf>, accessed 14 November 2006.

Figure 9. The Corpse of a Would-be Migrant or Refugee on a Mediterrane

Beach. Source: Refugees Magazine, No. 142, p. 4-5 (2006), <http://www.unh

org/publ/PUBL/44508c182.pdf>.
population will increase from 924 million in 2001, to 1.4 billion 

and to 3 billion by 2050.28

Th e plight of the world’s dispossessed have recently gained th

tion of the international community. Months aft er the 2004 tsu

Southeast Asia, the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights app

new set of “Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for R

and Displaced Persons,” also known as the Pinheiro Principles. “

of the principles is to provide international standards governing o

most basic entitlements for the survivors of a humanitarian disa

restitution of property.”29 Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a UN special Rap

on Housing and Property Restitution, for whom the principles are 

off ers his insight: 

Th e best solutions to the plight of millions of refugees and 

displaced persons around the world is to ensure that they 

attain the right of return freely to their countries and to 

have restored to them housing and property of which they 

were deprived during the course of displacement, or to be 

compensated for any property that cannot be restored to 

them. It is the most desired, sustainable dignifi ed solution 

to displacement.30

Th e DNI’s and the UN’s concerns about regional instability ar

by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG, for Fédération 

tionale des Géomètres). Th is non-government organization (NGO

close to the situation on the ground, engages in land dispute resol

anticorruption, in transparency measures regarding land resource

land access for the poor. FIG-affi liated land surveyors and land 

trators, chiefl y from European countries, have an impressive trac

of partnering with development organizations, private sector, civi

organizations, and education/research institutes to bring about su

development. Willi Zimmermann, an international land policy adv

25 years’ experience with the German foreign aid organization Ge

für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), explained at the 2006 Inter

Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Congress:

28 UN-HABITAT, Millennium Development Goals/Overview.

29 Conor Foley and Ingunn Sofie Aursnes, “Land, Housing and Property Restit

Conflict: Principles and Practice,” Humanitarian Exchange Magazine (December 20

<http://www.odihpn.org/search_results.asp?page=3&searchtext=&keyword=Confli

e=Humanitarian+Exchange+Magazine®ion=>, accessed 10 January 2007. Cite

as Foley and Aursnes, “Principles and Practice.”

30 Foley and Aursnes, “Principles and Practice.”
16 |

warranting global cooperation and action.... Th ere is grow

ing recognition of the threat to international security posed 

by failed and fragile states.... As globalization and interdependence increase, the threats posed by fragile and failed states 

intensify. Th e international community has a practical and a 

humanitarian responsibility to take coordinated action and to 

tailor specifi c international development eff orts to halting or 

reversing their decline.31

Th e international community is increasingly aware of the n

between people and land, at all scales from parcel-lots to national territ

and also between land and confl ict. People and their land are so interloc

that the dissolution of that tie both causes, and is caused by, major cr

International eff orts to address land issues are increasing but cannot k

pace with the problems. Unless the ruptures in, and threats to, the relat

ship between people and their land are addressed, the crises involving 

rights and usages will overwhelm all international aid, development 

grams, and post-confl ict reconstruction and stability eff orts. As will bec

clear in subsequent chapters, new tools are available to meet this prodig

threat to peace and stability.

31 Willi Zimmermann, “Good Governance in Land Tenure and Administration,” p

TS.71-02 presented at the 23rd FIG Congress Shaping the Change, 8-13 October 2006 (Mu

Germany). Cited hereafter as Zimmermann, 2006 conference paper.
CHAPTER 3: 

Land Related Crises in Afghanist

In his March 2003 plea, “Don’t Forget Afghanistan,” former N

congressman and vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp recognized 

nifi cant role of land and property rights in rebuilding Afghanista

lamented the residual power of warlords and the surge in opium cu

that perpetuates lawlessness and fi nances a resurgent Taliban. 

Whatever happens in Iraq, the United States cannot aff ord to 

neglect or forget about Afghanistan. Th at is why we believe 

that a 21st century Marshall Plan for Afghanistan and the 

region is required, which would provide not only fi nancial 

aid, but also assistance in setting up the infrastructure of democratic capitalism. And, I can think of no one better suited 

to advise [Afghan President] Karzai on bringing empowerment, private property and the rule of law to Afghanistan than 

Hernando De Soto, who has helped so many other nations, 

from his native Peru to Egypt, establish private property rights 

and leverage them as collateral for capital creation. If we can’t 

get it right in Afghanistan, what hope will we have in Iraq?32

Kemp’s prescient remarks about the role of property rights, ma

to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, deserve a closer look. His affi nity for 

is telling. A Peruvian economist who currently runs the think tank 

for Liberty and Democracy, De Soto is famous for championing r

property rights and for coining the phrase “dead equity.” Dead equ

value of informally owned properties, potentially billions of dollars f

a country, locked away because such properties cannot be sold. As 

pal concern, he argues that the legal processes that regulate propert

be simplifi ed and made transparent, and that formalization of prope

ership can set developing countries free from their perpetual cycle

erty, i.e., constant dissipation of any generated capital. 

De Soto has won widespread praise for his work, but Kemp’s 

tive endorsement of his economics is more optimistic than most 

assessments. Nevertheless, Kemp identifi es a glaring defi ciency in 

32 Jack Kemp, “Don’t Forget Afghanistan,” Foundation for Defense of Democra

Copley News Service, 4 March 2003, URL: <http://www.defenddemocracy.org/in_t

in_the_media_show.htm?doc_id=160048>, accessed 11 February 2007.
18 |

reconstruction essential for the U.S.-led Global War on Terror, but the 

bility and credibility of the U.S. with its multilateral, international partn

most notably the UN and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a

stake. Th e lessons learned from inadequate solutions applied to the Afg

situation should alert U.S. policy makers to retool U.S. government (U

policy and capabilities to deal eff ectively with the future social and econo

upheavals that will fall on populations far greater than Afghanistan’s 

mated 32 million.33

Returning Afghan Refugees

From 1990 to 2006, Kelegay, Afghanistan was an empty, dusty p

the site of an old Soviet military base with an abandoned village of bro

walls cutting across untended fi elds. But, since 2006, frantic construc

has been going on as Afghan laborers have built high-walled compou

and fl at-roofed houses from mud and straw. Th e building boom began w

the entire population of a ruined village, that had been called Naseri C

Kapa, came back that summer aft er 26 years as refugees in Pakistan. Bec

of their increased numbers as a new generation, they occupied governm

land well beyond their original village and fi elds, up to and over the ne

road. And, within a week, the returned villagers began dividing up the land 

33 Central Intelligence Agency, “The World Factbook” (Langley, VA: Central Intellig

Agency (CIA), 2007), URL: <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factb

geos/af.html>, accessed 2 July 2007.

Figure 10. Afghan Walled Compounds. Source: Dr. Gregory Maassen, EMG.
Haji Abdul Jabar, who is building a large compound that will house h

and those of his seven brothers. But, the provincial authorities say the 

have seized the land illegally. “When these families broke the law and 

land, now everyone wants to grab land,” complained Imamuddin H

chief Government of Afghanistan (GoA) refugee and repatriation o

Baghlan Province.

Th e return of Afghan refugees over the last four years, and the

to adapt and to survive, has been one of the real successes of the inter

intervention and of President Hamid Karzai’s government. Since th

Figure 11. Afghan Refugees in Pakistan, 2001. Source: Photo 

courtesy of Luke Powell, http://www.lukepowell.com. 
20 |

from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.34 Th is is a remarkable turnaround, g

that a quarter of the 1980 Afghan population of 24 million fl ed the country

Th e observations of Conor Foley, a consultant to human rights and 

ugee organizations, add more urgency to solving land-related refugee m

ters. As the story of the Kelegay returnees demonstrates, while each refu

return can be touted as a sign of success, without a land policy and a 

administration system to register land rights and interests-ownership, 

todianship, and use—each wave of returnees has the potential to destab

areas once thought stable.

Continued fi ghting and human rights violations mean that 

many other Afghans remain internally displaced, oft en 

occupying other people’s lands. Th e looting and destruction caused by war was recently compounded by severe 

drought, which devastated much of the countryside over a 

four-year period. Disputes over land and property remain a 

signifi cant cause of internal tension in Afghan society. Th e 

inability of the courts to deal with these problems is also 

having an extremely destabilizing eff ect. A recent report by 

the independent Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit 

described land disputes as the “number one source of confl ict” in Afghanistan today.35

Th e resettlement and reintegration into society of Afghan refugees

4.7 million repatriated since 2002, plus the three million currently un

pressure from Pakistan and Iran to return home, has become a decades-

humanitarian eff ort unprecedented in its scale. In addition to the mill

of refugees, there are around 250,000 internally displaced persons (IDP

Afghanistan. Without clear defi nitions of who is and how long one rem

an IDP, the international community’s cited successes at refugee repa

tion will ring hollow when “people who have fl ed their homes in refugee

circumstances, but who have not crossed an international frontier rec

no such aid. Th e practical implications of this failure continue to be fe

Afghanistan and elsewhere across the world.”36 Foley states why land o

ership in Afghanistan is starkly inequitable and, consequently, a signifi 

34 Carlotta Gall, “Afghans, Returning Home, Set Off a Building Boom,” The New York T

30 October 2006.

35 Conor Foley, “Afghanistan: The Search for Peace,” Minority Rights Group Internat

November 2003, URL: <http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=45>, accesse

April 2007. Cited hereafter as Conor Foley, “Afghanistan: The Search for Peace.”

36 Conor Foley, “Afghanistan: The Search for Peace.”
and dependent. 

Returning refugees and IDPs oft en fi nd themselves entangled 

in property disputes, are unable to reclaim their property or 

simply fall victim to extortion rackets run by local [militia] 

commanders. In the ethnically divided northern provinces 

in particular, where Kabul’s authority holds little sway over 

powerful regional warlords, this is one of the most signifi cant 

factors hindering return. No clear regime for managing land 

rights exists. Th e unorganized land registration system, the 

large number of missing title deeds, and the fact that disputed 

land has oft en been sold many times over, makes it very diffi cult to determine who owns what.37

Prior to the 2007 forced repatriations of Afghan refugees 

Iran and in Pakistan, Institute of Peace and Confl ict Studies resea

cer Srinjoy Bose presaged that a fl ow of refugees back from Iran a

stan into Afghanistan was likely to exacerbate social and economic p

within Afghanistan. Moreover, refugees without a home or means to 

themselves could join the Taliban either out of resentment or merel

vive.38 Habibollah Qaderi, of the Afghan Ministry for Refugees and R

tion, emphasizes that to be sustainable, refugee returns must be v

informed, gradual, and linked to secure access to shelter, water, job

facilities, and education. Th e short-term humanitarian assistance to 

ees has been commendable. At a time when many NGOs in Afghan

tired and face dwindling donor support, long-term development p

remain pressing needs. “Good governance, respect for human rights

rule of law are not ‘optional extras’ when it comes to rebuilding a 

but an intrinsic part of the process of reconstruction.”39 Th e specter 

million additional Afghan refugees under pressure from Pakistan an

go home bodes ill for this volatile region. 

Kabul: Victim and Catalyst of Land Crises 

As evidenced by the current U.S. immigration debate, million

ple are on the move and settling, legally or not, in urban and pe

areas of the world at an accelerating pace. Many migrants from ru

37 Conor Foley, “Afghanistan: The Search for Peace.”

38 Srinjoy Bose, “Afghan Refugees in Pakistan: An Uncertain Future,” New Delh

Peace and Conflict Studies, Report SAP20070226342002, 23 February 2007.

39 Conor Foley, “Afghanistan: The Search for Peace.”
22 |

seemingly bring only the clothes on their backs, but each also brings soc

cultural, political, and economic “baggage” to the city. “What fi rst was inv

ible, when mixed into the urban cauldron of competing and antagonis

ethnicities, economies, and powers, can suddenly become incendiary in 

venue laden with human tender. Indeed, urban areas are now the lightni

conductors for the world’s political violence.”40

Th roughout the developing world, the tremendous growth of citi

such as Lagos and Mexico City, has induced multifarious social, politic

and economic troubles. Since late 2001, when the repressive Taliban regim

was ousted from Afghanistan, Kabul’s population has increased by 230 p

cent in fi ve years, from 1.5 million to approximately 5 million, becoming o

of the world’s fastest growing cities.41 Kabul’s rapid urbanization, much o

informal and haphazard, has many causes: a severe drought, unemployme

fi ghting and insecurity, rural land disputes, and land-grabbing by the po

erful. Returning refugee youth unfamiliar with agriculture but very fam

iar with urban life (most refugee camps have electricity, running water, a

healthcare) currently fl ock to the cities.

40 Stephen Graham, Cities, War, and Terrorism: Towards an Urban Geopolitics, ISBN 

978-1-4051-1575-9 (Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 7.

41 USAID, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, “Shelter and Settlements Upda

Afghanistan” (Washington, DC: USAID, October 2006). Cited hereafter as USAID, “Shelter a

Settlements,” 3.

Figure 12. Informal Dwellings Built on Kabul Hillside. Source: Dr. Gregory 

Maassen, EMG.
Figure 13. Change Detection Imagery of Kabul, Afghanistan. Source: NG

Office of Science and Methodologies, Methodologies and Evaluation Division

A B

C D

a. Landsat Enhanced Th ematic Mapper-7 image from 2001

b. QuickBird multispectral image from 2007. Downsampled 

sat resolution. Copyright 2007 DigitialGlobe License: NextView

c. 2001-2007 change image. Large-scale changes are visibl

image; blueish color objects are new since 2001. Note the large co

the center.

d. QuickBird Pan-sharpened multispectral image from 2007

sampled to Landsat resolution. Copyright 2007 DigitialGlobe 

NextView.
24 |

During the same period, however, the physical size of Kabul

mapped in a 1978 master plan, expanded by only 65 percent, leading 

signifi cant increase in population density. Kabul now ranks with other So

Asian megalopolises in population density, thus the accompanying ine

ties in land and property rights factor heavily into reconstruction and 

bility success. Houses in Kabul are overcrowded, with an average of 2.5 

households in each single dwelling space (USAID 2006).42

With Kabul’s population density over 200 persons per hectare (

acres) or 80 persons per acre, if current trends continue, its residents 

not experience many of the anticipated peace dividends. Basic indicato

human welfare place Afghans among a handful of the world’s most hun

destitute, illiterate, and short-lived people. Th e country ranks 173 out of 

countries in the 2004 UNDP Human Development Index, competing 

a few devastated African countries for last place. Afghan women suff er 

highest rates of illiteracy and the lowest standards of health in the wo

42 USAID, “Shelter and Settlements,” 4.

Figure 14. Comparative Average Population Densities in Built-Up Areas 

in 51 Metropolitan Areas Create an arrow pointing to line of the graph for 

Kabul. Source: Alain Bertaud, Order Without Design, 2003. http://alain_bertaud.

com/.
under 18 years old) and few employment prospects.43

Nigel Allan, Professor Emeritus of Geography at University of 

nia-Davis, has witnessed fi rsthand the exponential population exp

Afghanistan and wonders where the surplus population will go. Wh

did the fi eld research for his dissertation in 1970, Afghanistan’s po

was estimated at 12 million to 14 million. He decries the current 

total fertility rate (TFR, the total number of children that women 

the ages of 15 and 44 or 49 can expect to bear in their lifetime, given 

rent fertility rate) as horrifi c. Replacement TFR is 2.1. At this rate, a c

population remains the same. TFR for Caucasian Americans is 1.7, 

as France; for Hispanic Americans it is 2.7. In Afghanistan, the TFR 

Afghanistan at the moment is spewing out humans at 

an alarming rate and has been doing so for a number of 

decades because infant and child mortality has been greatly 

reduced by inoculation programs. While justifi ed as a great 

humanitarian project, nobody ascertained what the eff ect of 

reduced mortality would be on future generations and the 

population/resources equation. Rural to urban migration is 

the norm in the less developed world. For Afghans, ruralto-urban migration is a positive force. Th e land cannot support the huge population-and never will.44

Landlessness due to poverty, land occupied by opium-cultivat

lords or squatters, land made inaccessible by mines and unexplo

nance, clashes between Taliban militants and GoA forces, and parc

that can no longer sustain livelihoods are reasons why returnees h

tled in Kabul’s slums rather than their ancestral homes. Inexorably 

Kabul in search of job security and social cohesion, returnees witho

rity of land tenure in their former pastoral lands fi nd their new exi

informal urban slums equally untenable for an equivalent reason. N

less, they stay. 

Among other impediments, land tenure insecurity threatens t

mine the achievements of post-confl ict, stabilized Afghanistan, 

43 USAID, “Shelter and Settlements,” 4.

43 Barnett R. Rubin and Humayun Hamidzada, “From Bonn to London: Govern

lenges and the Future of Statebuilding in Afghanistan,” International Peacekeeping 

(February 2007):20.

44 Nigel J.R. Allan, USA, Professor of Geography Emeritus, University of Californ

e-mail interview by the author, 16 May 2007.
26 |

a legitimately elected president, a progressive national constitution, a 

press, and a host of new schools. No doubt improvements have been m

but they are dwarfed by the increased demand for essential services 

infrastructure in the rapidly growing cities, Kabul especially. Th e invis

ity of anxiously awaited improvements heightens the disparities between 

haves and the have-nots. Rubin notes: 

Figure 15. The Author Chats with Youths in Herat. Fifty-seven Per Cent of 

Afghans Are Under Age 18. Source: Author.

Figure 16. Regional Total Fertility Rates (TFR). An evident, inverse correlatio

exists between affluence and a lower fertility rate, as reflected by the locatio

dense lines of communication (in red) and corresponding TFRs. Source: Offic

the Chief of Navy Reserve, http://navyreserve.navy.mil.
17. Gasoline for Sale for Use in Private Generators. Source: Dr. Gregory M

EMG.

A major economic issue that is aggravating relations between 

Afghans and the international community is the supply of 

electricity to Kabul. As the city’s population expands toward 

fi ve million (up from 2.3 million in 2001), Kabulites today 

have less electricity than they did fi ve years ago. While foreigners and the rich power air conditioners, hot water heaters, 

high-speed internet, and satellite TV with private generators, 

average Kabulites are now ending a summer without fans, and 

fearing a winter without heaters.45

Th e Conditions of Land Crises in Afghanistan 

Glance

In 2006, the Geographic Research Branch of the U.K. Defen

graphic Centre summarized how decades of chaos have aff ected the 

ship of people to land in Afghanistan.46

• Th e present legislation on land tenure in Afghanistan is 

uncertain and incomplete. Land relations in Afghanistan h

45 Barnett R. Rubin, “Still Ours to Lose: Afghanistan on the Brink,” written testi

ate Foreign Relations Committee, Washington, DC, 21 September 2006, 7. Cited h

Rubin, “Still Ours to Lose: Afghanistan on the Brink.”

46 U.K. Defence Geographic Centre, Geographic Research Branch, “Summary of 

ership in Afghanistan,” (Middlesex, U.K.: October 2006).
28 |

been interpreted diff erently by successive administrations; there

identifying the current law is a challenge. 

• Stark inequalities in land ownership, ethnic confl ict over land ac

and mismanaged land reforms by the state have generated 

sustained confl ict over the past 25 years. 

• No clear regime for managing land rights exists and, by default, m

management functions have fallen to the courts, which handle 

bulk of land disputes. With instability and coercion by warlords 

the last decade, land rights management and dispute resolution 

credibility in many areas. 

• Most rural Afghans regulate their land ownership relations customa

without using offi cials or courts. Customary sector management o

a strong foundation, but is rife with practices that favor wealthier e

men, and dominant ethnic groups. 

• Th e rules addressing who may own land in Afghanistan an

what circumstances vary depending on the type of land un

consideration. 

Foley, likewise, captures both the chaotic nature of land confl ic

Afghanistan and how the absence of rule of law and civil institutions 

impediments to sustainable development:47

• Houses have oft en been destroyed or occupied by others, and t

“secondary occupants” may themselves have been driven from t

homes. 

• Offi cial records proving ownership may have been destroyed, or w

never entirely accurate to begin with. 

• Ownership and transfer documents are oft en forged. 

• People may have been compelled to “sell” their land or property un

duress.

• People who have lived in a particular place for years may not hav

offi cial title, because it was in the form of social ownership or 

recognized through customary law. 

Priorities for Addressing Afghanistan’s Land Crises

Th e challenge is daunting and of a higher order. Similar to the lo

levels of human needs in Maslow’s hierarchy, lower level nation-buil

needs must be addressed to bolster progress on higher levels. Th e autho

Th e Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building emphasize that the fi rst-order 

47 Conor Foley, A Guide to Property Law in Afghanistan, 1st ed. (Oslo/Pakistan/Afghan

Norwegian Refugee Council (Flyktninghjelpen), 2005), 204.
ian assistance. Th ey propose the following priority of nation-buildi

starting with the most urgent:48

1. Security: peacekeeping, law enforcement, rule of law, and 

 sector reform 

2. Humanitarian Relief: return of refugees and response to 

 epidemics, hunger, and lack of shelter 

3. Governance: resuming public services and restoring 

 administration 

4. Economic Stabilization: establishing a stable currency and p

 a legal and regulatory framework in which local and inte

 commerce can resume 

5. Democratization: building political parties, free press, civil soc

 a legal and constitutional framework for elections 

6. Development: fostering economic growth, poverty reduct

 infrastructure improvements 

Th e above activities need not be accomplished sequentially. If 

funding is available, they can and should proceed in tandem. But 

urgent priorities are not adequately resourced, investment in less urg

no less important) ones is likely to be wasted.49

Addressing the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, Presid

asked Congress for $10.6 billion in more aid for Afghanistan for 2

marily to increase security. A quarter of this aid, a good $2.6 bill

go largely to building an electrical power distribution system—on

cent of Afghans now have dependable electrical power—and to cons

roads.50 Th e bulk of the 2007 aid package attends to the more urge

while at the same time recognizing that long-term economic deve

requires a legitimate, non-narcotics-based economy and land tenure 

based on the rule of law. In parallel, a corruption-free public adm

tion in the form of credible and effi cient institutions will have to ma

resettlement of returned refugees. Hence, the diffi culties of the peo

48 James Dobbins, Seth G. Jones, Keith Crane, Beth Cole DeGrasse, The Beginne

Nation-Building, ISBN 978-0-8330-3988-0 (Arlington, VA: RAND Corporation, 2007), 

hereafter as Dobbins, Jones, Crane and DeGrasse, The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-B

49 Dobbins, Jones, Crane and DeGrasse, The Beginner’s Guide to Nation-Building.

50 Elaine Shannon, “Can More Aid Save Afghanistan?” Time, 26 January 2

<http://www.time.com/time/printout/0.8816.1582650.99.html>, accessed 18 Ap
30 |

relationship are intertwined at all stages: from registering the familial 

cel lot to controlling State lands and cross-border activities. Even abr

the botched diplomacy with Iran over reception of the tens of thousand

deported Afghans nearly resulted in the sacking of Afghan Foreign Min

Rangin Dadfar Spanta in June 2007. Th us, the linchpin for the success o

foreign aid projects in Afghanistan is law and order. 

Afghanistan expert Barnett R. Rubin foresees a multi-year, perh

decades-long, transition from customary law to civil and state law. Ke

aware that a lack of law enforcement undermines the basic legitimacy of 

government, Rubin, from his 2006 travels in the country, recognizes 

“the only capacities for dispute resolution and law enforcement that a

ally exist in much of Afghanistan consist of informal or village counci

mullahs who administer a crude interpretation of sharia. Community l

ers complained constantly about judicial corruption. Many demanded 

implementation of sharia law, which they contrast not to secular law, bu

corruption. During the years required for [judicial reform] the only gen

alternatives before Afghan society will be the enforcement of such custom

or Islamic law, or no law.”51 Th e avowal of community decisions and in

tives is in concert with Jalali and Grau’s assertion that if Afghanistan 

51 Rubin, “Still Ours to Lose: Afghanistan on the Brink,” 10.

Figure 18. A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). Source: U.S. Department o

Defense.
ment of civil (tribal, community) leaders.52

De Soto’s Proposal: A Viable Solution? 

As Afghan and foreign experts address land tenure matters, 

be looking for a remedy to Afghanistan’s broader problems. Conside

hearty endorsement of Hernando De Soto’s poverty alleviation st

Would De Soto’s advocacy of land reform—amending laws currentl

with local customs of understanding and dealing in land, and re

ing land registration systems that are not within reach or useful to 

majority of a country’s citizens—work in Afghanistan? Although 

has won wide acclaim for his work, most notably from former Presi

Clinton, he has been criticized for off ering a silver-bullet solution 

countries’ complex tribulations. In the case of Afghanistan, this c

commendable because a single solution may not fi t its myriad lan

issues. Th e application of his principles in diff erent parts of the wo

yielded uneven results. In some countries, De Soto-like ideals play o

tifully and bring about prosperity; in other places, his reforms are in

or even destabilizing. Ben Cousins and Donna Hornby detail diffi c

South Africa’s experiment with reforms advocated by De Soto: 

Renowned economist Hernando De Soto says he has found 

an answer to global poverty. “Let’s give poor people individual titles to the land so they can access credit, loans, and 

investment, and transform it into live capital,” he once said. 

Powerful words by an expert whose ideas have been packaged and peddled all over the developing world by international development agencies. In South Africa, where land 

ownership is a controversial issue, the notion of providing individual title to land previously owned through customary or collective land rights has become fashionable in 

development circles. Th is approach, trumpeted by De Soto, 

is intended to “capitalize the poor,” as in the West where 

every piece of land is documented as part of a vast legal 

process that endows owners with the potential to use it as 

collateral or capital. Land titling in South Africa has engendered strong opposition from NGOs, social movements, 

and some land rights experts. Why aren’t they celebrating 

52 Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester W. Grau, Department of the Army, “Puttin

Dumpty Together Again” (Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Foreign Military Stud

December 2001), 1.
32 |

oversimplify the complexities of informal economy and 

land rights... Th is approach can actually weaken land rights 

and marginalize vulnerable people.53

A boon to some, perilous to others: the truth about the value of i

vidual land titling in developing countries lies somewhere in between

study conducted in Argentina determined that individual land titles can h

positive eff ects, even if the prosperity De Soto envisions is not an im

diate result. Galiani and Schargrodsky, of the Stanford University Ce

for International Development, found a modest but positive eff ect of 

titling on access to mortgage credit, but no impact on access to other fo

of credit. Yet, “moving a poor household from usufructuary land rights to 

property rights substantially increased investment in the houses.”54 M

over, land titling reduced the fertility of the household heads, and the p

ence of extended family members. Also, these smaller families invested m

resources in the education of their children. 

In sum, “entitling the poor increases their investment both in the ho

and in the human capital of their children, which will contribute to red

the poverty of the next generation.”55 While secondary and tertiary eff 

from individual land titling, such as smaller, better educated families, 

disappoint De Soto devotees, such results would be welcome in Afghanis

a nation struggling to emerge from decades of confl ict and devastation. 

Th e Housing, Land, and Property Rights Triad 

Th e year 2007 marks the fi rst time in human history that the num

of city dwellers surpassed the world’s rural population. In Afghanistan

capital city, Kabul, the destination of millions of repatriated refugees 

IDPs, is the most visible urban area in the developing world grappling 

rural-to-urban migration. Hard-pressed to absorb these numbers, much 

any of the remaining three million refugees who face an uncertain futur

neighboring countries, Afghanistan is the 21st century proving ground 

approaches to reconstruction and stability. De Soto’s reforms may certa

constitute part of the solution to Afghanistan’s land crises and commu

needs. But his larger theories must yield, when necessary, to those cultu

53 Ben Cousins and Donna Hornby, “Land Rights: De Soto Solution Not for South Af

Business Day, 13 January 2007, 1.

54 Sebastian Galiani and Ernesto Schargrodsky, Property Rights for the Poor, Working P

#249 (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Center for International Development, 2005): 30. 

hereafter as Galiani and Schargrodsky, “Property Rights for the Poor.”

55 Galiani and Schargrodsky, Property Rights for the Poor, 30.
omy, anchors for sustainable development in Afghanistan. Foley el

“Th e issue of housing, land, and property (HLP) rights should be co

as one central, but interlinked component of a process of nation-b

Perhaps a central lesson from Afghanistan is that a ‘one size fi ts all’ a

to HLP is rarely likely to be successful at the national level. It is e

instead, that those involved in designing and implementing HLP rig

grams have a clear understanding of the cultural, social, and politica

in which they are working.”56

Even though land issues do not have the urgency that other sh

humanitarian crises do, resolving land confl icts can address both lo

and short-term needs and can foster stability in Afghanistan. In the 

ing chapters, it will become apparent that lack of a land administra

tem that registers multiple (shared or even competing) rights and 

in land—as opposed to private property rights—may be the decid

tor between success and failure for the international community’s 

investment in Afghanistan. 

56 Conor Foley, Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights in Afghanistan (Centr

ing Rights and Evictions COHRE, in press 2006), 31, URL: <http://www.cohre.org>

5 April 2007. Cited hereafter as Foley, Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights.

CHAPTER 4:

“Foreign Intelligence is Geography

— Jerom

Recent U.S. Intelligence Failures

Numerous books, all critical, most scathing, some commi

but few perceptive, have appeared in recent years to bemoan a litan

Cold-War U.S. intelligence failures, diplomatic blunders, alienated a

enraged adversaries. Th e terror attacks of September 11, 2001, pro

mammoth reorganization and consolidation of 22 separate agencies 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003. Th e 16 agencies co

the IC, since 2005 under a single Director of National Intelligence, 

laborate on the basis of “responsibility to provide” as opposed to the 

“need to know.” And technological advances such as the Wiki-inspir

lipedia allow analysts to add personal insights to an ever-increasin

gate of information. Years before the September 11th attacks, and da

the East African Embassy bombings that foreshadowed them, Joh

cited unfamiliarity with the Kosovo Liberation Army and total stup

at Indian nuclear tests as evidence that the Intelligence Community 

replete with information-saturated Know Nothings.57 U.S. intelligen

were, and still are, too skewed toward technical solutions to decipher 

tural currents of foreign shores.

A decade ago Hillen wrote that “the U.S. is unusually clueless o

it really must know, such as what stands to happen in post-Suharto 

sia, the security of Russia’s nuclear weapons (and scientists), China’s in

about virtually anything outside its borders, Japan’s economic and trad

egies, or the state of the North Korean regime.”58 Dobson refl ects on 

“quagmire,” noting that U.S. “policy makers did not take culture—Sh

Sunni Arab, and Sunni Kurd—adequately into account in post-war plan

57 John Hillen, “Know Nothings: U.S. Intelligence Failures Stem from Too Much In

Not Enough Understanding,” National Review 50, no. 14 (3 August 1998): 1. Cited h

Hillen, “Know Nothings.”

58 Hillen, “Know Nothings,” 2.
36 |

Iraq.”59 Iraq is but an example of how “the United States is now a mighty gl

power crippled by abysmal ignorance of its vast global domain.”60

A list of geopolitical concerns for 2007 might be headlined by a p

Musharraf Pakistan, Iran’s nuclear capabilities and intentions, Hizbollah

facto state-within-a-state infl uence in Lebanon, China’s economic inv

ments in Panama and Africa, and the consequences of a unilateral declara

of Kosovar independence. And those are concerns in the governed reg

of the world. Th inking geographically about the large, porous, ungover

regions, devoid of political control, presents a greater challenge still. 

western provinces in Pakistan, portions of Lebanon and Yemen, wide sw

of South America (Amazonia) and Africa, the Sahel and the Horn, par

the southern Philippines, several Indonesian islands, Chechnya, and r

Myanmar are outside eff ective government control and thus can be aff e

severely by humanitarian disasters and ethnic confl ict. “Th ese regions 

defi ned by endemic imbalances in the distribution of wealth, stagge

health problems, fragile political systems, regressive social systems and 

enfranchised youth susceptible to the lure of extremism. Th ey contain e

potential for either positive growth, or catastrophic failure,”61 which is 

they should be of particular concern to the IC.

59 Jerome E. Dobson, “Foreign Intelligence Is Geography,” Ubique — Notes from the A

can Geographical Society (AGS) 25, no. 1 (2005): 1-2. Cited hereafter as Dobson, “Intelligen

Geography.”

60 Dobson, “Intelligence is Geography.”

61 Francis A. Galgano, “A Geographical Analysis of Un-Governed Spaces,” The Pennsy

Geographer 44, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2006): 72.

Figure 19. The Arc of Instability Encompasses the Least Affluent Regions of 

World. Source: Office of the Chief of Navy Reserve, http://navyreserve.navy.mil.
Academe

Dobson recalls the fi rst half of the 20th century as a time when th

of American foreign policy could not have been accomplished withou

phers. In the aft ermath of the “War to End all Wars, U.S. President W

Wilson believed that America would lead the world in peace through 

and economic, rather than military means. Wilson called on a disti

geographer, the Harvard and Yale educat

Bowman, to help frame American for

icy at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. 

Wilson’s plight is especially instructive

years, America had practiced isolation

one in government—not even the offi 

analysts of the Department of State or 

Intelligence—was ready to analyze fore

ligence or face sophisticated Europea

tiators. Wilson, scholar that he was, re

his problem as being geographic and 

the AGS for help. AGS director Bow

Th e Inquiry, a massive analysis of fore

ligence staff ed by 150 scholars from g

and other disciplines. Th eir task wa

lect and analyze the information tha

be needed to establish a “scientifi c” 

war’s end. As part of Th e Inquiry, the 

responsible for draft ing Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points, on

most reassuring and eff ective policy statements ever writte

Wilson and the American delegation left for France, Bowm

with them. On arrival, Bowman pulled off an amazing bur

coup, and Wilson decreed that analysts from the Department 

Military Intelligence, and Central Bureau of Statistics would 

him through Bowman. In January 1919, AGS geographers 

tographers turned out more than 300 maps per week based 

graphic analysis of Th e Inquiry’s massive data collections 

language, ethnicity, resources, historic boundaries, and oth

nent information. America’s delegation became the envy of Ve

62 Jerome E. Dobson, “Bring Back Geography!” ArcNews Online by ESRI, Sp

URL:<http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring07articles/bring-back-geogra

html>, accessed 18 July 2007. Cited hereafter as Dobson, “Bring Back Geography!

Figure 20. Isaiah Bowman. 

Source: American Geographical 

Society.
38 |

would have found geographers, especially political geographers with expe

on foreign areas, wanting. Th at was hardly the case. Th e focus of geogra

until about 1850 was celestial navigation. Charles Darwin’s theories of ev

tion revolutionized geography; the discipline increasingly catechized the 

tionship between land and people. By the turn of the 20th century, the “Hey

of Ivy League Geography,”63 America’s fi rst professional geographers, like t

European counterparts, held fast to the prevailing theory of environme

determinism. Simply stated, environmental determinism postulates that ph

cal geography, including climate, at a minimum infl uences people or, accor

to some, even determines mentalities and cultures. Tropical climates disp

inhabitants toward sloth, for example, while the harsher weather of the mi

latitudes leads to perseverence, and to social and industrial progress. Th e t

ry’s Darwinian “survival of the fi ttest” tenet is obvious. 

Th e environmental deterministic works of Friedrich Ratzel, a Ger

geographer who invented the term “Lebensraum” (“room for living”), w

infl uential in stoking the arms race of Imperial Germany. Ratzel’s 1875 

of the American Midwest acquainted him with the positive infl uence G

man immigrants had had as a fertilizing element on the culture of the ne

settled frontier. Th e aggressive, “Übermensch” or superior man ideo

of Nazi Germany came not from Ratzel, but from Karl Haushofer and 

Geopolitik or German geostrategy. Haushofer, a former military attach

Japan and a WWI general, became a geography professor at the Unive

of Munich, where future Deputy Reichsführer Rudolf Hess was his stud

As founding editor of the Zeitschrift für Geopolitik, the “Magazine of G

politics,” he so infl uenced geographers in Japan that a school of geopol

modeled aft er Haushofer’s was established there. Haushofer helped craft 

WWII German-Japanese alliance; he committed suicide in 1946. Th e e

ronmental determinism that charged Geopolitik became the bedrock, 

of Adolf Hitler’s bellicose speeches, and later of his horrifi c foreign po

Haushofer proff ered a scientifi c justifi cation of Geopolitik: 

As an exact science, Geopolitik deserves serious consideration. Our leaders must learn to use all available tools to 

carry on the fi ght for Germany’s existence—a struggle which 

is becoming increasingly diffi cult due to the incongruity 

between her food production and population density . . . 

Germany must emerge out of the narrowness of her present 

63 Richard Wright and Natalie Koch, Geography in the Ivy League (Hanover, NH: Dartm

College, in press 2007), 5, URL: <http://www.dartmouth.edu/~geog/dc_geo_AG_WGI1.h

accessed 15 July 2007. Cited hereafter as Wright and Koch, Geography in the Ivy League.
iarize ourselves with the important spaces of settlement and 

migration on Earth. We must study the problem of boundaries as one of the most important problems of Geopolitik. We 

ought to devote particular attention to national self-determination, population pressure, living space.64

In later life Bowman’s views, especially as a co-architect of the UN

ited probabilistic, as opposed to deterministic, geographical thought. Th 

pean Union, adding ever more member states, is a half-century tes

for regional cooperation among naturally competitive polities. Neve

immediately aft er German capitulation in 1945, Geopolitik fell into 

as a bizarre Nazi pseudoscience responsible for 70 million deaths. A

quickly distanced itself from environmental determinism, the theor

Geopolitik, and, in the U.S., quite inexplicably, associated geography a

with Nazism. Lacking alternative operable theories to environmental d

ism, scholars then berated geography for being poorly defi ned, and fo

work having been done by non-geographers.65 Dartmouth College g

professor Richard Wright and Harvard University graduate studen

Koch explain a trend that began in 1948 when Harvard, soon followed 

ford, Yale and other leading universities, closed its geography departm

Th e reasons behind these terminations vary around themes 

of weak faculty and the discipline’s uncertain intellectual 

terrain. Th e adverse fi scal context faced by institutions in 

the aft ermath of World War II probably made things worse. 

Increased demand for practical education and the attack on 

environmental determinism was particularly devastating for 

the future of geography in the Ivy League universities, which 

increasingly emphasized the importance of theory and held 

technical instruction in low esteem. In contrast, geography 

departments in the land-grant colleges of the Midwest prospered in this environment. Because these universities were 

designed in part to support the Midwestern agricultural economy and serve the broader public, they welcomed the applied 

elements of geography.66

64 Andreas Dorpalen, The World of Haushofer: Geopolitics in Action (New York: Farr

hart, Inc., 1942), 28.

65 Wright and Koch, Geography in the Ivy League, 8.

66 Wright and Koch, Geography in the Ivy League, 7.
40 |

ies and political science curriculums. Th ese newer disciplines oft en lack a 

tial component. Widespread disdain for geography as an applied, rather 

a basic, science saw geography replaced in many universities by urban p

ning, which is far more applied, pragmatic, and arguably vocational. No

these contradictions, Dobson, incredulous that any discipline could be so d

tically punished for its alleged shortcomings, acclaims geography as much m

than its recent consignment to leisure travel and photo journals popularize

National Geographic: 

Geography is more than you think! Geography is to space 

what history is to time. It is a spatial way of thinking, a science with distinctive methods and tools, a body of knowledge about places, and a set of information technologies 

that have been around for centuries. Geography is about 

understanding people and places and how real-world places 

function in a viscerally organic sense. It’s about understanding spatial distributions and interpreting what they mean. 

It’s about using technology to study, in the words of the 

late professor J. Rowland Illick, “why people do what they 

do where they do it.” Geography is a dimensional science, 

based on spatial logic in which locations, fl ows, and spatial 

associations are considered to be primary evidence of earth 

processes, both physical and cultural. Its hallmarks are spatial analysis, place-based research (e.g., regional, area, and 

urban studies) and scientifi c integration.67

Recovering Geography in the 21st Century

Fift y years ago the launch of the Sputnik satellite caused widespread al

but also presented a tangible objective for American foreign policy. Th e ad

sarial Soviets had seemingly surpassed the U.S. in rocket and, by implica

missile technology. To recover from the shock and embarrassment, Cong

passing the National Defense Education Act, infused federal money into K

teacher education and built a pipeline leading students from phonics to un

sity degrees in math and science. In 1969 the U.S. won the space race agains

Soviets to put a man on the moon. 

Th e challenges facing the U.S. in the 21st century as the world’s sole su

power are less technical but immensely more complex. Not only because hu

behavior is complex, but because yet another dimension to the battlespace 

67 Dobson, “Bring Back Geography!”
primordial to WWI, the battlespace was limited to the earths surface—

sea. “Control of the skies” or airpower proved to be decisive in the A

tory in WWII. In the late 20th century, from Sputnik to the Strategic 

Initiative “Star Wars,” the battlefi eld expanded into a third dimension

Th e Global War on Terror once again catches the U.S. behind its adve

operating in a fourth dimension, virtual space, not only in exercising 

command and control, but in promulgating ideologies. Vitriolic virtu

coverage of U.S. foreign policy missteps has cemented anti-Americ

ment in many corners of the world. Th e lack of a galvanized U.S. assert

positive international identity, one that might equate to Franklin’s Ro

casting of America as an “arsenal of democracy” in 1940, allows the e

ideologies to go unchallenged and worse, to be operationalized. Are fur

foreign policy embarrassments necessary to recover an understanding 

people do what they do where they do it?” 

In a century of transitions in warfare the real world has not bee

to see as the theoretical. Wars on the surface still go on. Confl icts in 

space continue. Th e venues of virtual warfare are so new that thos

defensive have been slow to respond if not completely overwhelmed. Th 

bilities aff orded by new technologies have been diffi cult to absorb and 

advantage, altering the very concept of what is national security. 

Th e increasing aff ordability of the Internet and other virtual t

gies has greatly increased communications in the developing world. 

phone provider Vodaphone recently took over half of the telephon

for the Republic of the Congo and off ered monthly service for as low 

user. Now a street vendor making $8 a day can aff ord a telephone. S

other technologies have dramatically dropped in price, making their 

sible in areas without electricity. Another example now available w

is the global positioning system (GPS). In affl uent countries, driv

been thrilled to see prices of these systems drop from thousands o

to $300 in less than a decade, all the while with improved real-ti

fi c reports and voice commands. Simpler GPSs, but with laser poin

surveying capability, are available to users at prices that make them 

employ even by the poorer states.

Using inexpensive GPS surveying tools, governments and in

can produce cadastral maps that tell residents, farmers, shop owners, 

ers exactly where their properties are in relation to goods and servi

kets, and transportation nodes. Using Geographic Information Scien

they can even record details as to the uses of the land and the various 

it—geology, drainage, crops, soils, economic use, affi liation of the ow
42 |

basis not only of business intelligence decisions, but of peoples ways of life. 

allows better understanding of a culture, its customs and norms regarding 

use, property ownership, and the development of the local infrastructure. 

Attorney and former U.S. military attaché offi cer Geoff rey Demarest 

tends that foreign policy decisions, whether related to counter-narcotics, co

ter-terrorism, economic aid, nation-building, and so on, are ill-founded w

not informed by intelligence regarding the ownership of real property. M

over, the link between the existence of formalized property and internal p

is direct and substantial. Th e implication for the Intelligence Community (I

compelling. In addition to economic, political, and military intelligence, th

must expand its product line to include property intelligence.68

Foreign Intelligence is Geography. As taught in university-level regi

geography courses, open-source geography off ers an untapped intellig

bonanza. Once transformed into property intelligence, open-source geo

phy, such as property information, can potentially predict the course of 

violence, determine the eff ectiveness of an opium eradication campaign, 

uncover heretofore hidden familial, fi nancial, and organizational ties of n

state actors, the murky adversaries in the Global War on Terror. 

Aft er all, the scale of danger presented by an individual or 

organization is somehow commensurate with their material 

wealth....Th e leaders of the Colombian FARC or of Al Qaeda 

manage considerable wealth and defend territory by secrecy 

and force. If secrecy of ownership were unavailable to them, 

and their wealth and sanctuaries exposed, then their ability to 

use violent force would be insuffi cient to keep them from losing power. Such leaders are well aware of this fact....Th ey are 

careful to protect the lack of records and confi dentiality of the 

wealth that the lack of a formalized property system assigns to 

them. Not only can we take their wealth away, it will lead us to 

them. It is their Achilles heel.69

Demarest adds that property, as a subject of study, provides a 

between law and geography. U.S. intelligence collectors, analysts, and po

makers, historically indiff erent to details of property ownership, with new 

applications can exploit property ownership data to refi ne national intellig

68 Geoffrey Demarest, Property & Peace: Insurgency, Strategy and the Statute of Frauds, r

for the U.S. Army, Foreign Military Studies Office (Ft. Leavenworth, KS: Foreign Military St

Office, 2007), 80. Cited hereafter as Demarest, Property & Peace.

69 Demarest, Property & Peace, 53.
Figure 21. Old Cadastral Records Overlaid onto Commercial Satellite 

Image of Current Parcel Boundaries, and Figure 22. A Matching Property Deed—Tying a Name to a Place. Source: EMG.
44 |

because the object of ownership, and of most armed struggles is, aft er a

place. It is simultaneously the link between economics and strategy, asses

and addressing internal confl icts, allowing precise assignment of relative v

to territory.”70

Foley, prescribing remedies for the international community to unta

the 40-year impact that tribalism, communism, Islamic theocracy, and now 

lure of a free market economy has successively had on land and propert

Afghanistan, rightly concludes, “send money, guns, and lawyers.”71 Th e U

sending money and guns to Afghanistan and elsewhere, but very little in 

way of legal, social, and land administration experts because such deploy

expertise resides neither in the ranks of USG foreign aid workers nor in un

sities that prepare students for foreign service and international developm

careers. Although the U.S. is affl icted by a dearth of foreign geographic kn

edge, there are signs of change, beginning with the military forces. Dob

in one-on-one conversations with General David H. Petraeus, commande

the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), has suffi cient reason for optimism 

geography’s indispensable role in war and peace will not be relegated to the p

General Petraeus “holds a doctorate in international relations from Princ

University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Aff airs, 

he’s every bit as smart as you’ve heard. His innate sense of geography co

through in his 14 observations from soldiering in Iraq. Observation num

nine says, ‘Cultural awareness is a force multiplier,’ and he adds, ‘knowl

of the cultural ‘terrain’ can be as important as, and sometimes even m

important than, knowledge of the geographic terrain.’”72 Dobson’s in

action with General Petraeus indicates that infl uential leaders can mo

their impressions of geography. 

70 Demarest, Property & Peace, 9.

71 Foley, Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights, 30.

73 Dobson, “Bring Back Geography!”
Geographic Information System 

Intelligence Preparation of the Environment is the graphical an

the enemy, environment, and terrain for all types of military operation

the civilian counterpart, a visual depiction of a given problem’s geospa

ponents such as transportation networks, income distribution, dem

factors, land use, and property ownership. GIS has created a body o

able knowledge far greater in size than open-source textual data, but 

maturing of GIS, around the turn of the millennium, an assertion th

erty intelligence could inform policy makers as well as economic, poli

military intelligence, would have been viewed as fanciful. Michael F. Go

Professor of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, 

GIS as “a way of looking at the world, a lens through which the world 

as it is projected on the geographer’s screen...and access to a vast rang

lytic techniques that can test theories and hypotheses or search for patt

anomalies.”73 With the advent of MapQuest and Zillow, GIS applica

navigation and real estate valuations, respectively, it is no longer a pip

73 Michael F. Goodchild, “Geography Prospers from GIS,” Environmental System

Institute, Inc., April 2007, URL: <http://www.esri.com/news/arcwatch/0407/feat

accessed 1 August 2007. Cited hereafter as Goodchild, “Geography Prospers.”

Figure 23. Membership Soars in the Association of American Geograph

Source: Association of American Geographers. 
46 |

support foreign policy decisions. Goodchild continues:

Several recent advances in geospatial technology have truly 

caught the popular imagination, starting with wayfi nding sites 

such as MapQuest and progressing to today’s Google Earth, 

Microsoft Virtual Earth, and many more. People are now able 

to see their own houses and neighborhoods in a global context...People are better equipped to see the relevance of GIS in 

many aspects of human activity and to appreciate the power 

that GIS provides to government, the oil and gas industry, 

disaster management, law enforcement, the military, conservation, and a host of other sectors.74

Indeed, from a low point in the 1980s, GIS has not only revived the po

larity of geography as an academic discipline, but has become an indisp

able tool for other fi elds. According to Goodchild, GIS is taught in survey

civil engineering, computer science, anthropology, environmental science, 

many other disciplines, particularly on campuses with no department of g

raphy. Most GIS courses are off ered through departments of geography, 

geographers make up a healthy percentage of the global community of 

researchers.75 Th e resurgence of geography as a discipline is refl ected in 

10,000 members in the Association of American Geographers (AAG), a fi 

which has nearly doubled since 2000. 

Bowman Expeditions

Th e uniqueness of geography is epitomized in a new proposal by Dob

to dispatch place-based geographic research expeditions around the wor

project that has captured the attention and funding of the U.S. Army. Na

in honor of former AGS Director Isaiah Bowman, the fi rst Bowman Exp

tion, called the Mexico Indigena Project and led by Peter Herlihy, Asso

Professor of Geography at the University of Kansas (KU), in 2005-06 tr

the transfer of property from ejidos (a uniquely Mexican form of large l

holdings owned communally but cultivated by individual farmers) to pr

property (see Appendix A. Mexico Indigena Project Cycle). Dobson opines 

this project merely foreshadows what geographers can do to convey knowl

of foreign lands, establish relationships with indigenous peoples and ins

tions, collect unclassifi ed information, and build an open-source GIS that 

be employed by other investigators, regardless of discipline. It is but one rem

74 Goodchild, “Geography Prospers.”

75 Goodchild, “Geography Prospers.”
circles. Dobson recalls the genesis of the expedition.

I wrote a proposal suggesting that most of the missing knowledge about foreign lands is not secret, insider information that 

should be classifi ed. Th e AGS can send a geography professor 

and two or three graduate students to every country in the 

world for a full semester each year, with teams rotating on a 

fi ve-year cycle so that each country is understood by fi ve separate teams. I calculated a budget and was shocked myself to 

realize that the entire program would cost only $125,000,000 

per year, a pittance compared to what the IC typically pays 

for far less eff ective information. I circulated the proposal and 

found allies at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Th ey marketed the 

concept and funded a prototype for the larger concept that, 

ideally, would reach every country in the world. 76

An important part of a Bowman Expedition’s design is to al

investigator to choose a research topic for in-depth analysis. Professor 

research team chose land tenure and uncovered a revolutionary lan

comparable in magnitude to the land reform under the Mexican const

1917 that fi rst created ejidos. 

Th e Program for Certifi cation of Ejidal Rights and Titling of 

[parcels] (PROCEDE) began in 1993 as a Mexican government program to privatize the ejido lands. Lands that have 

been held communally for almost a century are being converted to private property on a massive scale. In a two stage 

process, each present occupant can apply for a certifi cate that 

does not imply actual ownership. Aft er one transfer, say when 

the farmer dies and the land passes to an off spring, the new 

holder can apply for an actual title. Henceforth, the parcel can 

be sold or used as collateral on a loan. Th e implications are 

staggering for about 90 percent of the more than 30,000 agrarian communities in the country where PROCEDE has already 

fi nished its work, now covering around 100,000,000 hectares 

or about half of Mexico’s land area and including millions of 

indigenous farmers.77

76 Jerome E. Dobson, “American Geographical Society (AGS) Conducts Fieldwo

ico,” Ubique—Notes from the American Geographical Society (AGS) 26, no. 1 (2006). 

after as Dobson, “Fieldwork in Mexico.”

77 Dobson, “Fieldwork in Mexico.”
48 |

Figure 24. Participants and Fig

25. Sketch Map of Parcels. Sou

Mexico Indigena. http://web.

ku.edu/~mexind/index.htm. 
Figure 26. Area Map. Source: Mexico Indigena.
50 |

perfect example of salient GIS information untapped by the IC. Th e 

Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection, b

on hometowns or origins of detained illegal immigrants where PROCE

has been enacted, could identify out-migration trends from Mexico 

enhance the deployment and eff ectiveness of border protection resou

While a comparative GIS analysis of the world’s various property regi

might be years away, the identifi cation of shortcomings or strengths on w

to base property rights revisions is attainable now. In fact, the Mexico I

gena Project had this very purpose in mind. All Bowman Expedition res

will be published in open literature, and GIS data will be available on-

because the goal is to inform not just the government, but also the gen

public via a new type of automated regional geography. Dobson announ

that a second Bowman Expedition received Department of Defense fu

ing to conduct fi eldwork in the Antilles, an unusual challenge with so m

island nations. Over three years, recipients of Bowman Expedition fund

the Antilles will include the following institutions and tasks:78

• Kansas State University has accepted primary responsibility for buil

and maintaining a multi-resolution, open source GIS database fo

entire Antilles Region.

• Virginia Tech will conduct a comparative analysis of water reso

issues in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. 

• Louisiana State University will focus on land-use and land c

dynamics as they relate to tourism, the dominant economic secto

the Leeward segment of the Lesser Antilles.

• Miami and Hofstra Universities will compare and contrast r

economic conditions, land use change, and job prospects in t

independent countries of the southern Lesser Antilles.

• Indiana University will conduct fi eld-based research to investi

the consequences of rapid urbanization in Trinidad and rapid co

zone tourism-related development in Tobago.

• Th e University of Kansas will coordinate the eff ort among particip

report to AGS, and interface onsite with the sponsor . 

Th e Bowman Expeditions are only an indication that future endeavo

collect and create cadastral data will not be the domain of central governm

alone. Not only are American academicians analyzing property data with 

78 Jerome E. Dobson, “AGS Bowman Expeditions,” The American Geographical So

(12 June 2007), URL: <http://www.amergeog.org/bowman-expeditions.htm>, accesse

June 2007.
tenure and incapacitated governments, are GIS-empowered to locally 

their land matters.

Community/Participatory Mapping

Th e International Land Coalition (ILC) is a network of intergov

tal, governmental, and civil society organizations that work to increas

tunities for the poor and disadvantaged to participate in decision

on land tenure security issues. For many rural communities, maps a

toward grass-roots empowerment for better land access and tenure 

Rural maps, in the experience of ILC’s partners, have many times incr

users’ capacity to advocate, lobby, plan, manage and monitor the territ

land-related dimensions of development activities in the mapped area

A prime example involved former combatants in the 1980-19

doran civil war, in which land tenure was one of the primary causes 

fl ict that claimed over 70,000 lives. When post-confl ict land transfers 

El Salvadoran government slowed, disaff ection rebounded. Th e gove

desire to expedite the land titling process resulted in joint land titles ra

the promised individual ones. “In that situation, everyone owns everyt

so no one owns anything.”80 No individual could get credit for loans 

the support of the entire group. Th e original land tenure confl ict in El 

remained unsolved until the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Eve

(CARE) enabled the community to decide how to divide the land i

vidual plots or into grazing or other communal use lands. With GPS 

laser beams to measure distances, the titling process became transpa

owned by the community. “Th ere was a lot of discussion,” said Roberto 

CARE’s GPS expert, “But once they could see the map, see what decis

were talking about, they were able to make those decisions.”81

Th e Salvadoran case demonstrates that community-produce

maps can be combined with GIS to go beyond the determination of 

rights (ownership rights) to include secondary use rights (access to 

land, water resources, fruit trees and forest) to regularize tenure and t

land confl ict. In the developing world, “a blend of statutory, custom

hybrid (formal or informal) institutions and regulations may co-ex

79 Stefano de Gessa, Participatory Mapping as a Catalyst for Rural People’s Empow

Overview of Experiences from the International Land Coalition (ILC) Network (Rome: In

Land Coalition (ILC), April 2006), URL: <www.landcoalition.org/pdf/mapping

accessed 25 September 2007. Cited hereafter as De Gessa, Participatory Mapping.

80 De Gessa, Participatory Mapping.

81 Douglas Farah, “Satellites Solve Salvadoran Farm Disputes,” The Washingto

July 1996.
52 |

confl icts, particularly in rural and remote areas, are multi-dimensional 

complex.”82

Geography as a Tangible Foreign Policy Tool

Geography, the discipline that buttressed American eminence in e

20th century world aff airs, suff ered a decline which contributed to po

makers’ inability to fathom that human confl ict springs from ruptures in 

relationships between land and people. Th e ethnic origins of post-Cold 

confl icts accentuate the signifi cance of geography in foreign policy mat

Geographic education at all levels in the U.S. should be bolstered, simila

the emphasis placed on math and science following the launch of Sput

Th eories of geography alone, however, are insuffi cient for decision-mak

On the other hand GPS and GIS tools, as employed in fi eld studies suc

the Bowman Expeditions and the ILC initiative, can encourage and imp

property rights, a most tangible objective for U.S. foreign policy. Both t

nological developments portend a recovery of geography, namely hum

geography, as a pillar of intelligence analysis. Th ere is an even more v

able tool to aid in broader foreign policy decisions, one that can capture 

multi-dimensional and complex sets of land rights and interests. Th at 

will be discussed in Chapter 6, but to appreciate its importance, basic p

ciples of land tenure must be understood, the topic of Chapter 5.

82 De Gessa, Participatory Mapping.
CHAPTER 5:

Securing the Land: Th e Pivotal R

of Cadastres in Nation-Building

In medieval Europe a king’s realm was his own. It was by the 

the king that his subordinate nobles and lords held property and t

Holding—not owning—the land implies a dependence upon the k

only for his continued permission, but for his protection from th

might try to seize the property. Th e Latin word tenere—to hold—f

basis of this arrangement, and serves as the root for tenant, tenem

tenure. Th ese words, like landlord, are so familiar that their origin

overtones have been lost.

In the modern West the tenant relationship no longer holds 

citizens and the State. Individuals may own their property indepe

the government, which normally has property holdings of its own, 

from privately owned property. Th is is the arrangement in Wester

tries, but across the world there are various patterns. In developin

tries the state may own all land, or it may have a laissez-faire polic

informal property rights—until foreign investors show interest in 

Common to every country, no matter the political or economic sy

matter whether industrialized or developing, is the notion of land 

one of the key concepts of this book.

Land tenure is the relationship, whether legally or cus

defi ned, among people, as individuals or groups, with respect to lan

tenure is an institution, i.e., rules invented by societies to regulate b

Rules of tenure defi ne how property rights to land are to be allocate

societies. In simple terms, land tenure systems determine who can 

resources for how long, and under what conditions.83

As opposed to English Common Law, four European Civil Co

ciples concerning property rights are: usus (to use, but not to fi nanci

efi t from), fructus (to enjoy the fruit of the land: sell crops, sublet

(alienation: the right to sell or transfer ownership), and accessio (

deceased persons). By rule of law, these principles form the legal 

cadastres and the registrations of land rights, which must be supp

83 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Land Tenur

Development, FAO Land Tenure Studies (Rome: FAO Publishing Management Service, 

Cited hereafter as FAO, Land Tenure and Rural Development.
54 |

or a parcel-lot graphic containing a geographic location, a parcel descrip

(e.g., measures and directions, plain text, metes and bounds, coordin

township subdivisions), and a designation (label, structured or sequent

identifying number).84 It may be useful to examine property rights by 

tinguishing three diff erent kinds:85

• Use Rights: (a combination of usus and fructus aspects) rights to 

and enjoy the land for grazing, growing subsistence crops, gathe

minor forestry products, etc.

• Control Rights: rights typical of custodianship, the right to m

decisions (chiefl y usus, seldom abusus) about how the land sh

be used, including deciding what crops should be planted, and 

should benefi t fi nancially (fructus) from the sale of crops, etc.

• Transfer Rights: typical of ownership, the right to sell or mort

the land, to convey the land to others through intra-commu

reallocations, to transmit the land to heirs through inheritance, an

reallocate use and control rights (accessio and abusus).

Th ere are other rights associated with property, but these three 

the chief ones. In a single tract of land these rights may be held by t

diff erent parties. Perhaps only in Switzerland is each registered indivi

property right guaranteed by the State; nevertheless, landowners and o

people who enjoy various rights to land still rely upon the state for enfo

ment of their property rights.

• Security of Tenure is the certainty given by a government th

person’s various rights to land will be recognized by others 

protected from violations.

Security of tenure is taken for granted in the West, but in many p

of the world, particularly in developing countries, millions of people 

the risk that their land rights will be threatened by others, and even 

as a result of eviction. Th e layers of complexity and potential for con

are compounded when, for example, the state suddenly claims owner

of land long held by people through custom and tradition. Offi cially, t

people are landless. But these “landless” poor care deeply about their p

erty. Even if not legally registered “people invest in turning a tin-sheet ho

into a concrete house and upgrade their properties. It does not matter 

84 Yaïves Ferland, “Geographically Informed Structures (GIS) for Cadastral Representa

paper presented at the 97th annual meeting of the Association of American Geogra

(AAG), 1 March 2001 (New York City, NY).

85 FAO, Land Tenure and Rural Development.
they hold the land informally without legally produced individual t

wealth of all of these poor people is tied up in their land and ho

Th us, the security with which people hold their lands is crucia

world’s landless poor. Ownership is not as great a concern, becau

most immediate worry is forced eviction, whether by the state o

party. Unfortunately, in the developing world time and expense o

and registering titles oft en undermine the goal of secure tenure for t

Th ese “land tenure policies confuse ‘ownership’ with ‘security of 

resulting only in delays in extending eff ective security of tenure”87 

who need it.

Consider, for example, Figure 28, which depicts a typical situ

a developing country. Imagine a well-watered valley. Every sprin

ily of herders do what their ancestors have done for centuries, br

86 Allan Cain, Urban Poverty and Civic Development in Post-War Angola of Pr

Peace Workshop on Future Swedish and Norwegian Development Cooperation with An

2002, URL: <http://www.angonet.org/article.ph?story=20061116174108871&m

t>, accessed 13 July 2007.

87 Ben Cousins and Rosalie Kingwill, “Land Rights and Cadastral Reform in Post

South Africa,” paper presented at the 9th International Conference of the Global S

Infrastructure (GSDI-9), 6-10 November 2006 (Santiago, Chile), URL: <www.gsdi9.

abstracts/TS26.4abstract.pdf>, accessed 24 July 2007.

Figure 27. In Kabul’s Informal Settlements Water Vendors Make Deliver

Homes without Running Water or Wells—or Security of Tenure. Source: A
56 |

fl ocks to pasture in the valley (Layer A in the Figure 28). In that same 

ley there are farmers practicing their ancestral livelihood (Layer B), w

honoring a longstanding verbal agreement, allow the herders water ri

every spring. Recently, a major drought forced a related ethnic group fro

neighboring country to settle in the valley. Th e government does not e

friendly relations with the neighboring country and considers these 

arrivals illegal squatters. Decades ago, unbeknownst to either the herde

the farmers, the newly emergent government laid claim to the entire va

as state domain (Layer D). Th e government never attempted to develop 

land until now, when a foreign mineral company notifi ed the governm

of a valuable resource in part of the valley, and negotiated a lease (Layer 

For each of these four parties a diff erent land right is at work.

Responses to tenure insecurity vary according to local context

the size and nature of land invasions and informal settlements; nati

political leanings; and pressures exerted by civil society, NGOs, and 

affected peoples. But overall, there are two main approaches to provid

security of tenure, different but not contradictory. The first, typica

Figure 28: Complexities and Conflicts Resulting from Different Types of Ten

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Land Tenur

and Rural Development, 3, May 2003.
conveyance of individual titles, but sometimes also based on pu

and private deeds. The second approach emphasizes an admin

or legal protection against forced eviction. Unlike complicated

sive, and time-consuming formal tenure regularization program

this approach security of tenure can be provided through simple 

tory and normative measures.88 Fourie lists some use and contro

which at a later stage, through incremental regularization procedu

be upgraded to freehold or long-term leases:89

• De facto recognition, but without legal status, such as an anti

measure

• Recognition of security of tenure, but without any form o

regularization (the authorities certify that the settlement w

removed)

• Provision of temporary occupancy permits

• Temporary non-transferable leases

Cadastre and Controversy

As mentioned in the Introduction, cadastres are systems of l

istration. In a nation where a war or a major catastrophe has displa

numbers of people, restoring those people to the land is a key pa

serious eff ort to reconstruct the country. Reconstruction attract

with a variety of viewpoints. Th ere are various competing theories o

tres and how to rectify a nation’s defective, fragmented, or non-exis

administration system. Regardless of the chosen method or interv

cadastre remains for post-confl ict planners the primary source of i

tion about the broad spectrum of formal and informal rights and 

in land. Such information includes:90

• People who have interests in parcels of land

• Interests in the land, e.g., nature and duration of rights, re

and responsibilities

88 Graham Adler, “Ownership Is Not a Priority among the Urban Poor: The Case o

Informal Settlements,” Habitat Debate UNCHS--The United Nations Centre for Human S

5, no. 3 (1999), URL: <http://www.unhabitat.org/hd/hdv5n3/viewpoint.htm>, ac

September 2007.

89 Clarissa Fourie, “Best Practices Analysis on Access to Land and Security of Tenure

South Africa: University of Natal, 1999), on-line information site of Dr. Clarrisa 

(previous last name Fourie), consultant for UNCHS, also known as UN-HABITAT, UR

www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Fourie+2B+Best+practices+analysis+on+acce

d+>, accessed 16 July 2007.

90 FIG, The FIG Statement on the Cadastre.
58 |

 improvements, value.

Despite their basic utility, cadastres are controversial today. “W

a land registrar writes down the name of an owner in a land book, 

land surveyor draws a boundary line on a cadastral map, it could be ei

the start of a prosperous economic development, or the overture to a 

confl ict.”91 Some critics say that a classical cadastre, a top-down, state

approach is best for economic growth because participatory, commun

level exercises are not recognized by higher-level planning authorities 

see the bigger picture. Others with a grassroots agenda insist upon a cit

cadastre, one that is participatory, aff ordable, and tenure-securing, that 

monizes informal and customary needs and norms with formal and st

tory needs and rules, without which a national land policy can neve

credible. Th e grave concerns and objections raised by some members o

international development community suggest that cadastral surveys ha

history of causing, rather than mitigating, confl ict and instability. 

Cadastres and land tenure reforms associated with them can be thr

ening, especially to parties who want to maintain a status quo that cem

their prestige, power, and profi t. Alain Durand-Lasserve and Lauren R

ton have no illusions that national decrees or new land policies alone 

vide security of tenure to the most marginalized of society: the poor, 

poorly educated, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and women. 

Slum organizers, political bosses and tribal chiefs can oft en 

view tenure regularization as eroding their privileged social 

and economic position. Municipal offi cials and ministries 

that exhibited near absolute power over land decisions do not 

easily give up control. Political sympathy for squatters is frequently low. Change, which improves the situation for some, 

will necessarily erode political, cultural, and/or economic 

power for others. For all these reasons and more, the process 

is oft en complicated, political and violent.92

True, cadastres can be used to nefarious ends. Confl ict is inevit

when outsiders, a category that includes regional or national governme

conduct or sponsor cadastral surveys supported by foreign investmen

91 Paul van der Molen and Christiaan Lemmen, “Land Administration in Post-Co

Areas,” paper presented at the 3rd FIG Regional Conference, 2004 (Jakarta, Indon

URL: <www.itc.nl/library/Papers_2004/n_p_conf/vandermolen_land.pdf>, accessed 

September 2007.

92 Alain Durand-Lasserve and Lauren Royston, Holding Their Ground: Secure Land Tenu

the Urban Poor in Developing Countries, ISBN 1853838918 (London: Earthscan Publica

Ltd., 2002), 241.
parties. Additionally, in many parts of the world, the very word 

smacks of ties to colonialism, increased taxation (perceived to ben

corrupt offi cials at the expense of sewer, water, electrical, transp

health, or other services), or to government attempts to expropr

from indigenous peoples. Th us, the neutral term of land administ

supplanting the word cadastre, especially in Europe. In reality, a ca

theoretically neutral. Th e problem in post-confl ict societies is that c

have been designed to serve the interests of governments and outs

ers, not the local people, who are usually poor. If a cadastre does n

local arrangements concerning the land, it is open to abuse, par

in post-confl ict countries. Cadastres in these situations should be 

to be fl exible, registering all land claims, including competing on

a comprehensive repository of land information, tenure decision

made effi ciently and equitably. Th e cadastre then becomes multi-

As the rebuilding nation develops the capacity to resettle refugees

cate land claims, and provide economic and other incentives to mai

cadastre, a key foundation of civil society takes root. 

In stable Western countries the cadastre refl ects the land po

the central government, and it falls at the bottom of a well-ordere

chy. At the top is the land management system, which develops a 

land policy and strategy. Th e land administration system, next in 

archy, implements the policy and strategy. Beneath that fall vari

systems: land tenure, taxation, utilities, and so forth. Finally co

cadastre, which records boundary lines, surveyors’ reports, land 

tion, and claims to land.93 Augustinus and Barry identify this as the 

tional approach to land management, an arrangement adequate 

stable countries. But, they argue, post-confl ict societies cannot fo

positivist model without incurring massive delay and expense and 

ing and exacerbating the land crises they are meant to address. Th 

cate a soft -systems approach, where the traditional top-down h

becomes adjustable according to ever-changing local needs. If tenu

are pressing, the land tenure system can be prioritized over land 

ment and land administration. If the local situation changes yet ag

other system can come to the fore.

For soft systems, a cadastre remains central, just as it is in 

ventional approach, but it should not be centralized. Th e tendency 

93 Clarissa Augustinus and Michael B. Barry, “Land Management Strategy Form

Post-Conflict Societies,” Survey Review 38, no. 302, ISSN 0039-6265 (October 2006

hereafter as Augustinus and Barry, “Land Management Strategy.”
60 |

the needs of a local settlement, then to take that model to a national l

and attempt to create a single overarching cadastral system that can 

every part of the country and take into account existing land policy

post-confl ict societies “land policy is being developed at the local se

ment [level]”94 and cadastres must record what is happening there and t

not wait for a national land policy to take shape. 

Th e Rural Lands Administration Project (RLAP) in Afghani

advocates a similar approach, patiently seeking in post-confl ict soc

the “empowerment of people at the local level to manage their land r

tions themselves.”95 Just as Augustinus and Barry advocate a soft syst

approach over a positivist one in post-confl ict societies, J. David Stan

of RLAP argues that the application of formal law to adjudicate claim

land through government offi cials consigns communities to a diminis

role, and even then only in the fi nal validation of fi ndings by outsider

the Afghan context, “where a local consensus exists about the rights pe

have to land, that local defi nition is the starting point to defi ne rights 

rules.”96 Furthermore, reasons Stanfi eld:

A community administration of property records is the 

place to start searching for answers. By “community 

administration” we mean the actual administration by 

community people of property records, and not a District 

Office of a central land registry receiving petitions for 

land information or for recording transactions, nor a 

District Office sending a team once in a while to communities to gather evidence of transactions. As in the case of 

land, people feel more secure in their documentation of 

their rights to land when they “own” their land records, 

that is, when they control access to these records. When 

this security exists people invest in the maintenance and 

usefulness of land records.97

94 Augustinus and Barry, “Land Management Strategy.”

95 Liz Alden Wily, Governance and Land Relations: A Review of Decentralisation of Land A

istration and Management in Africa, ISBN 1-84369-496-4 (London: International Institut

Environment and Development (IIED), 2003), 1. Cited hereafter as Alden-Wiley, Governanc

Land Relations.

96 J. David Stanfield, “Community Recording of Property Rights: Focus on Afghanis

paper presented to the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials 

Treasurers (IACREOT) 2007 Annual Conference and Trade Show, 19 July 2007 (Charlotte, N

Carolina). Cited hereafter as Stanfield, “Community Recording.”

97 Stanfield, “Community Recording.”
administration and management is fully devolved to the communi

is there likely to be signifi cant success in bringing the majority of la

ests under useful and lasting record-centered management.”98

Cadastres Help Rebuild Shattered Nations

One of the world’s poorest countries suff ered a devastating 

that ended in 2002 aft er nearly three decades. Th e war killed up to 

a half million people and displaced four million more, destroyed 

the country’s infrastructure, and left a deadly legacy of landmine

have maimed an estimated 80,000 people. When the confl ict ended, 

three percent of the arable land was under cultivation, two millio

were on the brink of starvation, and three million received direct 

tarian assistance.99

Th e country in question is surprisingly not Afghanistan, but 

In both countries, as humanitarian relief gives way to broad-base

opment, a national land policy is sorely needed. Th e laws currentl

books in Angola, based upon the outdated Portuguese colonial 

are inadequate to provide security of tenure. “Many of Land Law 19

21-C/92) provisions were not enforced and it soon became clear 

observers that the legal framework it provided was inadequate.”100

One agent for reform is Development Workshop (DW), an NG

ent in Angola since 1981 with “programs for shelter, peri-urban up

water supply and sanitation, microfi nance and small enterprise 

ment, peace-building, governance, and disaster mitigation.”101 Th e 

DW, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation

and a network of NGOs known as the Rede Terra helped pass 

amendments to the fl awed 1992 law. Th e 2004 Angolan Land Act 

09/04, with rights recorded in a new cadastre, provides some pr

from arbitrary evictions and government land expropriations prom

98 Alden-Wiley, Governance and Land Relations.

99 Conor Foley, Land Rights in Angola, (London, England: Overseas Developmen

2007). Cited hereafter as Foley, Land Rights in Angola.

100 Foley, Land Rights in Angola.

101 Developmental Workshop, Contributing to Poverty Reduction in Angola, 31 

2005, URL: <http://www.dw.angonet.org/>, under the keywords “poverty” and 

accessed 19 July 2007.
62 |

mercial interests that threaten traditional livelihoods, the Norwegian R

gee Council (NRC) in Angola educates a mostly illiterate population ab

their land rights under the new law. 

Another post-confl ict nation aided in its return to stability b

reformed cadastre is Cambodia. Th eir cadastre is a model for being at o

low cost, digital, and thoroughly integrated. Few countries’ needs ar

great as Cambodia’s.

Cambodians have suff ered through a tumultuous recent 

history, during which the rules for rights to land have 

been in constant fl ux.... Th e Khmer Rouge, which came to 

power in 1975, collectivized all land and destroyed all land 

records, including cadastral maps and titles. Th e right to 

own land was re-established in 1989.... In 1992, a program 

was initiated calling for applications for land tenure certifi cates to confi rm occupancy and use rights. More than 

four million applications were submitted, but only 15 percent of them had been processed due to limited capacity 

of government. A lack of national policies related to land, 

inadequate organizational structure, lack of educated professionals and equipment hindered and delayed establishment of land register.103

Th e trauma Cambodia suff ered included the gutting of its tec

cally trained workforce. Concerted international eff orts ultimately le

2002 to a Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) that t

local capacity and resources into account. Rather than professionally t

a cadastral staff for four or more years, LMAP mobilized 300 Cambod

and taught them for 18-36 months to become cadastral technicians. 

relatively short time LMAP implemented the fi rst Cambodian land regis

tion and multipurpose digital cadastre. It aspires to cover the entire cou

and issue seven million land titles in 10 to 15 years. 

Higher accuracy cadastral surveys for urban areas are conducted w

total station traverse, lower accuracy surveys with orthophotograph in

102 Conrad Hendry, “China’s Challenging Investment in Angola,” Hong Kong Trade 

Development Council (28 March 2006), URL: <http://www.tdctrade.com/imn/06032

investment037.htm.>, accessed 19 July 2007.

103 Pertti Onkalo, “Cadastral Survey Methodologies and Techniques in Developing C

tries; Case Cambodia and Kosovo,” paper TS-61presented at the 23rd International FIG 

gress, 8-13 October 2006 (Munich, Germany), URL: <www.fig.net/pub/fig2006/papers/t

ts61_02_onkalo_0318.pdf>, accessed 25 September 2007. Cited hereafter as Onkalo, “C

tral Survey Methodologies.”
improves their understanding of the cadastral surveys and, with 

lic posting of the cadastral index maps, reduces the number and 

of boundary disputes. “Accuracy cannot be a top priority, especial

rural areas where land values are low. Also for the buildings, high 

is not essential and sometimes even the location point could be en

In most parts of the developing world high registration fe

fordable to the poor, perpetuate informal, unregistered property 

tions. Th is, in turn, undermines the accuracy of a new cadastr

comes at no small cost anywhere in the world. Moreover, if the 

ment plans to fund the land registry from user fees, as is the case 

bodia, failure to convince landowners to use the cadastre for 

registration and subsequent transactions results in an overpriced

plete (and therefore useless) database. Cambodia’s LMAP has bee

cess: 15 years of substantial international and donor support has 

cost for registering a title low. In rural areas of Cambodia the regi

per parcel is $6.20; in urban areas $17.41, among the cheapest in t

(see Table 1). For an average of $8.74 per parcel, property registr

Cambodia includes title production, materials, and salaries, but no

ment and aerial photography.105

Country

Cost Per 

Parcel in

USD in 2006

Cambodia 8.74

Moldova 9.90

Peru (urban) 12.66

Kyrgyzstan 15.76

Albania 18.00

Armenia 18.02

Indonesia 24.40

Th ailand 32.80

Peru (rural) 46.86

Trinidad and Tobago 1,064.00

Latvia (sporadic) 1,356.00

Table 1. Average Cost Per Parcel in Systematic Registration in Develop

Countries. Source: Onkalo, 2006.

104 Onkalo, “Cadastral Survey Methodologies.”

105 Onkalo, “Cadastral Survey Methodologies.”
64 |

Finer spatial accuracies needed in urban areas of Cambodia can 

obtained at a later date, funded by user fees from the parties involved. S

larly, land disputes that needlessly hinder a cadastre’s completion can be 

istered as completing claims as part of the cadastral survey. A resolution 

come all the sooner when the dispute is made part of the public record.

Like Cambodia, Ethiopia changed radically in 1975. In this case 

government nationalized all rural land with the intent to distribute 

rights more equitably. Unfortunately, continued changes in tenure law

growing rural population, and a shortage of land have led to markedly i

cure land tenure for many. Th is has undermined investment in agricult

destabilized agricultural output, and contributed to land degradation.10

Cadastres have become an important element in rectifying Et

pia’s complex problems. Land Administration Specialist Lennart Bäckst

oversaw a three-year pilot in the Amhara region of Ethiopia in which a L

106 United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) World Resources, the United Na

Development Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, and the World Resources Institute (

The World Resources 2005--the Wealth of the Poor, 11, Ch. 3 (2005), URL: <http://multim

wri.org/wr2005/023.htm>. Accessed 31 March 2007.

Figure 29. 1:5000 Scale-Delineated Satellite Images. The boundaries of for

and pasture parcel boundaries have been delineated. Source: Terra Institute.
million cases of rights and interests in state-owned rural lands and 

1.3 million occupancy certifi cates. Th e extensive project included t

ing of 1000 District-level civil servants and 200 lawyers on the lega

surveying and mapping techniques, and property valuation and re

erty and user registries. A 2005 World Bank mission lauded the 

LAS for its transparency, the high degree of community participa

low cost of certifi cation. “Th e most important part to developmen

defi ne tenure security in user rights, but not mix it with ownership

But not all has gone well in Ethiopia. Its experience shows th

out the right infrastructure in place a cadastre may be only partia

tive. In 2004, masters degree students Fella, Jensen, and Knudsen

to learn, “Will the formalization of land tenure, assisted by the GIS 

benefi t the current informal settlers within Addis Ababa?” Th e resu

positive and negative, were uneven. While improvements in city p

were evident, numerous obstacles prevented any actual improve

basic services to settlers. Th ese obstacles included the ineffi ciency o

ipal staff s and the ill-defi ned roles within the various government 

“Th e formalization process did lead to an increased sense of securit

to land tenure for the informal settlers and it was found that tenure 

is very important for investments in housing improvements. Th i

that tenure security is an essential spur for the magnitude of inv

and quality of housing transformation in the informal settlements 

Ababa. Th e increased tenure security leading to investment in ho

certainly a benefi t for the informal settlers.”108 Nevertheless, the in

taxation and the improvement in planning and administration nev

lated into better services for the informal settlers.

An even better example of a well-designed but poorly use

tre is Kosovo, where ethnic confl ict resulted in the deliberate des

of property records. Prompt support from Sweden, Norway, and 

land facilitated the construction of a state-of-the-art electronic cad

this cadastre a common parcel ID number links the graphical orth

and vectorized cadastral plans in the Kosovo Cadastre and Land I

tion System (KCLIS) with the textual information found in the Im

107 Lennart Bäckstrom, “Look at Ethiopia! A Simplified and Result Oriented De

and Implementation of a Low Cost Land Administration System,” paper TS-61 prese

23rd International FIG Congress, 8-13 October 2006 (Munich, Germany), URL: <w

pub/fig2006/papers/ts61/ts61_01_backstrom_0312.pdf>, accessed 24 Septembe

108 Tim Fella, Kim Jensen, and Martin Knudsen, “Consequences of the Formalization 

Settlements in Addis Ababa,” (Aalborg, Denmark: Aalborg University, 2004). Cited h

Fella, Jensen and Knudsen, “Consequences.”
66 |

Property Rights Register (fi gure 30).109 All the data are integrated and m

available to users through the Internet. Th e Kosovar e-cadastre enables 

visualization of areas where documentation of land ownership or ri

is missing or has been destroyed.110 But because the cadastral system 

modernized apart from a supporting land policy, Kosovo’s land infor

tion systems are unsustainable.111

Cadastres Aiding Post-Confl ict Afghanistan

Little assistance in settling land disputes and registering rights 

interests in lands is forthcoming from the Afghan national government, 

even less from the meagerly resourced provincial and district governme

Th us, moving beyond the morass requires initiative at the community le

Nearly all Afghan pastureland, while state-owned, is customarily mana

by families, clans, or tribes, and not by private owners. Th ese parties, 

tled agricultural families and also nomads, raise livestock and gather 

and medicinal herbs on semi-arid pastures. Th e locally devised agreem

about who has rights to these lands for what purposes during what tim

the year have never been recorded.

109 Fella, Jensen and Knudsen, “ ” 

110 Murat Meha, “Effects of E-Cadastre in Land Administration in Kosovo and in Other 

Conflict Countries,” paper TS-50 presented at the 23rd International FIG Congress, 8-13 

ber 2006 (Munich, Germany), URL: <www.fig.net/pub/fig2006/papers/ts50/ts50

murat_0392.pdf>, accessed 25 September 2007. 

Augustinus and Barry, “Land Management Strategy.”

111 Augustinus and Barry, “Land Management Strategy.”

Figure 30. Customary Deeds. Source: LTERA.
court-prepared title deeds to document property transactions. Yet 

of court-prepared documents does not leave Afghans who conduct 

informally without any form of tenure security. Customary arran

even verbal agreements, witnessed by family members and respect

have suffi ced for centuries because most dealings are inheritance 

and intra-family or intra-tribal agreements. Non-related persons 

draft documents, again witnessed by locally respected people, w

retained by the parties to the transaction without the involvemen

government offi cial.112

In response to increasing insecurity of tenure on Afghan ran

which occurred only in recent post-confl ict years, an RLAP team—

by the Asian Development Bank and the U.K. Department for 

tional Development (ADB/DfID) and administered through the au

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock—

ated a community-based initiative to produce and record communi

ments about who has the legitimate rights to use pasture lands for p

purposes during specifi c times of the year. Local land stakeholders 

writing on the legitimate uses and users of pasturelands, delineate b

ies using satellite imagery, and develop plans for improving produ

defi ned parcels of rangeland. Following the customary signing and 

ing by village elders, oft en including local leaders known as maliks o

the documents are archived in the village with copies sent to gov

land institutions. Th ere is trust in this system for several reasons: 1) 

local leaders have indicated their concurrence with the agreement

documents describing legitimate use rights are kept in village arc

the agreements are facilitated by the eff orts of educated maliks to r

the local people in court disputes or in dealings with government 

and other outside organizations. 

Th e RLAP initiative has summarized the tested procedures 

ducing the rangeland agreements with the acronym A-D-A-M-A P

Ask for community cooperation.

Delineate the boundaries of rangeland parcels.

Agreements are prepared concerning the legitimate use

 rangeland parcels.

Meet, discuss and approve the agreements and delineation

Archive the agreements and delineated images.

Plan for the improvement of the rangeland parcels. 

112 Stanfield, “Community Recording.”

113 Stanfield, “Community Recording.”
68 |

sions of expanding RL

rangeland agreements int

national eff ort. RLAP’s met

has resulted in increased s

rity of tenure and a decr

in rangeland disputes. Vil

leaders may desire a sim

approach to council-superv

identifi cation of private a

cultural lands. Satellite ima

identifi es parcel bounda

forms noting ownership 

other rights to the parcels 

prepared, signed, witnes

and retained by the vil

councils (shuras or jirgas) w

copies sent to provincial 

ernment agencies.

Nomadic peoples h

serious problems with ac

to land for feeding and watering their fl ocks. Traditional seasonal mi

tion routes are oft en being interrupted in Afghanistan by local militia c

manders trying to stop nomads from traveling their traditional route

and from mountain pastures in the summer. To counteract these dema

with evidence of long-term traditional easements, steps are being ta

by the nomads to document those routes. GPS information facilitates 

negotiations of agreements with villagers for rights of passage.114

Addressing the pasturelands experience and the incremental 

to extend the method to agricultural lands with ADAMAP, Stan

concludes: 

Th e legitimization of rights to pasture lands, a potentially 

very complicated process, shows that community defi nition of such rights is entirely feasible and normally quickly 

accomplished. Moreover, villagers are quite willing to keep 

those records and commit to updating the agreements 

when the conditions change requiring changes in the written agreements. Taking that experience another step and 

114 Stanfield, “Community Recording.”

Figure 31. A Signed Pasture Land 

Agreement. Source: Terra Institute.
applying the same principles of community legitimization 

of property rights to agricultural land showed that the 

generation of property records at the community level is 

not only feasible but that village elders are organizing to 

do the work themselves, using the satellite imagery provided to them.115

Advances in Land Administration in Afghanis

Community-based creation and maintenance of land rights 

is a bottom-up response to weak state institutions. Centralized la

erning institutions in particular have not enjoyed public confi den

participative, transparent, and observable processes of community 

ing of locally derived agreements about the legitimate users of ra

the RLAP team substantially supports the words of Alden Wily: “D

tization of land administration and management should be an obj

all countries... the more accessible, useable and used, cheaper, spee

generally more effi cient the system will be.”116

Community-based mapping in rural Afghanistan needs all 

it can get. To this end a valuable resource, eclipsed by a quarter 

of confl ict, exists intact. While conducting research in Kabul, th

115 Stanfield, “Community Recording.”

116 Alden-Wiley, Governance and Land Relations.

Figure 32. Villagers Review a Delineated Satellite Image of Pasture Lan

Parcels. Source: Terra Institute.
70 |

visited the Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head Offi ce (AGCHO) 

met Engineer (Eng.) M. Yasin Safar, a retired chief of the AGCHO ca

tral department. Safar informed the author that between 1965 and 1

one-third of Afghan agricultural lands, 12.9 million jerib (a traditional 

of land that equals 1/5 hectare, 2000 square meters, or 0.494 acre), w

professionally surveyed by the Cadastral Survey. Th is enormous under

ing, covering 25,800 square kilometers, nearly the size of Rwanda, was 

used in a land registration system or in issuance of formal titles. Cada

surveyors compiled names of probable parcel owners to dispel any no

that they were also offi cial government title adjudicators. Despite their 

today, these painstakingly assembled graphical and textual records surv

the wars and could contribute to a future land administration system. O

ers and occupants certainly have changed but not so for most of the pa

boundaries. Th ere have been few subdivisions and consolidations, at l

in the study village.117 See Appendix B for samples of the AGCHO cada

survey forms.

Eng. Safar suggests a three-level strategy for establishing a mod

land administration system in Afghanistan. His plan, summarized h

appears in its entirety in Appendix C:118

117 M. Yasin Safar, retired chief of the Cadastral Survey Department of the Afghan Geo

and Cartography Head Office (AFCHO), interview by the author, 10 March 2007. Cited here

as Safar personal interview.

118 Safar personal interview. 

Figure 33. Kuchi Herders in Afghanistan Learn about GPS. Source: Terra 

Institute.
1. Improve the technical capacity for mapping property.

2. Decentralize the Property Records Administration.

3. Build a national technical and fi nancial property info

infrastructure to support this local property information admin

infrastructure.

Eng. Safar recounts favorable experience in recording and a

property transaction documents at the village level, with elders s

ing and verifying record updates and maintenance. He suggests tha

properly, the documents so recorded will be given a preferential l

tus by local judges in claims presented to them, over claims with

documents.119

Nearly 3 million Kabulites live in informal urban settlement

security of tenure and the most basic of services: sewer systems

water, electricity, roads, schools, and health clinics. Th e squalor in 

informal settlements is very real. Nevertheless Kabul’s informal r

119 Safar personal interview.

Figure 34. A Garbage-strewn Dirt Road in Kabul’s District 7. Source: Aut
72 |

have invested an estimated $1 billion in their neighborhoods120 — an i

cation that informal settlers care creditably about their homes. 

In Afghanistan’s growing urban areas, informal property transact

and informal settlements/squatter towns are legion. Th e legal route is 

riddled with bureaucratic obstacles to be viable. In a Terra Institute re

J. David Stanfield, Jonathan Reed, and Eng. M. Yasin Safar outlined 

25 cumbersome steps required to legally register a deed for a house p

chased in Kabul.121 More importantly, they recommend improvem

to the current practice which deters many from formally registe

property transactions. 

In the same spirit, at the January 2006 Afghan Conference on In

mal Settlements and Tenure Issues, Dr. Djalalzada, the Deputy Ministe

Urban Development stated, “the formation of informal settlements dem

120 Afghan Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), “White Paper on Tenure Securit

Community Based Upgrading in Kabul,” paper presented at the Conference on Informal S

ments and Tenure Issues, 15 March 2006 (Kabul, Afghanistan).

121 J. David Stanfield, Jonathan Reed, and M. Yasin Safar, Description of Procedures fo

ducing Legal Deeds to Record Property Transactions in Afghanistan in Asia and Near East Re

prepared under contract with USAID (Mount Horeb, WI: Terra Institute, Ltd., 2005), 

<http://www.terrainstitute.org/reports.html>, accessed 24 September 2007. Cited here

as Stanfield, Reed and Safar, Producing Legal Deeds.

Figure 35. With no open spaces in the densely-populated informal settlemen

children play in a dilapidated graveyard in Kabul’s District 7. Source: Author.
strates a weakness of [the formal system] which has been unable to 

land plots to poor people despite the availability of thousands of he

vacant lands. It could be argued that the formation of informal set

has been as much a solution [to housing returnees] as it is a proble

Land Policy in Afghanistan

Dr. Yohannes Gebremedhin, formerly USAID/Land Titling a

nomic Restructuring of Afghanistan (LTERA), Land Titling/Leg

Leader, and now advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, has 

a Land Working group in preparing a draft national land poli

approved by the entire Afghan cabinet, which would enable the f

urban land conditions to be addressed with an overarching strate

this writing the policy has been approved by three line ministries an

Economic Commission of the Cabinet): 

122 Stanfield, Reed and Safar, Producing Legal Deeds. 

123 Yohannes Gebremedhin, Legal Issues Pertaining to Land Titling and Registration 

stan, prepared by Land Titling and Economic Restructuring in Afghanistan (LTERA) 

USAID Review (Kabul, Afghanistan, 2006), 12, URL: <http://www.terrainstitute.o

html>, accessed 25 September 2007. Cited hereafter as Gebremedhim, Legal Issue

Figure 36. A scribe assists illiterate and semi-literate countrymen throu

of the twenty-five steps required to legally register a property. Source: T

Institute.
74 |

do not hold registered title. Prop

in informal settlements may have b

acquired by squatter settlements buil

public lands; settlements built on priva

owned land; settlements built on grab

land or land bought from land grabber

order for residents in informal settlem

to obtain formal deeds the legal is

surrounding the mode of land acquisi

must be clarifi ed. 

2. Many properties are occupied on the b

of customary (informal) deeds; others 

based upon multiple claims. Th e exis

registration process is also an adjudica

process. Afghanistan needs a sepa

coherent land registration law. It also n

a land adjudication law that establish

process by which claims of interests over land are evaluated, confl ic

claims resolved and customary settlements recognized. 

3. In addition, and critical to the registration process, is the nece

to clarify the legal authority for land mapping, surveying, and rel

activities in Afghanistan. Improvement of land tenure security i

essential element to peace building in Afghanistan.

4. Land grabbing, particularly in urban areas, has given rise to an exten

informal real estate market. Individuals have appropriated, sub-divi

and distributed public land using the informal market. Th e ease 

which informal land transactions take place discourages formalizatio

property titles and makes provision of services in urban areas very diffi 

and complicated for the municipality. 

5. Th e excessive judicial and administrative steps and archaic mode

operation which exist in the system of transfer of real property ri

are cumbersome, ineffi cient and oft en riddled with corruption. Th e 

property transfer tax, coupled with the unavoidable illegal fees (bri

at every step in the process, is suffi ciently onerous as to discourage le

recognized title registration. More oft en than not, individuals reso

only using the informal system. 

The adoption of a national land policy would establish the fo

dation for a desperately needed National Land Administration Age

Figure 37. Parties to an Afghan 

Land Dispute. Source: Department 

of Defense.
distinct from the entity now administering rural land records an

owned lands. Resting on the national land policy, a consolidat

Administrative System could formalize land tenure, integrate for

informal processes to register property freely, and link cadast

other maps to create a parcel-based cadastre. Such lofty goals in 

and well-resourced environment would take years to achieve, in A

stan two decades at a minimum, even assuming that the insurgen

pletely disappears. Like any mammoth undertaking, the way forw

incremental steps. 

Legal Aid in Afghanistan

One step that cannot be overlooked in achieving tenure se

dispute resolution. As a guest of the Norwegian Refugee Counci

the author witnessed NRC’s Information Counseling and Legal Aid 

program counselors resolve land disputes. In addition to shelter, 

tribution, education, and (refugee and IDP) camp managem

NRC employs Afghan nationals as legal specialists and counselo

of charge, the ICLA has helped tens of thousands of people reg

land.124 Th e ICLA wisely does not import Western notions of j

dence, and the staff is highly skilled in handling small cases. P

124 Foley, Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights.

Figure 38. An NRC Counselor Explains the Information Counseling and 

(ICLA) Program to Afghan Villagers. Source: Author.
76 |

socially more powerful opponent—has been heard, are then encoura

to accept arbitration from a traditional jirga or shura. 

Foley, a former program manager of the ICLA, believes that jirga

which all neighborhood or village males participate, or the more res

tive shuras, comprising select elders, “are the closest thing to democr

institutions in Afghanistan today. They can reach decisions much fa

than the official courts, are virtually cost-free, are less susceptible to b

ery and are accessible to illiterate Afghans.”125 The ICLA earns legitim

by infusing traditional, community-based dispute resolution institut

with vitality and with the added prestige of an “international” endo

ment. Militia commanders and other power brokers may behave more 

illy, and there may be less bloodshed, due to the international status of 

NRC representatives. Yet Foley has no misconceptions about the pau

of justice in Afghanistan.

Such initiatives may help individuals, and may even have a 

role to play in strengthening civil society and holding the 

authorities to account, but they are no substitute for an eff ective justice system based on respect for the rule of law and 

human rights. Many of NRC’s clients have still not obtained 

justice, and managing people’s expectations is becoming an 

increasing problem. Th e organization’s successes may attract 

more cases than the centers can handle.126

125 Conor Foley, “Legal Aid for Returnees: The NRC Programme in Afghanistan,” Huma

ian Exchange, March 2004, URL: <http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2610>, accesse

September 2007. Cited hereafter as Foley, “Legal Aid for Returnees.”

126 Foley, “Legal Aid for Returnees.”
Th e Land Titling and Economic Restructuring of Afg

(LTERA) Project, USAID-funded and implemented by Emerging 

Group (EMG), has presented a fi ve-pronged integrated approach 

titling and economic restructuring eff orts:127

• Land Registration System

• Mapping and Land Information System

• Tenure Regularization

• Policy and Legal Framework

• Release of Public Land

Th e project has done important work in rehabilitating and 

nizing deeds in Provincial Court archives although little progress 

made in simplifying land titling procedures, clarifying the proper

legal framework, reducing the cost of transactions, or reorganiz

administration agencies. A complete listing of LTERA projects in A

stan is at www.ltera.org. Two of their projects are worth special c

ation: the upgrading of informal settlements in two districts of Ka

the Makhzan rehabilitation program.

127 Gebremedhin, Legal Issues.

Figure 39. LTERA’s Pilot Project in Kabul District 7. Source: LTERA.
78 |

Districts 7 and 13

LTERA selected two Community Development Councils (CDCs) 

were established by UN-HABITAT in two gozars (neighborhoods) in 

tricts 7 and 13. Th is decision occurred in part because the community 

already established representative bodies (shuras) and both residents 

the municipality were willing to participate in the program. Although 

shuras had been involved in previous upgrading projects, the issue of 

ure security had not been addressed prior to the LTERA project’s progr

In District 13, newly established land clarifi cation boards review prop

deeds presented by the informal settlers. Ninety-fi ve percent of these 

informal, customary deeds. Disputes settled at the community level a

the bureaucratic and uncertain procedures of the Kabul courts. Once c

munity consensus is reached about who lives where or who has the righ

live where, LTERA requests a municipality to issue a “certifi cate of comf

While not a property deed, it is a valuable form of tenure security.128

Out of this pilot eff ort to formalize informal settlements, LTERA 

developed preliminary proposals to create a legal basis for regularizing 

ure in other such contexts. Th e team has developed a replicable and c

eff ective methodology that upgrades basic services, regularizes tenure, 

formally integrates informal settlements into the municipality’s urban p

ning process. Th e projects in Districts 7 and 13 are testing an increme

community-based method of upgrading and tenure regularization. Th 

neighborhoods were chosen because their problems were obvious. Infor

settlers lived in fear of forced eviction and therefore had no incentiv

improve their dwellings, start businesses, or upgrade their neighborho

An LTERA employee informed the author:

We estimate that in Districts 7 and 13, the implementation 

of the 1978 Kabul Master Plan would result in evicting 2000 

households (about 14,000 people). We are preparing a land 

use plan for the Districts. Th e plan contains alternative land 

development options which better refl ect current land patterns, provide residents access to basic services, and consider

128 “Providing Land Tenure Security in Afghanistan,” LTERA, 2007, URL: <http://

ltera.org/USAID_LTERA_LAND_TENURE.html#Teaming_Up_With_the_World_B

KURP_Program_>, accessed 7 August 2007. Cited hereafter as “Providing Land Te

Security,” LTERA.
ably minimize the number of evictions. Once approved by the 

municipality, it will halt forced evictions.129

A 2006 preliminary study of the LTERA project in District 7 

ducted by an Afghan NGO well-versed in the techniques and ph

of community action planning, the Cooperation for the Recons

of Afghanistan (CRA). CRA identifi ed the possibility of improve

security in terms of increased business activity and housing cons

especially where improvement in security of tenure was accomp

community organization and the physical upgrading of the District

and drainage systems. Interviews with community leaders and r

also showed that people’s perception of tenure security and gene

munity conditions have improved signifi cantly since the implemen

the project. In summary, the work done by the community is due

measure, to the organizational and guiding eff orts of CRA and the 

support from USAID/EMG:130

129 “Providing Land Tenure Security,” LTERA.

130 “Providing Land Tenure Security,” LTERA.

Figure 40. The Author Shopping in Kabul. Housed in old shipping conta

shopkeepers’ goods are secure. Source: Author.
80 |

More construction: 46 houses have either been reconstructed or exten

in the pilot area since the implementation of the project. Th is repres

9% of all houses in the area. All but one of these houses are constructe

brick and concrete, a substantially greater investment than the usual 

construction. 

More Businesses: Th e number of business activities has increased f

117 to 126, an increase of 7% since the last survey was undertaken 

months previously, in November 2005.

Increased Prices of Vacant Land: Although house prices appear to 

stabilized and, in some instances, decreased in value, the price of va

land has increased by as much as 50% since the project was implemen

Th ere are fewer houses on the market than before the project started. Th 

are fewer properties for rent, and rentals have increased by an averag

30% during the last year. 

More Tenure Security: Th irty residents were interviewed regarding t

knowledge and understanding of the LTERA upgrading eff ort. All but 

felt more secure as a result of the project and believed that the area w

eventually be formally incorporated into the City Plan. Th ree respond

noted that the mere fact that roads and drains had been constructed 

resulted in improved perceptions of secure tenure. 

Figure 41. Drainage is a Key Community Improvement. Source: LTERA.
Positive Impact on Community Development: Th e shura and com

leaders involved with the property adjudication process reitera

support for the project and confi rmed that it had resulted in i

perceptions of security and increased economic activity.

Figure 42. Archive Computerization and Digitization of Property Deeds. 

LTERA.

Screen Prints of the Land Information System Linked to the Deeds D
82 |

demarcating plots, providing funds for community infrastructure upg

ing, and actually enabling community development, each success, no m

how small, builds upon the other to provide security of tenure and upg

ing of the settlement. 

LTERA’s Restoration of Legal Documentation in Afghan 

Registration Courts 

When land disputes occur in Afghanistan, taking matters to the co

oft en only adds to the woes of returnees and others dispossessed of t

land due to war, land-grabbing, or other avarice. Plagued by corrupt

ineffi ciency, delays, and an inability to enforce decisions, the offi cial ju

system disappoints many Afghans, who understandably resort to custom

dispute resolution methods. 

In Afghanistan the Primary Courts in both urban and rural dist

actually prepare title deeds when people come to the judges for this purp

Th e Provincial Appeals Courts, located in the provincial capitals, main

the archives of title deeds documenting the transfer of title accordin

procedures established by the Supreme Court. Th ese archives, which c

tain all primary and provincial court documents and are maintained by 

judiciary, are called mahkzan. But the author’s visits to two Afghan m

zan revealed that “maintain” is perhaps too kind a word. During the Afg

civil war, makhzan suff ered neglect and destruction, and were in gene

poor condition. Many legal documents, including title deeds, were sto

destroyed, and falsifi ed, and fraudulent new title deeds were created for d

ous property transactions. To restore confi dence in the judicial system, 

essential to rehabilitate the legal archives and make them accessible to 

public, especially for land and property disputes. LTERA’s Mahkzan R

bilitation Program’s goal is to build on eff orts started by previous US

supported programs to improve land tenure security through the de

and implementation of a cost-eff ective, transparent, accessible and sim

deed preparation, and archiving and consulting system. Th e reorganiza

of the archives concentrates on the following objectives:131

• Sort the original legal documents to make them accessible to 

public and the judiciary.

• Secure the legal documents that exist in the archives which ca

used in the future to build a national Land Information System (L

• Digitize and organize the digital records to improve the securit

131 “Providing Land Tenure Security,” LTERA.
Figure 43. Mahkzan Rehabilitation Photos: Before and After. 

Source: LTERA.

storage of these documents, and to accelerate the deliver

judiciary of certifi cates and duplicates of offi cial title docu

the public. 

By February 2007 more than 590,000 title deeds for immovab

erty had been re-organized and stored in dry and secure cabinets; 3

these documents had been digitized.132 Th e computerization of the 

and the digitization of title deeds not only preserve the document

were oft en in very poor condition, but also digital copies can repla

prepared duplicates. Th is makes it much more diffi cult to falsify 

132 “Providing Land Tenure Security,” LTERA.
84 |

ent recording and archiving process with secure access to the legal infor

tion limits the possibility of corruption. Th e improvements in docum

storage and retrieval are real, but the system is not used by most pe

engaging in real estate transactions. In a city of over 3 million people, o

least 800,000 housing units, according to an LTERA employee, radio 

newspaper public service announcements and the normal usage of co

for deed preparation have prompted an average of only 10-15 perso

day to visit the Kabul Makhzan. In most urban contexts, a land marke

transactions averaging 20% of the properties each year would be a min

expectation. In Kabul, that would mean perhaps 160,000 annual tran

tions, or about 600 per working day. Th e courts are clearly assisting wi

small percentage of actual transactions. But even with a low rate of capt

the improvement in the archiving process is useful. Many Kabulites 

given up hope that their deeds could be found, and are elated that legal d

copies can now be obtained. In some cases, the deed copies are used in 

settlement of land disputes, and in others for proving property ownersh

secure loans, and for inheritance clarifi cations.

Additionally, a national database has been created containing 

indexing of 67,000 legal document registration books called kundas. 

LTERA Project intends one day to be able to link property informatio

the makhzan with cadastral maps and databases maintained by the mun

palities and government ministries. Linking these databases is essenti

implement an integrated LIS. Once operational, the LIS will facilitat

effi cient and cost-eff ective transfer of ownership of immovable prop

support the development of a formal economy in Afghanistan, and pro

greater tenure security to millions of Afghans.133 Th e fi rst steps toward t

loft y goals have been taken, but much more needs to be done. LTER

demonstrating that progress is better measured in small steps rather t

stressing ambitious but unrealistic plans.

A Good Cadastre is a Great Achievement

“A good cadastre will be the greatest achievement in my civil co

said Napoleon, who 200 years ago wanted an end to costly and useless t

to resolve land disputes between neighbors. Napoleon sought to create a 

versal type of property right; its perennial representation would elimi

boundary disputes and facilitate uniform taxation. Cadastres, along w

security of tenure, land policy, dispute resolution, are key tools in eff or

133 “Providing Land Tenure Security,” LTERA.
rectly, as shown in Angola, Cambodia, and Ethiopia, they can dutifu

the local citizens rather than outside powers. In the case of Afgh

the various programs discussed show how promising registration 

related rights can be to address the Afghan refugee crisis, Kabul’s u

urban growth, and to maintain peace on rural pasturelands. How m

results of community/participatory mapping, the plethora of lega

tory, and customary land records, and competing post-confl ict lan

be registered alongside formally held properties so that the powe

can be harnessed to visualize amicable solutions to land admin

problems worldwide? Th is is the topic of Chapter 6. 

CHAPTER 6:

Cadastre for Reconstruction and

Stability: Th e Land Administrati

Domain Model

Land ownership, which springs from humanity’s agricultur

predates recorded history. And as long as people have owned prope

have also sold it, bought it, and passed it on to their heirs. In ant

eff ect a transaction the parties involved would meet at the city gat

presence of the community elders, or congregate in the marketpla

presence of a government offi cial, or assemble somewhere else in pu

there agree upon their terms. Th e transaction may or may not h

written, depending upon local custom. But whether recorded in par

books, or peoples’ memory, the transaction was public, and theref

sidered legitimate.

Th is universal human practice is the basis for deeds, the writte

of transfers of rights, ownership, or possession between parties. Th 

deed, which comes from the same root as the word do, implies an a

activity. Although adequate in antiquity, and still practiced in ma

of the world, the deed in modern Western countries is insuffi cient 

the legality of an exchange. Aft er all, a perfectly legitimate deed ma

record how a thief sold stolen land. Competing, contradictory, or fr

deeds require adjudication. In response to a changing economic or

the industrial revolution Western countries found a need to record 

ership of land parcels in a way that would make transactions easier 

and more readily available to government and fi nancial institutions

to a shift to an absolute individual land parcel record of who owns w

where. Having clear title to a property gave fi nancial institutions 

ity to secure a loan against the property. Th is protected both the len

the borrower. For the government, ownership was clear for taxat

poses, or in the case of eminent domain, the government knew wh

the property. Th is is how title-based land administration systems 

many Western countries.

Unlike a deed, which is a physical object, a title is conceptual. 

a right a state gives to a certain person or persons recognizing the le

ownership or possession of a given property. Th ere may be a docum
88 |

Whereas a deed always involves two parties and records a transaction 

certain time, a title, which must oft entimes be determined on the bas

deeds, merely declares who has what rights to what property.

Titles and Deeds in Cadastres

Th is somewhat oversimplifi ed picture of the diff erence between d

and titles helps explain competing models in land administration. Bec

of the stability of models of Western land administration, many for

aid workers have attempted to establish in post-confl ict societies syst

based on titles, not deeds. Titles, unlike deeds, are well suited to comp

databases and have no ambiguity about them. Th ey are very familiar to 

Western aid workers who are trying to rebuild the country. But there 

problems with this ideal, as mentioned in the previous chapter. While s

systems are slowly set up, a post-confl ict society may degenerate fur

as one land dispute piles upon another. Titles have taken centuries t

established in Western civilization, yet this model of land administra

would try to transform in a matter of months tribal societies and shatte

post-confl ict nations without the foundational knowledge contained 

national cadastre. In fact, this is true for many countries in the world; 

ten nations, mostly in Western Europe, report having total cadastral co

age. Developing countries such as Tanzania, Cambodia, and Namibia h

cadastral coverage in 10, 18, and 60 percent of urban areas, and fi ve, 10, 

20 percent of rural areas, respectively.134

Some of the specialists discussed in this book advocate moving f

a title-based to a deeds-based model of land administration. A de

based model seeks to rebuild a post-confl ict society by taking advan

of, and building upon, the integrity of centuries-old customs of recor

land exchanges. Th e goal of a deeds-based model is to map the relation

between people and their land as quickly as possible—disputes, ambi

ties, and all—and make this information available to local leaders, offi c

judges, and citizens so the competing claims can be adjudicated and l

social structures can be restored, without waiting for the central gov

ment to develop a corruption-free and competent public administration

Th e same problem that plagues the title-based model also aff ects 

deeds-based one. To map this terrain, one needs a cadastre, a recor

who owns what, and who has what rights. How does one approach 

134 The University of Melbourne Department of Geomatics, Cadastral Template (Melbo

Australia: University of Melbourne, 2007), URL: <http://www.cadastraltemplate.o

accessed 12 August 2007. 
virtually nonexistent?

Challenges in Cadastres

Most Western cadastres depend upon a title-based, cen

model of land administration. When imported into post-conflic

ies, they prove ineffective or inadequate for a number of reason

title-based cadastres adhere to strict database rules, so they are u

handle ambiguous or vague boundaries common in post-conflic

ies. A similar ambiguity occurs in cadastral descriptions of urba

rural areas. Functioning cities require precise boundaries, with 

racy of 10 centimeters or less. Rural areas have a greater toler

imprecision; in many cases an accuracy of 10 meters or less is su

Unfortunately, many cadastres cannot merge different accuracie

single data environment. By the year 2030 up to one third of the 

population will live in informal slums, so the requirement for urb

accuracy is a major challenge.135

Title-based cadastres presume that land confl icts or ambigui

been resolved, that deeds have been carefully examined to determ

legitimately holds the rights to the land. If two parties are in disp

property in question will not be legitimately registered in the cadas

possibly years later, when the government is capable of adjudica

claim. Meanwhile the cadastre remains incomplete, and the unreli

the land records precludes planning, most investment, and infras

and environmental improvements. Title-based cadastres, which pr

black-and-white distinction between a property’s legal owners and 

ers, generally cannot account for the distinction between formal an

mal land tenure. Because cadastres are most eff ective when centrali

are diffi cult to build. Logistics are a constant problem. How migh

reports be entered into a central database? Once there, if a discre

the data is found, how is this fi nding conveyed to the regional su

have the issue revisited? How do local documents fi t unambiguo

well-formed fi elds of the database, especially when local custom 

use the same distinctions presumed by the cadastral design? 

One might logically think that cadastral information alread

as the foundation for objective comparisons of property regime

135 Christiaan Lemmen, Clarissa Augustinus, Peter van Oosterom, and Paul van 

“The Social Tenure Domain Model--Design of a First Draft Model,” paper presented 

Working Week 2007, 13-17 May 2007 (Hong Kong SAR, China), 3. Cited hereafter a

Augustinus, van Oosterom, and van der Molen, 2007 conference paper.
90 |

standard or method for evaluating land administration systems. Cadas

cannot be compared across borders. “Each land system refl ects the un

cultural and social context of the country in which it operates.”136 

der Molen cites this fact as one reason why title-based, conventional 

administration systems have been unable to record rights and interests 

thus manage informal settlements, customary tenure, and fl uid, post-c

fl ict situations.137 Th e ability to measure, compare, and analyze the wo

various cadastral systems is forthcoming. Rajabifard, Binns, William

and Steudler have begun development of a cadastral template that can 

the operational aspects of a country’s land administration systems w

its land policy. Side-by-side country comparisons and statistics, avail

on a public website at www.cadastraltemplate.org, are already useful 

analysis. In 2006, for example, 39 nations’ self-reports indicate that 

have title-based cadastral systems, 24% deed-based, and the remaining 

a mix of the two. It would seem that title-based cadastres are not as u

uitous as one might presume. 

One fi nal issue that plagues the implementation of either title-b

or deed-based cadastres is that various countries oft en describe par

of land in their own unique national coordinate system, not in abso

latitude and longitude. Th ere are attempts to make these various syst

interchangeable. One of many new surveying reference systems un

development worldwide is the African Geodetic Reference Frame (AFR

Th e AFREF is a planned, uniform coordinate reference system for al

African countries to enhance the accuracy of multi-country, cross-bo

mapping and development projects.138 Once the still-developing AF

and similar initiatives are implemented, coordinates in existing refere

systems can be transformed into new, standard coordinates independ

of local origin or local datum. 

Given these problems, could a cadastre be developed to apply t

countries and all situations? In the late 1990s Juerg Kaufmann and D

iel Steudler co-authored Cadastre 2014, a pioneering approach to m

the cadastral domain based not on parcels, but on legal land objects. P

136 Daniel Steudler, Abbas Rajabifard, and Ian P. Williamson, “Evaluation of Land Adm

tration Systems,” Land Use Policy 21 (2004): 4.

137 International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), “

Administration: The Path Towards Tenure Security, Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Dev

ment,” paper presented at the ITC Lunstrum Conference: Spatial Information for Civil So

14-16 December 2005 (Enschede, The Netherlands), 66.

138 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Geodetic Refe

Frame (AFREF), 2006, URL: <http://geoinfo.uneca.org/afref/>, accessed 12 September 2
tre 2014 is a fi ne starting point but is highly abstract, years away f

implementation. Nevertheless, Kaufmann supports the notion that 

tre must depend more on deeds than titles in post-confl ict society. 

that a cadastre, with its traditional role of documenting land rights

tions, and responsibilities, can be viewed as a book-keeping or “ac

system” for land issues, ultimately supporting a post-confl ict recons

period through the transition to sustainable development.139

Land Administration Domain Model (LADM

Signifi cant inventiveness on the part of Christiaan Lemmen, 

Augustinus, Peter van Oosterom, and Paul van der Molen has re

the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM). Not yet an op

system, but a concept that international experts have been working 

2002, the LADM is compelling because it makes explicit the vario

of land rights, restrictions, or responsibilities. It is fl exible enough t

land tenure types not based on the traditional cadastral parcel, i.e., 

ary, informal land rights such as occupancy, usufruct, lease, or trav

LADM may be the fi rst step to an internationally recogniz

dard for a cadastre. It has garnered support from standardizat

professional bodies such as the FIG, Open GIS Consortium (OG

HABITAT, and the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Euro

INSPIRE).140 In May 2007 the International Standards Organizati

TC211), the body responsible for determining all international st

accepted the LADM as New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) 1954

ISO standard is the next stage, one that may lead to the fi rst intern

standardized cadastre.

Th e LADM has reduced the complex database models that 

title-based cadastres to a simple principle: that a relationship (right

tenure) always exist between land (spatial objects) and people. N

how messy or diffi cult the world’s land disputes, nothing falls out

basic principle. A person or group of persons have (or claim to h

tain rights to a given tract of land. Th e LADM translates these thre

ries into Unifi ed Modeling Language (UML), a general purpose m

139 Juerg Kaufmann, “Future Cadastres: The Bookkeeping Systems for Land A

tion Supporting Sustainable Development,” paper presented at the 1st Internation

on Cadastral System, Land Administration and Sustainable Development, 3-5 

(Bogota, Columbia). Cited hereafter as Kaufmann, 2000 conference paper.

140 Peter van Oosterom, Christiaan Lemmen, Tryggvi Ingvarsson, Paul van der M

drik Ploeger, Wilko Quak, Jantien Stoter, and Jaap Zevenbergen, “The Core Cadast

Model,” ScienceDirect 30, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (2006): 629.
92 |

Object, in that order. Th e LADM enables registration and maintenanc

“relationships between people and land irrespective of the nature of 

country’s jurisprudence; this ability off ers opportunities for the integra

of statutory, customary, and informal arrangements within conventi

land administration systems.”141 For the fi rst time in cadastral history 

LADM enables the systemic recording of rights that are not title-based l

rights but claims that may need adjudication. It allows tremendous fl ex

ity in describing the persons and places involved.

The LADM possesses the critical functionality to merge for

and informal land tenure systems, and urban and rural cadastres, 

one data environment. LADM requires that spatial information be re

sented in multiple geodetic networks, which are systems to measure 

earth’s surface. Therefore, conversion from a local to a national, and

the case of AFREF, to a continental reference system must be poss

before LADM can become interoperable. These standards, as mentio

above, are already under development. In brief, the LADM promises 

following features:142

• Formal and informal tenure systems can be held in one 

environment.

• Th e computer-based system is reversible to and from a paper-b

one.

• Spatial information can be represented in existing geodetic netw

and in new spatial frameworks.

• Spatial data can be linked to other systems.

• Th e environment is distributed and decentralized, simultaneo

processing on multiple geographically separated computers ov

network, making it usable centrally and locally.

• Source data can be of disparate types, with diff erent geosp

accuracies. 

• Diff erent tenures can be allowed to overlap.

• Places can be identifi ed by a range of identifi ers: geo-referen

parcels, unreferenced parcels, lines, points, and so forth.

• Confl icts can be recorded, women’s access to land can be ensured, 

highly complex relationships can be described.

141 Lemmen, Augustinus, van Oosterom, and van der Molen, 2007 conference paper, 

142 Lemmen, Augustinus, van Oosterom, and van der Molen, 2007 conference paper, 
LADM Components

As mentioned above, LADM depends upon three classes of obj

sons, rights, and spatial units. Figure 44 illustrates the central premi

LADM, that a land-related right, or better stated, a socio-tenure rel

(a term based on the 2003 UN-Habitat Continuum of Rights), alwa

between land and people. In Figure 44, yellow marks social tenure 

green, persons; and blue, spatial units. 

Two of these classes—rights (or informal social land tenure 

ships) and persons—are administrative or legal. Th e other class

unit, is geographical. Th e diff erence is important, for it refl ects the 

lars of all land administrations. On one side is the administrative 

aspect. Who has the property? Do they own or possess it, or do t

Figure 44. The Central Premise of the Land Administration Domain M

Source: Christiaan Lemmen, et. al. http://www.fig.net/pub/fig2006/pape

ts12/ts12_02_lemmen_vanoosterom_0605.pdf. RRR = Right, Restriction, 

Responsibility.

<<FeatureType>>

RegisterObject

+objectId:

+useCode[1..2]

+taxAmount:Integer[1..*]

+name:Character[0..1]

+value:Integer[^]

+tmin:Date

+tmax:Date

<<FeatureType>>

RRR

+share:float

+timeSpec:Time

+min:Date

+max:Date

<<FeatureType>>

Person

+subjId

+tmin:Date

+tmax:Date

*

*
94 |

other rights? What taxes do they owe? On the other side is the geograph

requirement. Exactly what is the land? What are its borders? What imm

able structures are on the land? Th us, at its core, the LADM refl ects the 

aspects common to all land administration systems.

LADM Modeling

To illustrate LADM fl exibility, it may help to look at two dimension

landholding that have proved diffi cult for traditional cadastres to handle: c

plex spaces and changes in time. 

Th e worldwide rural to urban migration has sparked a signifi cant incr

in multi-unit dwellings, such as condominiums. Figure 45 shows how LA

proposes to treat individual units within a multi-unit building. Individual u

in such “horizontal property’’ relate to a specifi c natural person, Tom, thro

the Right of Horizontal Property. To fully characterize Horizontal Prop

however, common areas of the building, represented by the spatial object Sh

Unit, are related to the group of persons holding Horizontal Property Right

the Building, that is, the “Condo Owners Assembly,” a Group Person, throu

Figure 45. Horizontal Property Objects. Source: Modified by author from Hespan

et al.

Horizontal Property Individual Unit

Tom: Natural Person Shared Unit

CondoOwnersAssembly: GroupPerson Tom: Natural Person Common Parts
spatial objects (light blue) and persons (in green). In this way LADM c

rately refl ect a complex arrangement made between an individual and 

an equally complex building.

Now let’s add to this scenario the dimension of time. In rec

time-share units, typically in resort areas, have become attractive 

Th ese units are oft en condominiums, but the right of use is fi xed, f

ple, to the same one or two weeks each year. Th is type of recurring 

is best described in a cadastre with four dimensional (4D) repres

so as to correctly situate the object of the right both in the space (3D

time.144 Table 2 below shows how a fourth dimension expands the 

possible rights, restrictions, and responsibilities to be recorded in a 

Sharing Type Right Restriction/Respons

No share in space Individual property Homeowners associat

No share in time ownership covenants/restriction

No share in space Time sharing Pay annual maintenan

Share in time Succession usufruct Maintain property’s

condition for subsequ

Share in space

No share in time

Co-owned property Auto-limiting rights r

majority of owners’ vo

change landscape con

Table 2. Source: modified by author from Hespanha et. al.

LADM: Th e Future of Cadastre 

LADM links spatial data from very diff erent systems. In the 

linking has been very problematic for land information, in part becau

database structure. To link disparate data, however, LADM is less a 

than a word processor. Anything can be put into the document, a

it records all evidence relevant to a property and the rights variou

claim on it. Th us, LADM is especially suited to recording deeds. 

Land information systems should serve decision makers at 

regional and local level with the emphasis on decentralized decisi

ing. Th is is the basic concept behind the LADM: to produce and pro

143 João P. Hespanha, Mónica Jardim, Jesper Paasch, and Jaap Zevenbergen, 

Legal and Administrative Cadastral Domain — Implementing into Portuguese Le

work,” (2007), 26. Cited hereafter as Hespanha, Jardim, Paasch, and Zevenberge

ling.” Unpublished manuscript provided to author.

144 Hespanha, Jardim, Paasch, and Zevenbergen, “Modelling,” 12.
96 |

enced cadastral mapping (the spatial component) for land administra

in a decentralized environment. Th e model will allow better vertical c

dination, between “bottom up” local/community interests and “top do

information and policy guidance. National development policies can 

harmonized with local programs.145 Th us, LADM facilitates the rehabi

tion of both local and central governance.

Th e LADM fulfi lls the criteria outlined by Kaufmann to be relia

systematic/complete, appropriate to needs and laws, adaptable to deve

ment, public, and transparent.146 And whereas Cadastre 2014 is a gen

abstract set of guidelines, the LADM is a real system under real deve

ment. It is pragmatic because unique socio-tenure relationships can be 

resented to refl ect the realities on the ground.

 It may be objected that the LADM cannot represent all possible c

for one area of the world, or that the categories it describes for one cou

may need to change for the next. But this is LADM’s strength, not its w

ness. Th e classes in LADM are expandable. Th e system is being designe

that additional attributes, operators, associations, and perhaps even c

plete new classes can be added for a specifi c country or region.147 For ex

ple, Tryggvi Már Ingvarsson and his colleagues suggest how the LADM 

refl ect the natural features of the Icelandic landscape, which are in cons

motion and change in extent and shape.148

In the CCDM [an earlier name of the LADM], fuzzy boundaries 

be employed and applied in such circumstances. Th e CCDM [LAD

supports this concept using history attributes, but an approach u

specially defi ned boundaries would be more appropriate. One way to a

the CCDM [LADM] to Icelandic requirements would be by conceptu

defi ning a number of new boundary types. Boundaries the veracit

which have not been established, [and] designated general bound

can be identifi ed only by further research. Fixed boundaries have b

surveyed according to requirements as defi ned in laws and regulati

Dynamic boundaries are boundaries between public and private l

subject to change over long periods, such as coastline change, gl

movement or due to individual events such as volcanic activity. Th 

145 Lemmen, Augustinus, van Oosterom, and van der Molen, 2007 conference paper, 

146 Kaufmann, 2000 conference paper, 3.

147 Lemmen, Augustinus, van Oosterom, and van der Molen, 2007 conference paper, 

148 Tryggvi Már Ingvarsson, Tom Barry, and Margrét Hauksdóttir, “Reform of Icel

Cadastre,” GIM International, The Global Magazine for Geomatics 21, no. 3 (2007), URL: <ht

www.gim-international.com/issues/articles/id867-Reform_of_Icelandic_Cadastre.ht

accessed 27 September 2007.
are those subject to more attenuated periods of change on a sma

riverbeds are an example. Fuzzy boundaries can also be used to 

areas of confl icting interests.

Th e LADM aspires to be everything that civilian land administr

civil-military planners want to address regarding land issues of pos

societies. It merits close attention by NATO, the U.S. State and Defense 

ments, and USAID or other entities tasked with bringing about stab

because it could be an important breakthrough tool for aiding count

weak or totally absent land administration. 

CHAPTER 7:

Applied Geography as a Mainsta

of U.S. Foreign Policy

In 1999, following a vote for independence from Indonesia, wi

violence in East Timor destroyed countless buildings and homes. Ab

properties invited illegal occupation by the 150,000 people, or 15% of 

ulation, who became IDPs. In early 2006, renewed violence resulted 

property destruction, a new wave of displaced persons, and further c

of the earlier property restitution claims already underway. A 2006 

Confl ict Vulnerability Assessment in East Timor found that “the ina

of mechanisms to resolve disputes over land and property rights caus

tenure insecurity and can encourage [a] resort to violence.”149 Th e 

has long advocated a four-phase return process: repatriation, reint

rehabilitation, and reconstruction. With the end of the Cold War, 

tion became more realistic and attractive as a durable solution to the 

tional refugee problem; the UNHCR even declared the 1990s as “the D

Repatriation.”150

A rights-based approach to resettlement and repatriation is now 

Th e Pinheiro Principles, noted in Chapter 2, declared that refugees a

should be guaranteed a variety of restitution rights. According to the P

displaced persons may either return to their land or instead claim fi nan

pensation, should they wish not to return. East Timor’s descent into 

violence in 2006 underscores the fact that human rights pronounceme

Brussels and Geneva are as ineff ectual as was the international com

response to the 1999 East Timorese civil war. A rights-based approach h

limitations. Th e Pinheiro Principles do not instruct reconstruction an

ity (R&S) practitioners on the ground what to do concerning land te

property rights (LTPR). Th e Principles do not say who should pay re

or how various claims should be adjudicated, to separate the fraudul

149 Cynthia Brady and David G. Timberman, “The Crisis in Timor-Leste: Caus

quences and Options for Conflict Management and Mitigation,” report for the USAID 

ton, DC: USAID, 2006).

150 United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), The State of the Wo

Refugees 2006 - Chapter 6, Rethinking Durable Solutions: The Search for Durable Solutio

2006, URL: <http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/publ/opendoc.htm?tbl=PUBL

&id=4444d3ca28>, accessed 25 September 2007.
100 |

platitude. It envisions an ideal but says nothing about how to achieve it.

Th e international community should recognize that a rights-b

approach alone is insuffi cient, and that a rule-of-law approach to LTPR m

also be embraced. A rule-of-law approach acknowledges that in a confl ic

disaster the international community’s most urgent responsibilities per

to public security and humanitarian assistance. No less important (but se

ingly easily forgotten) are the mandates to restore legal, educational, and 

islative institutions. Th ese priorities, discussed in Chapter 2, must include 

administration at the forefront. Th e rule-of-law approach invests immedi

in the restitution of central and local institutions, to implement changes tha

merely wished for in rights-based approaches. Noted experts De Soto, F

and Rubin advocate a rule-of-law approach, both for the sake of short-term 

bility and for longer-term economic development. 

Th e 2006 USAID report mentioned above prompted the governm

of East Timor (GOTL) to establish a national land registration and tit

system. Th e initiative is praiseworthy, but how will it be implemented? 

the international community help GOTL with a rights-based or a rule

law approach? Th e GOTL will require substantial technical assistance, 

certed human resources, institutional capacity building, and, more t

anything else, time to achieve these objectives. Th e UN-HABITAT Handb

for Planning Immediate Measures from Emergency to Reconstruction sob

reminds practitioners that long aft er the media, emergency services perso

and stability forces pull out of a country, post-confl ict land managemen

dependent on political will and a determination to build eff ective system

including technical and governance—over long periods. As a rule of thum

takes about 25 years to build such a system.”151

East Timor, a nation of only one million people, requires both immed

and long-term commitments for its needs in land administration. R&S pr

tioners there must implement a viable land administration system now. For

aid agencies and donors must take a long view of the matter. How might 

administration receive a much higher priority in whole-of-government 

whole-of-alliance R&S doctrine, human, and technical resources? How sh

civilian and military personnel be trained to deploy to collapsed states, know

that land administration, unlike short-term emergency aid distribution, t

151 Clarissa Augustinus and Dan Lewis, Handbook for Planning Immediate Measures 

Emergency to Reconstruction (Peer-Reviewed First Draft), ed. Paul van der Molen, Japp Zeve

gen, and Thierry Naudin (Nairobi, Kenya: UN-HABITAT Disaster, Post-Conflict, and Safety 

tion and the Land and Tenure Section, 2004), 126. Cited hereafter as Augustinus and L

Handbook.
tions on how U.S. government agencies should adapt and change to be 

to address future land crises, both in the short and long term. 

Th e Early Phase of Addressing Land Crises: Th 

Role of the Military

George Boguslawski was deployed to Afghanistan with the U

Corps of Engineers Contingency Real Estate Support Team (CRE

experience shows that an intervening U.S. military force can trigger 

by inadvertently creating a land market and that one of the fi rst n

country is a repository for recorded land-related rights and interes

both substantiated and claimed. Boguslawski explains:

A group of Afghans leased their land, previously of negligibl

to the U.S. Army based on the ownership documents t

provided. Since ownership disputes are common, our leases 

that a competing ownership claim stops payment until the d

resolved. Months later another man claimed partial ownersh

same land. We stopped paying on the lease and informed the fi 

that payments will resume as soon as that party got a decision 

court. Th ese folks swore that the other guy had no right to the la

even brought a village elder to lend credibility to their argumen

I explained that the matter must be settled in court, they told 

it was not possible because the other guy is “al-Qaeda” and r

go near courts or law enforcement. It is common for parties in 

around Kabul to accuse each other of being al-Qaeda or Taliba

telephoned, the alleged al-Qaeda man unhesitatingly agreed to 

the base the next day. He brought court papers indicating tha

fi led suit over ownership of the property. He turned out to be r

members of the fi rst party. 

Weeks later, the fi rst party resorted to chicanery in order to 

audience with me; that party showed base security a docum

a seal on it and told security that it was a court document. 

telephoned me that the group had brought a court document w

Th is “court document” was written in poor English and was cove

the thumbprints of the group members. Th e seal was actually 

that the thumbprints belonged to the individuals named in the do

Th e “court document” was nothing more than a letter from th

demanding that I pay them. Shortly aft er they realized that I 

going to decide the issue of ownership, the parties settled out of 
102 |

signing a supplemental lease agreement; we then paid the rent that 

been withheld.152

With increasing frequency, the fi rst responders to post-disaster and p

confl ict crises are the U.S. and allied armed forces, trained to deal with 

number of contingencies. Former U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Ch

Krulak coined the term “three-block war” to describe three missions: com

peace enforcement, and humanitarian, that the U.S. military could be expe

to execute within a three-block radius of a given urban center. Lieutenant 

onel Steven Fleming, a geography professor at the U.S. Military Acade

relates that resolving land confl icts is indispensable for operations o

than war, so that for two of the three missions of the three-block war c

cept it is important. Th is is in striking contrast to wars of bygone eras. M

tary planners in WWII were not concerned with property ownership w

planning a battle, aside from making sure they minimized destructio

selected cultural locations. Even in the recent fi ghting in Iraq, Fleming n

that “From a military position, warfi ghting, e.g., ‘the March to Baghd

does not concern itself much with land ownership. However, post-con

nation-building and reconstruction inherently involve mass movemen

people. Th erefore, knowledge of land ownership is central to the succe

152 George Boguslawski, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, phone interview by the auth

August 2007.

Figure 46. Military “First-Responders” to a natural disaster are greeted in 

Nicaragua. Source: Department of Defense.
those missions.”153 For military or civilian responders, early asses

the state of post-confl ict land records, of land institutions, and of la

lems is an integral part of restoring peace and stability. Round-t

food, water, medical, shelter, and other emergency aid distributi

eclipses the need to conduct these assessments. A lack of publi

about land issues invites further postponements. 

153 Steven Fleming, Professor of Geography at the U.S. Military Academy, e-ma

by the author, 10 August 2007.

Figure 47. A Symposium Sponsored by the U.S. Naval Postgraduate Scho

Center for Stabilization and Reconstruction Studies. Source: NPS.
104 |

to be fooled: in postwar countries a surge of land tenure problems tend to 

face three to fi ve years aft er the fi ghting ceases. “Th is is because in the imm

ate postwar lull, people are upgrading livelihoods in rudimentary ways. Bu

about three to fi ve years, continued upgrading needs a property rights sys

and it is then that the problems emerge. While social unrest connected to 

and property issues is unlikely while UNMIL [United Nations Mission in L

ria] has a large presence in the country, at some point the peacekeeping fo

will be stepped down and the rule of law needs to step up.”154 Naturally, the i

time to head off a post-confl ict land crisis, as occurred in East Timor, 

anticipate it and, soon upon arrival in a country, develop a cadastral fra

work, years in advance of the inevitable problems. 

While military forces are oft en the fi rst responders to world cr

most would gladly limit their role to providing security so that other e

ties can execute their own vital missions. In a perfect world, NGOs de

humanitarian aid; intergovernmental bodies such as the UNHCR res

refugees. It may seem that involvement in local land matters, someth

normally relegated to civilian agencies, is not in the interest of the mili

But in reality, the military’s involvement in recording early land disp

enhances, not hinders, its military mission. Joseph Nye, former Chair o

U.S. National Intelligence Council, and Deputy Under Secretary of Stat

Security Assistance, Science and Technology, coined the term “soft powe

the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercio

Nye lamented that only in academic circles, in Europe, even in China 

India, but not in the United States, has soft power entered into poli

debate, and that the global attractiveness of the U.S. has been squand

by a singular hard power (military) approach to foreign policy.156 Cur

and future confl icts, labeled Fourth Generation Warfare, Irregular W

fare, Insurgency, or Asymmetric Wars, require a great deal of soft powe

achieve an agreed-upon end state: “the imposition of law and order to 

erate regional stability, development, peace, and eff ective sovereignty.”15

meet these future challenges, Dr. Max Manwaring of the U.S. Army Str

gic Studies Institute theorizes that a national executive-level managem

154 Jon Unruh, Postwar Land Tenure in Liberia: Lessons Learned from Other Post-Conflict 

tries (2007), 3.

155 Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, 1st ed. (New 

Public Affairs, 2004), x.

156 Joseph S. Nye, “After Rumsfeld, a Good Time to Focus on Soft Power,” Daily Star (B

Lebanon), 11 November 2006.

157 Max G. Manwaring, “Defense, Development, and Diplomacy (3D): Canadian and 

Military Perspectives,” paper presented at the Defense, Development, and Diplomacy 

Canadian and U.S. Military Perspectives, 21-23 June 2006 (Kingston, Ontario, Canad

Cited hereafter as Manwaring, 2006 conference paper.
vertical and horizontal unity of eff ort.

Dealing with these kinds of national and global threats invo

entire population of aff ected countries, as well as large num

civilian and military national and international governme

nongovernmental organizations and agencies — and sub-

indigenous actors. As a result, a viable unity of eff ort is req

coordinate the many multidimensional, multi-organization

multilateral/multinational activities necessary to play in a given 

arena.158

Th e Pentagon has already anticipated this new role by incorpor

bility operations into the war colleges’ curricula, thereby preparing 

combatant commanders for their expanded role. 

Some Western nations are increasing the allocation and trainin

itary forces for peacekeeping, peace enforcement, and stability, kn

lectively as “military operations other than war.” Canada, for exam

implemented a Defense, Development, and Diplomacy (3D) appr

developing a new external confl ict and internal catastrophe/disaster p

in which traditional military and police organizations continue to pl

roles, but are closely coordinated with all the other instruments o

under the control of the civil authority. Th e 3-D concept is rapidly 

into a broader and more eff ective strategic whole-of-government an

strategy whole-of-alliance paradigm.”159

Th e Next Phase in Land Crises: Civil-Military 

Cooperation

Th ese new initiatives in the military emphasize collaboration w

and development organizations. Recent post-confl ict scenarios have 

forced military forces to assume the unconventional (and perhaps un

able) roles of humanitarian aid providers and nation-builders. Alth

military is there, ready and able to assist, these roles ultimately are be

by neutral civilians. Military and civilian organizations must learn how 

erate, especially how to eff ect the transfer of the military’s short-term r

bilities to civilian specialists. Ideally this hand-off would occur a mon

following the end of hostilities, and the military would play a suppor

until its presence is no longer required. In recent operations a smooth 

of those responsibilities has been diffi cult to achieve. 

158 Manwaring, 2006 conference paper, 3.

159 Manwaring, 2006 conference paper, 1.
106 |

tasks is problematic, consider the experience of Deborah Alexander. In sp

2002, USAID sent Alexander to Afghanistan to build relations with the 

military and prepare the way for agency experts to aid in that coun

reconstruction. “Alexander would land at a clandestine airfi eld and t

hitch a ride with a passing United Nations convoy to get to a military b

Once there, she would fi nd the civil-aff airs unit: ‘Hi, I’m from the gov

ment and I’m here to help.’ Civil-aff airs soldiers were always happy to 

her, even if they didn’t know she was coming, and they would quickly b

her on the local water, agricultural, and health challenges. She made frie

and learned about the needs to be fi lled by the USAID experts —who arr

18 months later.”160 Alexander explains:

It takes a while to get them recruited, trained, and out there. Un

the military, neither USAID nor State has a standing reserve of civ

experts ready to deploy. Th ey can send a few people quickly, but 

such substantial operations as those in Afghanistan or Iraq, both hav

recruit staff , write and sign contracts, and conduct training — a ti

consuming process for which the situation on the ground can’t wai

an ideal world, the military would be a supporting partner to a bro

civilian-led operation. But that’s challenged by the very real fact 

the civilian agencies are under-resourced. Even if they started buil

capacity today, it would still take a long time. As a result, in the s

term, the burden falls on the military.161

Clearly, transition and cooperation need to be better coordina

Th e U.S. Congress is now pursuing reforms that would better integrate 

departments of Defense and State and the U.S. Agency for Internati

Development. First, the National Security Presidential Directive (NS

44, issued in December 2005, promotes the security of the United St

through improved coordination, planning, and implementation of rec

struction and stabilization assistance for foreign states and regions of, in

in transition from, confl ict or civil strife. NSPD-44 provides some mu

needed vitality to the newly created State Department Offi ce of the C

dinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). Regarding po

NSPD-44 states that “the United States should work with other count

and organizations to anticipate state failure, avoid it whenever poss

and respond quickly and eff ectively when necessary and appropriat

160 Corine Hegland, “Pentagon, State Struggle to Define Nation-Building Roles,” 

ernment Executive, 30 April 2007, URL: <http://www.govexec.com/mailbagDe

cfm?aid=36760>, accessed 5 May 2007. Cited hereafter as Hegland, “Pentagon, 

Struggle.”

161 Hegland, “Pentagon, State Struggle.”
omies, and the rule of law.

162 In another signifi cant reform, the 

Security Council in 2007 approved models for interagency coo

for the next country collapse. It also agreed on an idea to create a 

Security Education Consortium to provide joint education and 

for civilians and the military.163 

Addressing Land Crises in the Long Term: Bui

Land Administration Expertise

Outside of a few Civil Aff airs and legal specialists, neither ac

nor reserve military members can realistically develop cadastre a

administration expertise. Th e long-term needs of a post-confl ict cou

best served by deployable civilian experts who are well trained and e

with the resources needed for lengthy stays. Unfortunately, this is o

greatest defi ciencies in the fl edging U.S. R&S apparatus. Zimmerma

tifi es the worldwide dearth of human resources and cadastral frame

meet future crises:

International experts and national professionals are confron

a huge task that requires specifi c professional knowledge in 

building an enabling framework, tackle critical governanc

institutional re-engineering, situation-specifi c sequencin

prioritizing and the design of a long term program in the land 

Th e international community is short of governance responsiv

confl ict” land experts and can not yet suffi ciently meet the chal

the ground.164

Th e international community is unprepared to address the sca

problems posed by land crises. And the U.S. is the least prepared, des

ing the most resources. Unlike in Europe and Canada, in the U.S. t

plines of land administration and geomatics (engineering-surveyin

data management) are scarcely known. Th e author visited offi cials 

CRS and USAID offi cials and contractors working to improve lan

and property rights work (LTPR) in Afghanistan. Th e paucity of A

know-how was evident—and waning further as the few remaining US

experts approach retirement age. Th e USAID relies largely on private 

ing fi rms who acquire their experience from short-term contracts. 

162 The White House, NSPD-44 Management of Interagency Efforts Concern

struction and Stability (Washington, DC: 2005).

163 Hegland, “Pentagon, State Struggle.”

164 Zimmermann, 2006 conference paper, 12.
108 |

have a sophisticated, broad-based understanding of property rights issues. 

because USAID employs few LTPR experts, on-the-ground oversight of 

tractor performance by at least one USG offi cial is increasingly rare.

Th is situation has arisen partly due to underestimating the role 

administration plays in R&S, and partly due to changes in government p

tices that have not been suffi ciently scrutinized. Th e idealistic 1960s im

of American government employees, Peace Corps volunteers, and academ

engaged in exchanges and international development has long since di

peared. Stanfi eld outlines the changing nature of American foreign aid 

the last 60 years, and, from his observations in Afghanistan, concludes 

something has gone terribly wrong: 

Th e years following World War II witnessed the emergence of the Un

Nations, the dissolution of many aspects of colonialism, and the emph

on state investments in core industries and infrastructure to m

countries into the “development” stream. Th e assistance of develo

countries in this process was oft en government-to-government, o

the form of people-to-people programs (such as the Peace Corps 

exchange programs), or involved voluntary organizations which sh

their post war humanitarian relief eff orts to development investm

and even got universities involved, which encouraged their faculty 

students to undertake international development programs.165

In recent years, a fundamental shift has occurred in assistance to de

oping countries. What was once handled by the USG is now managed by 

profi t corporations. Instead of government or intergovernmental emplo

conducting the work, or, in several cases, even overseeing the work, organ

tions such as the USAID, but also the European Union, Inter-American De

opment Bank, Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, have contra

with corporations to deliver development assistance to countries in need. “S

2000, the value of Federal contracts signed by all U.S. agencies each year 

more than doubled to reach $412 billion dollars.”166 Stanfi eld notes the un

tunate eff ects and unintended consequences when foreign aid refl ects not 

face of a donor country, but that of a company. “I have witnessed in Afghani

the rapid loss of Afghan support for the international development assist

165 J. David Stanfield, “Land Administration in (Post) Conflict Conditions: The Ca

Afghanistan,” paper presented at the World Bank Conference on Land Policies & Legal Em

erment of the Poor, 2-3 November 2006 (Washington, DC), 14.

166 Georgie Anne Geyer, “’Outsourcing’ Is Not the Answer to Our Foreign Policy Woes

August 2007, Yahoo! News, URL: <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucgg/outsourcingisnott

swertoourforeignpolicywoes>, accessed 29 August 2007.
oft en ostentatious and counter-productive results of such programs.

16

Afghanistan is the proving ground for American R&S in the 21st 

Others familiar with what is happening there echo Stanfi eld’s sentime

the incentive for millions of refugees to return to Afghanistan was th

of dollars in promised foreign aid, which was perceived by returnees a

against homelessness and unemployment. “Unfortunately, the Govern

Afghanistan (GoA) did not directly receive the aid which donor coun

promised to give for the reconstruction. Instead, a number of NGOs 

viduals in key positions received everything.”168 Next, Afghan Finance 

Anwarul Haq Ahady occasioned some uneasiness in a 2007 U.S. Co

nal forum on Afghanistan when he too suggested that foreign aid s

routed through the GoA, and not directly to the NGOs. He decried 

of any discussion on the “output” of foreign aid and pointed out that 

not routed through the GoA were being done at a much higher cost

insight was supported by two other eminent experts who participated i

panel discussions, Barnett Rubin, Director of Studies and Senior Fellow

for International Cooperation, and Marvin Weinbaum, Scholar in R

Middle East Institute. Referring to an instance where nearly $100 mi

transferred to the bank account of a consultant in Washington to ca

project in Afghanistan, Rubin said, “Th is may sound too harsh. But i

the money directly through the Afghan government, USAID would 

more eff ective...Money in Afghanistan is not being used eff ectively; fu

being dispersed, but is not delivered.”169 Th e previous year Rubin wro

than seventy-fi ve percent of all aid to Afghanistan funds projects [were

implemented or contracted by donors. Th is mode of delivery, although 

inevitable, is ultimately self-defeating. If prolonged, it undermines—ra

builds—the state”170 Lastly, a former NGO operative, 17 years in Afg

with Norway Church Aid, Mohammad Ehsan Zia, now Afghanistan’s 

of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, asks: “Do non-governmen

cies really want Afghanistan to get off its knees, no longer reliant on the 

tional humanitarians bountiful? It is a loaded question. Aft er all, that w

them out of business, redundant to Afghanistan’s emerging—as hop

167 J. David Stanfield, Privatization of International Development Assistance Stirs R

in Afghanistan (Mount Horeb, WI: Terra Institute, Ltd., 2006), 1. Cited hereafter as 

Privatization.

168 ANIS, “Expulsion of Afghan Refugees: A Wave of Poverty and Unemploym

(Companion) State-Run Daily Newspaper (Kabul, Afghanistan), 3 March 2007.

169 Lalit K. Jha, “Minister’s Call for Aid Effectiveness Upsets U.S. Official,” Pajh

News, 21 April 2007, URL: <http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2

apr212007.html#19>, accessed 14 September 2007.

170 Rubin and Hamidzada, “From Bonn to London,” 23.
110 |

Why? Because business as usual suits them very well.

171

Behind all these changes in foreign aid lies the simple notion that gov

ment is less effi cient than private companies, which, in competition with 

other for contracts, develop agile, cost-eff ective structures. Th us, goes the lo

taxpayers’ money would be spent more eff ectively through contracted fi 

But in reconstructing Afghanistan, fl aws in the principle have been expo

Businesses are in business to turn a profi t; NGOs, too, must justify their con

ued existence. Public service is not the priority. Stanfi eld, who understand

negative eff ects of corporate privatization of development assistance, foste

paternalism, undermining the legitimacy of the GoA, and slowing the coun

reconstruction, also suggests a way out of the conundrum:

Th is model is also defective from an eff ectiveness perspective. Th e corpo

managers of development assistance under this privatized corpo

model determine “what is better to do” about development problem

calculating “what is better for their foreign corporate profi ts,” and not w

is better for the countries which should be benefi ting from developm

assistance...A drastic re-thinking of the structure of foreign assistan

urgently necessary. One direction of this re-thinking is for developm

assistance to build the capacity for its own administration in the l

governmental and non-profi t sectors, including local universities.172

For this to happen, two major developments must occur in U.S. 

eff orts. First, the United States must recognize that R&S is inherently a gov

ment function and designate and resource branches of government to spe

ize in R&S. Second, the USG should begin to aggressively train and main

a cadre of R&S expertise: civilian and military, full- and part-time (reservi

with a robust emphasis placed on land administration skills. 

171 Rosie DiManno, “Aid Groups Wearing out Welcome,” The Star (Toronto, On

Canada), 23 April 2007.

172 Stanfield, Privatization, 2.
To project American soft power throughout the world, the State 

ment must take the lead. In 2004 then-Secretary of State Colin Powe

the S/CRS, but it has been only partially resourced. For example, in 

Offi ce requested $350 million to build a Civilian Reserve Corps, simi

Pentagon’s military reserve, which would deploy civilians with critica

building skills. Congress remitted $7 million. Th e Pentagon came to 

cue; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , General Peter Pace, off e

million out of Defense’s 2006 budget.173 In 2007, the Offi ce asked for 

lion to create a smaller Civilian Reserve Corps, which Congress again 

Oddly, “President Bush mentioned the [Civilian Reserve] Corps in 

State of the Union speech, but his fi scal 2008 budget request to Con

following month included no money to pay for it. Political experts 

watching this process say that the Corps is the key, and that its creatio

close to a make-or-break deal for a partnership between the civilian 

itary wings of the government. It would represent the fi rst real inv

in desperately needed civilian capacity.”174 Th e Special Inspector Ge

Iraq’s reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, “urged the [USG] agencies to 

clearly delineating authority and procedures in multi-agency operat

singled out the S/CRS as an appropriate leader on interagency eff 

urged Congress to fully fund it.”175

What would this Civilian Reserve Corps look like? S/CRS can 

a partner country, Norway, for a model of how to recruit, train, an

“stand-by” civilians to troubled areas of the world. Established in 1

Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) stand-by force of 650 is larger 

initial 500-person Civilian Reserve Corps planned by S/CRS. NRC em

stand-by forces aim to strengthen the UN capacity in emergency s

and have become one of the most important suppliers of personnel to 

and to other humanitarian organizations. Nearly one-third of the NR

by force is assigned to Special Forces for Human Rights, Democra

and Disaster Relief or NORDEM. Th e proposed U.S. Civilian Reserv

could adopt a model similar to NORDEM. See Appendix D for the 

skill mix of the Civilian Reserve Corps, which includes three posi

cadastre/land administration experts. Th is may be a start, but reali

should be ten times that number to begin a U.S. LTPR community 

173 Hegland, “Pentagon, State Struggle.”

174 Hegland, “Pentagon, State Struggle.”

175 Jenny Mandel, “Reconstruction IG Urges Interagency Coordination,” Governm

tive, 22 March 2007, URL: <http://www.governmentexecutive.com/dailyfed/0307/0

htm>, accessed 12 April 2007.
112 |

ian Reserve Corps include:176

• NORDEM Stand-by force is a co-operative project of the Norwe

Centre for Human Rights and the Norwegian Refugee Council (N

Th e Norwegian Centre for Human Rights is professionally respon

for assessments, reports, training, briefi ng, and debriefi ng. Th e N

carries overall administrative responsibility, including budge

accounting, practical arrangements for deployment, and securit

the fi eld. Recruitment is a shared responsibility.

• NORDEM Stand-by force now includes 250 members within 

above-mentioned categories ready to take on six-month internati

assignments on short notice. 

• Recruitment takes place annually through advertisements in nati

and regional newspapers, written applications, and group intervie

• All newly recruited members are required to attend the NORD

Basic Training Course. Th is is a six-day course that consists of t

components: fi rst, education focusing on international and regi

mechanisms for the protection of human rights, and the UN’s mand

structure, and human rights operations; second, skills trainin

the fi eld of human rights and democratization work; third, prac

aspects of international fi eldwork. Basic training is organized on

year and is seen as a prerequisite for international assignments. 

• Prior to a given assignment secondees (participants) are briefed ab

the assignment and the situation in the country of assignment. 

secondees have already received relevant written documentation 

briefi ng materials. 

• Aft er the completion of an assignment, debriefi ngs are organized 

the secondees submit a written report. Th ese are regularly publis

both in print and in web editions as NORDEM Report. 

Training in Land Administration

Where will the needed land administration experts come from? In th

CRS, personnel will require a unique skill set to execute the immediate task

any post-confl ict arena:177

176 The University of Oslo, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the Norwegian Cent

Human Rights, “Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and Human Rights (NORDEM)—A 

Presentation,” (Oslo, Norway: 18 May 2005), URL: <http://www.humanrights.uio.no/eng

research/programmes/nordem/>, accessed 15 September 2007.

177 Augustinus and Lewis, Handbook, 9.
• Determining the degree of validity of the land records. 

• Getting the registry and cadastral services running again. 

• Launching mechanisms for the resolution of land disputes.

• Informing the population about the above.

“Th ese tasks require expertise in land records from the twin 

view of land registries and cadastral registries or maps. More specifi c

expertise ranges from legal-administrative to survey-technical.”178 Coin

these are the two components that compose the LADM. Astonishingly

in the fi rst component is not readily found in U.S. institutions of hig

cation (the Land Tenure Center at the University of Wisconsin—Ma

longer off ers coursework, but focuses on policy analysis). Th e only asp

legal-administrative side of cadastre that most Americans are familiar 

real estate valuation and property taxes, and that due only to homeown

rience. Th us to be eff ective in land-related R&S operations, USG perso

need skills diffi cult to acquire in the U.S., but obtainable abroad. 

Several European programs, at reasonable tuition rates and with 

as the language of instruction, off er specifi c training in land admin

with fi eld research conducted in developing countries. 

• Th e International Institute for Geo-information Scie

Earth Observation (ITC) is a United Nations Univers

campus in Enschede, the Netherlands, off ers 3-week to 1

certifi cate, diploma, and Master of Science degree p

in Land Administration. See www.itc.nl/education

landadministration.aspx

• Th e Technical University of Munich, Germany, o

International Master’s Program in Land Management a

Tenure as well as short-term training. Th ree semesters a

on campus and conducting fi eld research. Th e thesis c

be written from the student’s home country. See http

landentwicklung-muenchen.de/master/index.html

• Th e Swedish International Development Cooperation Agen

off ers advanced international training in urban land admin

in two phases. A four-week training session in Sweden is fol

distance education from the student’s home country. Month

second phase is conducted in a city of the developing world. S

swedesurvey.se/fi les/pdf/Invitation%20Brochure.pdf

178 Augustinus and Lewis, Handbook, 24.
114 |

other fi elds with a land-tenure emphasis.

• University of Glasgow, U.K. off ers a Master of Science 

Geoinformation Technology and Cartography, in 6 month mod

See www.ges.gla.ac.uk:443/degrees/postgraduate/courses/MScGT

• Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology, the Unit of Real E

Planning and Land Law, with a focus on property law and prop

economics, off ers a Master’s programme in Land Management

www.infra.kth.se/FV/lm/new/index.php?&M=1&MENU=1

• Th e University of Melbourne, Australia, off ers degrees in geoma

See www.geom.unimelb.edu.au/ 

• Th e Institute of Social Science, the Hague, the Netherlands, o

short courses and graduate degrees in various internati

development topics, to include LTPR. See www.iss.nl/

• Th e University of New Brunswick, Canada, off ers a Geodesy 

Geomatics Masters degree in Land Administration/Land Informa

Management. See http://gge.unb.ca/HomePage.php3 

Although higher education in the U.S. has few comparable programs 

Appendix E for the syllabus of Dr. Grenville Barnes’ graduate course in L

Tenure and Administration at the University of Florida), there are distinct s

of such courses becoming available. In March 2007, legislation was introduce

“establish a 5,000-person undergraduate academy, on par with the nation’s [

military academies, to inject prestige into public institutions and highligh

importance of public service.”179 Soon thereaft er, Kathy Newcomer, presi

of the National Association of Schools of Public Aff airs and Administra

responded with a less expensive alternative, a “virtual academy” that uti

existing universities’ resources. Th e debate is likely to continue for years a

whether it makes sense to off er an elite civilian counterpart to young pe

who want to serve their country outside of the military.180 Th e further q

tion remains: if a civilian service academy were established, would ther

a department or faculty of Foreign Policy/Foreign Assistance? Existing 

ricular resources could lay the foundation for new programs, or they coul

immediately implemented by programs of those universities that are alre

preparing future civil servants. Th e new USAID three-day short course, L

Tenure, Property Rights, and Natural Resource Management-Constraints 

179 Brittany R. Ballendstedt, “Universities Propose Alternative to Public Service Acad

Government Executive, 21 May 2007, URL: <http://www.governmentexecutive.

dailyfed/0507/052107b2.htm>, accessed 4 April 2007. Cited hereafter as Ballendstedt, 

versities Propose Alternative.”

180 Ballendstedt, “Universities Propose Alternative.”
Best Practices,181 and the spectrum of land tenure manuals and studie

lished by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, could ea

the basis for a series of one-semester-hour seminars. Within a Foreig

Foreign Assistance department, might sequenced LTPR-related co

molded into a curriculum? Quite possibly, but those courses mus

developed.

Perhaps the time needed to establish a civilian service acade

virtual university equivalent, will allow the most-experienced R&S 

NATO, to compile the lessons it has learned and develop much-nee

training standards. Despite more than a decade of experience with R&

tions, NATO has yet to incorporate R&S into its defense planning pro

force requirements planning. Aware of this defi ciency, the Atlantic C

the United States published a timely policy paper in 2006, How Shou

Handle Stabilisation Operations and Reconstruction Eff orts? One key 

mendation from the paper is the establishment of an explicit NATO R

sion, which would, in turn, stimulate the development of appropriate 

181 USAID, “Land Tenure and Property Rights Vol. 1,” Framework (2007).

182 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Access to Rur

Land Administration after Violent Conflicts 8, FAO Land Tenure Series (Rome: FAO Publi

agement Services, 2005).

Figure 48. A Post-Conflict Land Issues Training Scenario. What to do wh

informal land tenure systems emerge much faster than formal institutio

Source: Courtesy of Dr. Jon Unruh, 2007.
116 |

its R&S planning and coordination with civilian organizations: Th e Alli

should build familiarity, trust, and habits of cooperation with relevant non-

itary institutions prior to operational deployment.”183 Regarding civil-mili

cooperation and training, many an alliance member government look

NATO for leadership. Especially by inviting civilian participation and ob

vation in R&S exercises, NATO is uniquely positioned to “lead an eff o

develop uniform standards for all military forces participating in R&S op

tions, and to assist in designing the necessary training.... Also, by sharing 

process for creating military standards, NATO may be able to contribute 

similar eff ort to establish standards for civilians engaged in R&S.”184

Certainly, NATO’s lessons will play a central part in new initiative

the training of LTPR specialists. Possibly more important to the succes

these ventures is the reinstatement of geography as a pillar of the Amer

education system. If American children are not learning geography in 

mary and secondary schools, they are unlikely to understand spatial probl

or to have an interest in geography or related disciplines in either colleg

their professional lives. 

In August 2007 President Bush signed the bipartisan America CO

PETES (Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellenc

Technology, Education, and Science) Act. Th e Act helps to “bring back g

raphy” by adding the social sciences to the disciplines considered a priori

the National Science Foundation (NSF). Th e NSF’s Geography and Regi

Science Program falls under the Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) 

ences Directorate, and the COMPETES Act specifi cally targets the social 

ences as a priority.185 Th is federal initiative coincides with a renewed inte

in human geography at the high school level. Th e Association of Amer

Geographers (AAG) reports:

Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography test rates for 2

are up 49% from 2005. Th is year 20,003 students sat for the e

which measures performance in college-level AP human geogra

courses off ered in high schools...Th e AP Human Geography cour

structured around a syllabus that meets college standards and fol

an outline that parallels college course content, including themes 

models such as globalization, cultural diff usion, and central p

theory...Recent world events combined with the developmen

183 C. Richard Nelson, How Should NATO Handle Stabilisation Operations and Reconstru

Efforts? policy paper (Washington, DC: The Atlantic Council of the United States, 2006

Cited hereafter as Nelson, Stabilisation Operations.

184 Nelson, Stabilisation Operations, 21.

185 John Wertman, “AAG Washington Monitor,” AAG Newsletter 42, no. 8 (2007): 5.
United States during the latter half of the twentieth century. A 

from this decline though was diffi culty in recruiting major

the lack of geography knowledge of incoming freshman...AP 

Geography has opened up a new world for over 50,000 stude

past six years, and we expect an increasing number of these 

to continue their geography education in college.186

AAG President Kavita Pandit desires more geography majors 

abroad. “As a discipline we still have not embraced study abroad as a k

ponent of geography undergraduate education. Yet there are compel

sons for us to do so, not the least of which is that study abroad vitally 

to two long-standing traditions in geography: area studies and fi eld 

Indeed, in 2003-04, fewer than two percent of enrolled U.S. student

overseas. Pandit pitches the benefi ts of studying geography abroad by 

ing the exciting fi eld work and by noting the importance of the globa

learning projects. For faculty members, she touts the opportunities to 

students in their fi eld research. And such opportunities abound: a 2

study revealed that 69% of geography departments in the U.S. off er so

of international fi eld course for their students.188 Pandit conclude

abroad programs can, therefore, reconnect geographers with our fi e

tradition and help students to develop into truly well-rounded geog

scholars.”189 Th e Bowman Expeditions discussed earlier in Chapter 

lend themselves to this purpose. 

Overall, the growth of geography in secondary and higher e

suggests that America has the potential to become once again, as i

row Wilson’s day, the envy of the world and a story of success in foreig

Th e international community’s eff orts in post-confl ict nation building 

tinually hampered in much the same way as the noble ideals of the U

implementation. Th e rights-based approach to repatriation and resettl

refugees and IDPs must give way to a rule-of-law approach if results 

achieved and maintained. For the part of the U.S., civilian and military 

must embrace R&S partnership roles that ensure a speedy, eff ective 

in post-confl ict societies. Now is an ideal time to change the course o

policy, when geography is on the verge of a return to the center of A

education and culture.

186 Donald Ziegler and Barbara Hildebrandt, “Advanced Placement (AP) Human 

Testing Surges,” AAG Newsletter 41, no. 11 (2006): 4.

187 Kavita Pandit, “Integrating Study Abroad into Geography Higher Education,” 

letter 41, no. 11 (2006): 3. Cited hereafter as Pandit, “Integrating Study Abroad.”

188 Patricia Solis, Results from Advancing Academe: A Multidimensional Investigati

raphy in the Americas (AAMIGA), unpublished report to the National Science Foundat

ton, VA: NSF, 2007).

189 Pandit, “Integrating Study Abroad,” 3.

CHAPTER 8: 

Conclusion

According to U.S. Government Accountability Offi ce (GAO) fi g

confl icts in Afghanistan and Iraq have been costing the United States a

billion per year, and by 2007, over 4,000 Americans had died in the 

Th e loss of life and resources has placed an economic and emotional 

Americans. A strategy that can stabilize the Afghan and Iraqi governm

allow the United States to depart would be benefi cial to the America

Creating stable, legitimate governments in these and other volatile s

goal of American foreign policy. 

Th ough ending confl icts will require many forms of action, one 

that can help to create stability is to place more emphasis on political, ec

legal, and educational aid. One very specifi c aspect of this aid is to have 

U.S. government (USG) agencies focus on land tenure and proper

(LTPR) in the developing world. Th is would, possibly more than any o

of foreign aid, transform a volatile state into a capable one. Capable, t

maintaining stability by resisting and deterring the violent extremism 

state actors through the strength of its civil society. 

On January 8, 2001, USAID and the Woodrow Wilson Internatio

ter for Scholars jointly sponsored a conference in Washington, DC t

Role of Foreign Assistance in Confl ict Prevention. Eighty experts from 

the State Department, the National Intelligence Council, Congressio

academic institutions, the business community, and non-profi t orga

gathered together “to shape a new vision for foreign assistance by 

ing a long-term strategy keyed to confl ict prevention and building 

societies.”190 Th e terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, followed by t

ing military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, threaten to make con

vention a quixotic ideal in foreign policy circles. Yet the accuracy wi

the 80 conference participants presaged, prior to September 11, 2001, 

foreign assistance in the 21st century must change is most remarkable. 

ference’s six themes were:191

190 USAID and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, “The Role 

Assistance in Conflict Prevention,” conference report (Washington, DC: 8 January 2

<http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/confprev/>, accessed 6 September 2007. Cited he

USAID, “The Role of Foreign Assistance.”

191 USAID, “The Role of Foreign Assistance.”
120 |

• Expand the defi nition of national security.

• Construct capable states.

• Build local capacity. 

• Engage multiple actors. 

• Develop better mechanisms for collaboration.

Th is book, by off ering a rationale and a model for registering the hu

terrain, a key, singular application of American soft power, gives much-nee

impetus to the 2001 conference’s purpose: to re-examine “traditional conc

of national security to embrace a broader spectrum of political, economic, 

social issues that will have a direct impact on the core needs of the Amer

people.”192 Th e following recommendations enhance the conference’s leitm

by specifying a whole-of-government eff ort to strengthen LTPR in volatile a

of the world instrumental to U.S. national security.

• Recognize the importance of land in confl ict prevention

should be clear from this book, land issues are oft en at the epice

of violent confl ict around the world, a dimension at times los

U.S. policymakers. For half a century American institution

secondary and higher education have not emphasized geogra

and have all but ignored land issues. Th e post-Cold War period 

been marked by few foreign policy, and fewer post-confl ict nat

building, successes. Th e USG must recognize anew the import

of registering the human terrain. A land registration system, 

its dispute resolution component, can prevent or lessen con

by bringing simmering land and property disputes into the pu

forum and recording the resulting local adjudications. 

• Expand the defi nition of national security to include security of l

tenure. Under the feudal king described in Chapter 3, holding l

not necessarily owning it, enabled the rise of stable nation-states 

understood that peace is more conducive to prosperity than is wa

the same token policymakers must understand that a nation will n

be secure as long as its citizens’ LTPR are not, and the insecurit

other nations erodes U.S. national security. 

Specifi cally, commit to win the peace as much as to win the wa

aiding other countries to build land information systems and 

human resources capacity to maintain them. Where a cada

system is in use, rule of law is evident, and, according to Internati

Federation of Surveyors (FIG) President Stig Enemark, “the sys

192 USAID, “The Role of Foreign Assistance.”
projection of U.S. soft power.

• Construct states capable of administering land. Capable s

characterized by:194

 ° Representative governance based on rule of law.

 ° Market economic activity. 

 ° A thriving civil society.

 ° Security, well being, and justice available to all citize

 ° Th e ability to manage internal and externa

peacefully.

Chapter 3 suggested that registering multiple rights and 

in land and property is the missing foundation to s

of reconstruction and stability (R&S) eff orts in Afgh

Afghanistan’s overlapping and poor governance of land m

not an isolated occurrence. Most developing countries hav

many institutions involved in land matters. Where land info

exists, it is housed not in a single system but in several gov

ministries, which makes access exceedingly diffi cult. Withou

standardization and agreements, a multipurpose, inter

cadastral system cannot be realized. 

Th e infusion of technical assistance in the cooperative 

Mapping Initiative is an example of how a government’s 

to register its human terrain is improved. A Basic Educa

Cooperative Agreement signed in June 2007 by the 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the Afghan Geo

Cartographic Head Offi ce (AGCHO) outlines how NGA wil

hardware and technical assistance to AGCHO: training 

GIS soft ware, archiving geospatial data, standardizing ge

names, creating boundary databases, and in geodetic surve

management topics.

• Build local capacity in resolving land confl ict. Stanfi eld n

in rural Afghanistan “a local consensus exists about the righ

have to land, and that local defi nition is the starting point 

193 International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation 

Administration: The Path Towards Tenure Security, Poverty Alleviation and Sustainab

ment,” paper presented at the ITC Lunstrum Conference: Spatial Information for C

14-16 December 2005 (Enschede, The Netherlands), 17.

194 Stanfield, “Community Recording.”
122 |

International Land Coalition, and the fi rst Bowman Expedition w

three cited examples of soft power wielded by a government for

aid agency, an NGO, and academia that facilitated local capacity 

spread goodwill. Exciting new tools are being developed that facil

these works. Th e Land Administration Domain Model (LADM

the fi rst viable cadastral model to incorporate informal, custom

land claims and records into a comprehensive land registry so tha

institutions of civil society, even the shuras and jirgas of Afghan soc

can apply the rule of law. Th e LADM’s distributed data environm

off ers communities the opportunity to record land rights and inte

and resolve disputes themselves. When the central governm

develops the capacity for a regional or national land informa

system, local communities can be confi dent that their land rec

will integrate into the larger system.

• Engage multiple actors in land-related R&S. Intervening mil

forces must be prepared to retrieve and assess land records, an

some cases, begin determining the degree of their validity. Withi

to 60 days, a hand-off of land administration tasks from militar

deployed R&S civilian personnel must occur. Th e transition from p

confl ict R&S to long-term sustainable development will require y

if not decades, and thus a host of civilian specialists (USG employ

contractors, NGOs, academics and students) to work the legal is

and, as in the case of post-confl ict Cambodia from Chapter 5, t

nationals in cadastral surveying and land administration. 

• Develop better mechanisms for collaboration. National Secu

Presidential Directive 44, mandating civil-military cooperatio

R&S, is in early development. But without resources, this direct

ideals cannot be realized: the State Department Offi ce of 

Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) m

be fully funded immediately and assume its whole-of-governm

R&S coordinating role. Th e number of property law/cadastre exp

within S/CRS’s Civilian Reserve Corps must increase tenfold f

three to 30. 

195 USAID, “The Role of Foreign Assistance.”
government and wholeofalliance use. For multinational R&S eff 

for multi-component organizations, such as the UN and NATO, 

interoperability is absolutely essential. Th e LADM should be p

tested, and further developed for suitability in a variety of pos

and post-disaster environments. For this to occur, land admin

must become an essential USG civilian occupation and a comm

practice must be established. 

In the key area of training, this book goes beyond the themes of th

ence. Much of the world’s current LTPR expertise resides in Europe, a

resources need to be tapped immediately. USG agencies should agg

recruit from, and off er training and related experiences abroad to thei

employees to build geographic expertise, especially in land administra

For example, agencies should off er recruitment bonuses to gra

the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Ob

(ITC), the Technical University of Munich, and participants in Swedi

national Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)-style experiential p

who enter USG service. Many USG agencies off er long term gradua

training to competitively selected employees. Th e parochial mindset 

its long-term training to classrooms in U.S. institutions must end. 

should send their R&S personnel to foreign institutions for long-ter

ing in LTPR and on fi eld-based geographic research and Bowman-typ

tions abroad. Just as U.S. colleges and universities responded to a gove

need for homeland security degree and certifi cate programs followin

rorist attacks of September 11, 2001, once the need is articulated, LTP

tion programs will likewise be established in the U.S. A whole-of-gov

emphasis on LTPR enables a new direction in U.S. foreign policy to 

confl ict prevention and the construction of capable states. With an ag

trained, highly coordinated set of USG agencies aiding other nations t

the human terrain, American foreign policy can contribute to buildin

world where more people enjoy the benefi ts of secure property rights.

Acronym Term

Ch

3-D Defense, Development, and Diplomacy 

AAG Association of American Geographers 

ADB Asian Development Bank 

AFREF African Geodetic Reference Frame 

AGCHO Afghan Geodesy and Cartography Head 

Offi ce

AGS American Geographical Society 

AP Advanced Placement 

AREU Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit 

CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief 

Everywhere

COHRE Th e Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions 

COMPETES Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully 

Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, 

and Science

CRA Cooperation for the Reconstruction of 

Afghanistan 

CREST Contingency Real Estate Support Team 

DfID U.K. Department for International 

Development 

DNI Director of National Intelligence 

DW Development Workshop 

EMG Emerging Markets Group 

ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute, 

Inc.

EU European Union 

EU-INSPIRE Infrastructure for Spatial Information in 

Europe

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the 

United Nations 

FARC Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 

FIG International Federation of Surveyors 

*In third column P is for Preface.

ACRONYMS
126 |

Acronym Term

Firs

Chap. 

term

GGE Geodesy and Geomatics 7

GoA Government of Afghanistan 3

GOTL Government of East Timor 7

GPS Global Positioning System 4

GTZ Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit 2

HLP Housing, Land, and Property 3

IC Intelligence Community 4

ICLA Information Counseling and Legal Aid 5

IDB Inter-American Development Bank 7

IDP Internally Displaced Persons 1

ILC International Land Coalition 4

ISO International Standards Organization 6

ITC International Institute of Geo-Information 

Science and Earth Observation 

P*

KCLIS Kosovo Cadastre and Land Information 

System

5

KU University of Kansas 4

LADM Land Administration Domain Model 1

LAS Land Administration System 5

LIS Land Information System 5

LMAP Land Management and Administration 

Project 

5

LTERA Land Titling and Economic Restructuring of 

Afghanistan

5

LTPR Land Tenure and Property Rights P*

MNF-I Multi-National Force-Iraq 4

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization 1

NGA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency P*

NGO Non-Government Organization 1

NORDEM Norwegian Special Forces for Human Rights, 

Democratization, and Disaster Relief 

7

*In third column P is for Preface.

ACRONYMS (Continued)
Acronym Term

Ch

NRC Norwegian Refugee Council 

NSPD National Security Presidential Directive 

NWIP New Work Item Proposal 

OAS Organization of American States 

ODNI Offi ce of the Director of National Intelligence 

OGC Open GIS Consortium 

PROCEDE Program for Certifi cation of Ejidal Rights and 

Titling of parcels

PRT Provincial Reconstruction Team 

R&S Reconstruction and Stability 

RLAP Rural Lands Administration Project 

S/CRS State Department Offi ce of the Coordinator 

for Reconstruction and Stabilization 

SBE Social, Behavioral, and Economic 

Sida Swedish International Development 

Cooperation Agency 

TFR Total Fertility Rate 

U.S. United States 

UML Unifi ed Modeling Language 

UN United Nations 

UNDP United Nations Development Program 

UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for 

Europe 

UN-HABITAT United Nations Human Settlement Program 

UNHCR United Nations High Commission on 

Refugees

UNMIL United Nations Mission in Liberia 

USAID U.S. Agency for International Development 

USG United States Government 

WB World Bank 

WWII World War II 

*In third column P is for Preface. 

ACRONYMS (Continued)

APPENDIX A: 

México Indígena Project Cycle

Source: México Indígena website, http://web.ku.edu/~mexind/methods.htm.

APPENDIX B: 

AGCHO Cadastral Survey Form
132 |

APPENDIX B (Continued) 

(Revised Form 6)
Engineer Safar suggested a three-level strategy for establishing a land ad

tion system in Afghanistan: 

1. Improve the technical capacity for mapping property

Introduce the teaching of modern informati

°

communication strategies in technical institutes. Th e F

be asked to design the content of the new curricula. 

Provide equipment and working tools for training w

°

technologies and encourage their acquisition by the pr

public sectors

Digitize the existing maps and records of the Cada

°

Amlak archives. A unifi ed and compatible technical e

begin following an analysis of the archived information 

2. Decentralization of Property Records Administration

Th e present practice is for transaction documents to be validated locally 

elders and leaders. Copies of these documents are kept by the parties to t

action. Th e basic idea is to add to this present practice in two ways:

Create the capability to record and archive the tra

°

documents at the local level in villages or combin

villages, where local elders and respected people can ove

verify the continuous accuracy of the locally archived 

information. Documents so recorded would be given 

preferential legal status over documents not recorded.

Provide the village shuras with satellite images with 

°

precision to show boundaries of villages and sub units o

in the larger villages. Th rough agreements with the J

these “tax units” would be referenced in the transacti

showing the approximate location of the properties inv

the transactions.

3. Build a national technical and fi nancial property informati

structure as support for this local property information infrastructure

Establish National Land Agency (NLA) for land admin

°

as distinct from State Land Management which wo

separate administrative unit.

APPENDIX C:

Engineer Safar’s Th ree-Level 

Strategy
134 |

local recording offi ces, to monitor their operations, and provide arc

services if desired by the local recording offi ces.) 

i. Rural

ii. Urban

iii. Combine Cadastral Survey and Amlak property information of Cadastre and Amlak into land registration information 

system for support of local recording offi ces.

b) Property Tax Unit for supporting the local assessment and collectio

property taxes, urban and rural land parcels.

c) Training Unit for Land Registration and Cadastre and Property 

Units

d) Legal Unit for Draft ing Legislation and Organizational Structure

e) Judiciary Liaison Unit to build capacity of Judiciary to incorpo

cadastral information, at a minimum the Tax Unit location of 

properties, into deeds and provide copies to NLA.

f) Land Inventory Unit, which will work with priority areas to estimat

approximate areas of diff erent types of land: irrigated, orchard, cultiv

rain fed, pasture, forest.

Establish priority Provinces and Woluswalies (rural distric

°

Afghanistan)

Acquire satellite images of these priority areas °

In consultations with village elders and leaders, estab

°

boundaries of Tax Units [villages and combinations 

settlements] and establish claims to pasture and forest 

within these units.

Prepare cadastral maps and updated Amlak ledgers of prop

°

owners for Tax Unit for those villages and woluswalies w

want to participate in community legitimization of right

agricultural, pasture and forest lands.

Prepare forms and procedures for community prop

°

legitimization program.

Establish Support Units for assisting communities conduc

°

community property legitimization programs. 
Composition of the fi rst 500

 SKILLSET Y

SECURITY/RULE OF LAW 

Justice Sector/Rule of Law Coordination 

CJS planner/Coordinator (system analysis) 

Independent CJS inspections and complaints specialists 

Justice Sector Public Information Specialists 

Policing 

Police/Police Advisers 

Crime Prevention Function 

Command and Control [Including senior ministry advisor(s)] 

Criminal Investigations Function 

Emergency Services Experts (SWAT, Civil Disorder) 

Evidence Collection Experts 

Evidence Analysis Experts 

Information Management Function 

Internal Investigations Function 

Police Legal Advisor Function

Maintenance Function 

Narcotic Interdiction/Investigation Function 

Operational Communications Function 

Patrol Function (including some border patrol)/mentor 

Personnel Administration Function 

Planning Function 

Public Information/Outreach Function 

Purchasing and Supply Function 

APPENDIX D:

500-Person Civilian 

Reserve Corps Skill Mix
136 |

Records Function 

Traffi c Function 

Training Function 1

Weapons Registration Experts 

Forensic Laboratory Function 

Explosive Incident Response

Firearms Proliferation and Interdiction

Counter-terrorism Function

Special Investigative Function

Intelligence Based Development

Border Integrity 1

Border Patrol (enforcement) advisors 

Customs (regulatory) advisors 

Immigration (regulator) advisors 

Corrections 2

Senior Ministry Advisors (organizations, system, capacity experts) 

Physical security expert and Prisoner Classifi cation 

Logistical expert 

Records/legal expert (sentence calculation, court hearing 

schedule, access to legal counsel, treatment of prison) standards) 

Medical expert 

Facilities, planning, construction 

Security threat group/Riot Control 

Finance/human resources training 

Training director 

Transportation administrator 

Security/prisoner management supervisor 

APPENDIX D (Continued)
APPENDIX D (Continued)

Justice System 

Prosecutorial Function 

Prosecutors (general practice- likely local and state backgrounds) 

Senior Ministry Advisers 

CJS integration specialists (see top)

Specialized Prosecutorial Functions 

Money laundering 

Terror Related-Financing, etc 

Organized Crime 

Traffi cking in Persons 

Narcotics interdiction and investigation 

Anti-corruption experts (criminal and civil penalties) 

Court Functions 

Magistrates (trial and investigative) 

Judges (trial and appellate) 

Senior Ministry Advisor 

Court Administrators (incl Senior organizational court experts) 

Adjudication training experts, etc 

Judicial Security/Witness Protection 

Personnel Security/ Judges 

Facility Security-Courthouses 

Mediation/Alt dispute resolution experts 

Defense 

Defense/Advocacy attorneys 

War Crimes 

War Crimes Forensic Experts 

Remediation/Reparations experts 

Human Rights/Anti-Corruption Experts (10) under DG
138 |

APPENDIX D (Continued)

War Crimes/Crimes against humanity/genocide 2

Other Rule of Law 12

Bar Association Advisors 2

Comparative law specialists (incl. traditional systems 

of justice, alternate dispute resolution) 3

Legislative/Code draft ers/Constitutional 3

Training curriculum 2

Trial advocacy skills trainers 2

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL WELL BEING 100

Essential Services/Business Development 50

DDR Expert 3

Property Law/Cadastre Expert 3

Commercial Law Expert 2

Business Development Adviser (Private Sector Development) 3

Senior Ag Adviser 3

Senior Ag Economist 3

Rural Development Advisor 3

Social Services

Finance

Microcredit Expert

Public Utilities 8

Transportation 6

Water and Sanitation 6

Telecommunications

Civil/Construction Engineering 10

 Natural Resource Management Advisor

Monetary/Economic Stability 11

Monetary Policy Advisor 4
APPENDIX D (Continued)

Banking Advisor 

Tax Policy Advisor

Fiscal Policy Advisor

Budget Formulation/Execution Advisor 

Health 

Public Health/Med Reconstruction Team Leader 

Public Health/Med Reconstruction Deputy and Donor Coordinat

Public health service delivery 

Surveillance, epidemiology, HIS 

Pharmaceuticals, commodities & equipment 

Human Resources assessment/planning 

IDP & Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator 

Inspection-food, water and environment 

Medical Service: capability assessment, planning and managemen

Health System Financial management 

Security and Safety Offi cer 

Public Information Offi cer-Communications Liaison 

Logistics 

Education 

Institutional Capacity Building Expert 

Vocational/Life Skills Education Expert 

Refugee/IDP Education Expert 

Social Service Support Coordinators 

DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE 

Elections Advisors 

Urban Planning/City Management 

Human Rights and Humanitarian Protection 

Anti-Corruption (Advocacy, disclosure, transparency, ethics) 
140 |

Confl ict/Transition Offi cers 4

Public Administration 4

Leadership Development Specialists 2

Civil Society Advisor 3

Legislative Advisor 2

Media Advisor 4

Security Sector Reform 4

Rule of Law Advisors 4

Political Party Development Advisor

TOTAL 500

APPENDIX D (Continued)

Source: Suggested skills mix courtesy of Interagency Civilian Response Task Force, O

of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS), U.S. Department of 

State.
University of Florida

SUR 6427 LAND TENURE AND ADMINISTRATIO

http://www.geomatics.ifas.ufl .edu/courses/SUR6427/index-6427.ht

Instructor: Dr. Grenville Barnes

Room No: 406 B Reed Lab 

Phone: 352 392-4998

Email: gbarnes@ufl .edu

Land (and resource) tenure provides a unique window into both social 

logical systems and is recognized as a key element in the battle for sust

In this course we will examine the historical origins of the idea of prop

explore current land tenure and property issues in various parts of the glo

Students will be required to read assigned references, review certain fi 

attend and actively participate in class discussions.

COURSE OBJECTIVES 

• To familiarize students with the range of current land ten

property issues that are being faced in Latin America and e

with respect to conservation, development, indigenous te

common pool resources, natural resource management an

equity.

• To critically examine development policy as it is refl ected in ap

to land tenure and administration.

• To understand non-western approaches to property and how 

accommodated within western legal systems

• To familiarize students with processes used to formalize lan

into modern property systems 

CLASS PERIODS AND MEETING TIMES

APPENDIX E:

University of Florida 

Land Tenure and Administratio

Course Syllabus
142 |

PREREQUISITES AND REGISTRATION 

Th is is a graduate level course that is designed to be interdisciplinary

specifi c prerequisites are required, but students should have an interes

land and resource tenure issues. For registration questions contact Gren

Barnes at gbarnes@ufl .edu.

GRADING (SUR6427)

Class Participation.................10%

Short Assignments.................10% 

First Draft of Term Paper......5% 

Final Term Paper....................75%

CONTENT

1. Review of Major Schools of Property Th eory

2. Roman Law, Civil Law and Common Law Systems (TA)

3. Overview of Land Tenure Issues in Latin America

 a. Indigenous Land Rights (JMR)

 b. Social Function of Land (TA)

 c. Human Right to Property (TR)

 d. Gender Issues (CDD)

 e. Poverty alleviation 

 f. Conservation (Amazon) 

4. Th e Mabo Case and Australian Native Title

5. Customary Tenure in Africa

6. Formalizing Property Rights

7. Evolution of Common/Communal Property Systems 

8. Land Tenure and Parks (BC)

9. Land Reform (market-assisted vs state imposed)

10. Tenure, Resilience and Social-ecological systems

TA=Tom Ankersen; BC=Brian Child; CDD=Carmen Diana Deere; TR=Th o

Ruppert; JMR=Jerry Riverstone
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Douglas Batson is a political geography analyst at the National Ge

Intelligence Agency (NGA), and is a staff member to the Foreign 

Committee of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. He holds a M

Education degree from Boston University, the German Language Di

the Goethe-Institut, and a Bachelor of Science in geography, earned 

by examination, from Excelsior College in Albany, New York. He is a 

Certifi ed Counselor and previously worked in human resources c

with the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Department of Justice

retired from the U.S. Army Reserve in 2004 following a career in whic

awarded the Bronze Star during Operation DESERT STORM and 

on Terrorism Service Medal following the attacks of September 11, 2

military schools include the Mapping, Charting, and Geodesy Staff 

Course and the Defense Language Institute for Turkish. He has keen 

in the regional geography and toponomy of the Turkic-speaking wo

book is the product of his work as a 2006 ODNI Research Fellow. Th 

can be contacted at Douglas.E.Batson@nga.mil.

ABSTRACT IN FIVE LANGUAG

English

Land is oft en a signifi cant factor in widespread violence and is also 

element in peace-building and economic reconstruction in pos

situations. Th is book examines how cadastral information (land and 

records) can predict threats to regional stability, world peace, and 

sovereignty. Beyond its application to the refugee situation six y

Afghanistan’s reconstruction, cadastral data can also aid in recovery from 

disasters or wars. Th e book considers how causes of 21st century con

related to land questions, and it introduces a new land administrat

Signifi cant inventiveness on the part of Lemmen, Augustinus, van Ooste

van der Molen has resulted in the Land Administration Domain Model (

Th e LADM is compelling because it makes explicit various types of lan

restrictions, or responsibilities. It is fl exible enough to record both West

registered land rights and customary, informal socio-tenure relationship

of the developing world. In a word, the LADM aspires to address th

land issues faced by civil-military Reconstruction and Stability personne

confl ict societies. It merits close attention by NATO, the U.S. State and 

Departments, and USAID because it represents one of the most impor

for countries where land administration has been weak or totally absen

German

Land ist oft mals ein wesentlicher Faktor für das Aufk ommen gew

Auseinandersetzungen und bildet ein wichtiges Element für friedenssc

Maßnahmen und den wirtschaft lichen Wiederaufb au unter Bedingun

post-Konfl ikt Situation.

Dieses Buch untersucht in welcher Weise ein Kataster über Landb

Bedrohungen für regionale Stabilität, nationale Souveränität und den We

vorhersagen kann. Darüber hinaus wird gezeigt wie ein derartiges 

auch die Regeneration von Naturkatastrophen und Kriegen unterstütz

verdeutlicht am Beispiel der Rückkehr von Flüchtlingen nach Afghanis

Das Buch betrachtet die Zusammenhänge zwischen Land und den K

des 21. Jahrhunderts. Zu diesem Zwecke wird auch ein neues Analysein

eingeführt: die innovativen Bemühungen von Lemmen, Augusti

Oosterom, und van der Molen haben das so genannte “Land Admin

Domain Model” (LADM) hervor gebracht. Dieses Modell betr
160 |

Verantwortlichkeiten explizit integriert. Darüber hinaus beweist es Flexib

und kann sowohl für westliche Systeme offi zieller Landtitel nutzbar gem

werden als auch traditionelle und informelle Systeme, wie sie vornehmlich in 

Ländern des Südens auft reten. Anders formuliert, das LADM strebt danach 

zahllosen Landproblemen mit denen der zivil-militärische Wiederaufb au welt

konfrontiert ist mit einer zentralen Lösung entgegen zu treten. Das Mo

verdient die ungeteilte Aufmerksamkeit von NATO, den US-amerikanisc

Verteidigungs— und Entwicklungsbehörden (USAID)—weil es eines 

wichtigsten Werkzeuge für den Aufb au von Landverwaltungen überh

darstellt, und das insbesondere in Ländern wo diese nicht funktionieren ode

nicht vorhanden sind.

Dutch

Land is enerzijds vaak een wezenlijke factor in het ontstaan van geweldda

confl icten maar is anderzijds een kritiek onderdeel bij vredesonderhandelin

en economische wederopbouw in de omstandigheden na een confl ict.

In dit boek wordt onderzocht op welke wijze kadastrale informatie gebr

kan worden bij voorspelling van bedreigingen in regionale stabiliteit, natio

soevereiniteit en de wereldvrede. Verder wordt getoond op welke wijze 

dergelijk gebruik van kadastrale data kan helpen bij herstel na natuurram

en oorlogen. Dit wordt verduidelijkt met een voorbeeld van de situatie 

vluchtelingen de afgelopen zes jaar in Afghanistan.

In deze verhandeling wordt nagegaan op welke wijze de oorzaken van confl i

in de 21e eeuw landgerelateerd zijn. Voor dit doel wordt ook een ana

instrument geïntroduceerd. De intensieve bemoeienissen van Lemm

Augustinus, van Oosterom en van der Molen hebben geresulteerd in het “L

Administratie Domein Model” (LADM). Dit model is aantrekkelijk omda

de veelzijdigheid van landrechten, restricties/belemmeringen in landrec

en gekoppelde verantwoordelijkheden omvat. Verder is het model fl ex

genoeg om zowel de in de westelijke landen gebruikelijke landrechten als 

de gewoonterechten en informele rechten - zoals traditionele rechten in min

ontwikkelde landen te registreren. Anders geformuleerd: het LADM wil 

gedeelde bewaarplaats mogelijk maken voor de talloze landgegevens, waar

de civiel-militaire wederopbouw werkers wereldwijd worden gekonfronte

Het model verdient de aandacht van de NATO, het Amerikaanse Ministerie 

Defensie en de Amerikaanse ontwikkelingsautoriteit (USAID), omdat het 

van de belangrijkste hulpmiddelen van landadministratie vertegenwoor

en wel in het bijzonder in landen waar deze administratie niet funktionee

afwezig is.
Le terrain joue souvent un rôle important pour la violence répandue; 

un élément critique de l’établissement de paix et de la reconstruction éco

post-confl its. Ce livre traite comment les informations cadastrales (les do

de terrain et propriété) peuvent prédire les menaces à la stabilité régio

paix mondiale, et à la souveraineté nationale. Au-delà de son applica

situation des réfugiés après six ans de reconstruction en Afghanistan, les 

cadastrales peuvent également aider à la récupération de catastrophes n

ou de guerres. L’argument examine comment les causes des confl its d

siècle sont liées au terrain, et il introduit un nouvel outil pour l’admin

du terrain. Une créativité signifi cative de la part de Lemmen, August

Oosterom, et van der Molen a produit le Model de la Domaine de la 

Foncière (Land Administration Domain Model - LADM). Le LA

irrésistible parce qu’il spécifi e les types diff érents de droits, des restrictio

responsabilités de terrain. Il est suffi samment souple pour enregistrer a

les droits de terrain inscrits de style occidental, que les relations socio

coutumières et simples, typiques du monde en développement. Tout sim

le LADM aspire d’être un répertoire pour les problèmes innombrables d

rencontrés par le personnel civil-militaire de Reconstruction et de St

sociétés de post-confl its. Il mérite la plus grande considération par l’O

Départements d’État et de la Défense des Etats-Unis, et par l’USAID, p

représente l’un des outils les plus importants en cours d’élaboration pou

la gestion de terrain dans les pays où elle a été faible ou tout à fait absen
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