Land Tenure Center Newsletter
Number 81, Spring 2001, p. 6-7
The Center will assist the Sahelian countries of Africa in their sustainable development and natural resource management efforts. The Sahel’s ecology makes it prone to high rates of deforestation, erosion, and soil degradation. The region’s expanding population adds stress to its marginal ecology, and conflicts over land and resource use are rising in all the countries.
The Center will help establish "land tenure observatories," which will be university centers of research, training, and technical assistance. This effort is part of a project funded by USAID/Sahel Regional Program. The Center is collaborating with the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). The project will establish a land tenure observatory and network in each CILSS-member country, including Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal.
LTC senior scientist Peter Bloch will provide technical advice on the research and training. Others from UW who will be involved are Yazon Gnoumou (Land Resources), Dr. James Delehanty (African Studies), and Dr. Matt Turner (Geography). For more on the CILSS project, see http://www.ies.wisc.edu/ltc/pr010330.html.
Erwin Heine spent one month at the Center in order to further his work facilitating Eastern European and Central Asian countries’ transition to a market economy. Dr. Heine is a professor at the Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (University for Agricultural Sciences-Vienna), which is helping Hungary and the Ukraine establish productive farming structures and complete documentation of landownership and land rights. By establishing stronger registry practices, the two countries have a greater likelihood of becoming EU members. Also while at the Center, Dr. Heine studied different natural resource management practices. His research will be used in Austria’s contribution to the EU’s Natura 2000 initiative. Contact him with questions or comments about his research at erwin.heine@boku.ac.at.
In June, the Center hosted a summit on minority land loss. Minority groups in North America have been losing land and homes at an alarming rate. But through court actions, organized land purchases, and community organizing, these groups are attempting to reverse minority land loss, estimated at 1,000 acres every day.
Leaders and grassroots activists from Canada, Mexico, and the United States assembled to describe current strategies, share findings, and develop plans for action. Speakers included Winona LaDuke (Green Party vice-presidential candidate in 2000), Joe Brooks (founder of the Emergency Land Fund), and David Arizmendi (Executive Director of Proyecto Azteca). They were joined by nearly 100 others who shared stories and strategies for increasing minority land holdings and protecting community security. See http://www.ies.wisc.edu/nap/woa3.html.
This spring, the Center began training North American "land specialists." Living in the communities they serve, the land specialists will help neighbors and work on the land-related needs of their communities. The training develops skills in estate planning, title searches, heir property issues, and boundary disputes. As part of the Center’s ongoing North American Program, nine new land specialists will be trained each spring. Coordinated by the Center’s Brenda Haskins, the training effort is one of nine projects at the Center for Minority Land and Community Security, Tuskegee University. Robert Zabawa, of Tuskegee, and Jess Gilbert, of UW-Madison, direct the Tuskegee Center.
Albanian land market specialists were at the Center in April to learn about Wisconsin’s practices in property registration, real estate, and development. In addition to meetings at the Center, the delegation visited the Wisconsin Department of Administration, Dane County Register of Deeds, Dane County Surveyor’s Office, and UW’s Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility. The Albanians learned about Wisconsin’s Land Information Program and how the state records rights to real estate. See http://www.ies.wisc.edu/ltc/albpfl.html for more on the Center’s Albania Project.
Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel participated in the June United Nations’ expert meeting on the "situation of rural women within the context of globalization." Convened by the UN’s Division for the Advancement of Women and hosted by the Government of Mongolia, the meeting addressed social and economic challenges and opportunities faced by women in rural areas. Dr. Lastarria delivered her paper titled "The Impact of Changing Patterns of Land Rights on Rural Women." The meeting’s recommendations will be incorporated in the Secretary-General Report, "Improvement of the Situation of Women in Rural Areas," to be submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session in 2001.
The Center’s Land Use Policy and Administration Project assists the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in making its land policy more open, forward looking, and market-oriented. Center Director Harvey M. Jacobs traveled to T&T in January to meet with Asad Mohammed, Head of Land Surveying and Land Information, University of the West Indies, and Chair of the project’s Steering Committee. Dr. Jacobs delivered a public lecture, met with students, and spent two days in the field examining the country’s land use and tenure issues. He ended his trip with a faculty lecture at the University of the West Indies: "The Promise and Paradox of Private Property in the 21st Century."
The Summer Law Extern Program selected another nine students representing the following law schools: Chicago, Columbia, Dayton, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. The Center’s Brenda Haskins and UW Law School Assistant Professor Thomas Mitchell direct the program, which places law students with public interest law firms or NGOs in minority communities with dire legal needs. In this 5th summer of the program, students will be hosted by these organizations: Community Resource Group, Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc., Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Land Loss Prevention Project, Texas Rural Legal Aid, and US Department of the Interior. See http://www.ies.wisc.edu/nap/nap_project7.html for more on the Program's recent activities.
In July, BASIS CRSP is holding major workshops in Russia, Central America, and Southern Africa; in November, a similar workshop will be held in El Salvador. As the Center-managed BASIS CRSP completes its 5th year, these synthesis workshops are attempts to forge coherent, policy-relevant statements from the regions. Target audiences range from global policymakers and donors to host country government decision makers, catchment council leaders, local women’s groups, etc. Look for workshop summaries, BASIS Briefs and other outputs on the BASIS website: http://www.ies.wisc.edu/ltc/basis.html.
On a visit with implications for the future of land reform in South Africa, Dr. G.P. Mayende, Director General of the Department of Land Affairs, Republic of South Africa, was at the Center for two weeks in June to interact with its senior researchers, many of whom work on tenure reform in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Dr. Mayende hopes to learn from experiences in these other African countries.
It has been six years since land reform was implemented to address security of tenure for approximately 2.4 million households. Dr. Mayende expressed the hope that reform can move from the planning level to a level of effective policy implementation. The visit also provided Dr. Mayende an opportunity to study research materials and other documents and publications housed at the Center.
The University of Wisconsin Foundation announced the establishment of the "Scott Kloeck-Jenson Fellowship Program Fund," which honors the memory and work of Scott Kloeck-Jenson. In 1999, while working on the Center’s Mozambique project, Scott and his family were killed in an auto accident while traveling in South Africa. Established by an initial gift by Scott’s parents and composed of contributions from interested alumni and friends, the Fund aids the Center for Global Studies in its teaching, research, and public service roles.
Copyright © 2001 by Land Tenure Center and Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin. All rights reserved.
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