Project Profile: Trinidad and Tobago

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Project Overview and Contact Information

Project Title: Land Use and Policy Administration Project (LUPAP)

Term: 15 October 1999-14 October 2001

Funding: Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources, Government of Trinidad and Tobago

Amount: $973,951

Project contacts: J. David Stanfield, Project Director (608-263-5461, jdstanfi@facstaff.wisc.edu); Malcolm Childress, Consultant on Land Management Institutions (608-262-9548, mdchildr@facstaff.wisc.edu)

Participating institutions: Ordnance Survey International, UK; Graduate School of Design at Harvard University; Terra Institute, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin; and Associates for Caribbean Transformation (ACT) in Trinidad and Tobago. Collaborators in Trinidad and Tobago also include the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources; Ministry of Housing and Settlements; Ministry of Local Government; Ministry of Finance; and other government institutions and organizations involved in land management.

Summary: The project deals with the institutional roots of land tenure problems. It intends both to develop radically new organizational structures for the management of state land and to provide local expertise to Trintobagian agencies to better fulfill their mandates.

Objective: To improve the effectiveness of state land management and land use planning in Trinidad and Tobago.

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Land Use and Policy Administration Project

Background

LTC has an established understanding of the land administration and survey system in Trinidad and Tobago. With its Trintobagian colleagues, LTC had initiated many of the discussions and debates that led to the present registry, especially through the preparation of a Land Rationalization and Development Program in 1992 (see David Stanfield and Norman Singer, eds., "Land Tenure and the Management of Land Resources in Trinidad and Tobago, Part 1, Land Tenure," LTC Research Paper 115, July 1993, and "Part 2, Institutional Roots of Tenure Insecurity," LTC Research Paper 116, July 1993). LTC will build on this unique knowledge base through an integrated program of technical assistance and practical implementation.

Project Components

The project deals with the institutional roots of land tenure problems. It intends both to develop radically new organizational structures for the management of state land and to provide local expertise to Trintobagian agencies to better fulfill their mandates.

The technical assistance intends to: (1) develop the conceptual framework and an implementation plan for the establishment of an entity responsible for land management; (2) implement a new planning and development law; and (3) draft new, technical regulations for Trintobagian surveying professions.

Objectives, Goals, Mission of the Project

The objective is to improve the effectiveness of state land management and land use planning in Trinidad and Tobago. The beneficiaries are the holders of leases of state land and the people in local communities who wish to invest in housing and economic activities through land acquisition and development.

State land management has been a perennial problem in Trinidad and Tobago, with ineffective lease management by state agencies combined with costly procedures for the transfers of these leases (sales, gifts, inheritances).

Land use planning, moreover, has traditionally been centralized, with Town and Country Planning preparing regional development plans. New legislation is to facilitate the decentralization of plan development and implementation, so that there will be more local support for the implementation of these plans.

Combining project management experience and technical expertise with in-depth knowledge of local institutions and land use conditions, the team ensures that the objectives of the project are achieved: to assist GOTT in its effort to shift land policy to become more open, accessible, forward-looking, and market-oriented; and to assist GOTT in streamlining the institutional and regulatory framework of land administration to accommodate an effective land policy.

Summary of Project Activities

In each of 3 substantive areas of consulting service-land management institutions, land use planning, and survey regulations-the LTC team and GOTT, upon careful review of the status of institutions, will work together to elaborate workplans. Following this initial review and the approval of detailed workplans, the team will deploy its resources. While overall the goals of the assistance service will remain the same throughout the project's execution, the means for reaching these goals will constantly change-and will continuously be under GOTT review-as conditions change.

Publications

• Interview with David Stanfield about the Project by Danielle Corcoran of The Daily Cardinal.
     (November 4 and 6, 1999)

• Available from Terra Institute:

  • Database of Reports from LUPAP (best viewed with IE 6.0 or higher)

• Other LTC Publications about Trinidad and Tobago

Background Information about Trinidad and Tobago

• World Factbook entry
• Trinidad and Tobago Country Data (World Bank; pdf format)
• Trinidad and Tobago Country Brief (World Bank)
• Background Note (US State Department)
• Links to Development Information (Eldis)
• Links to Other Web Resources (Latin American Network Information Center)

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