[ti:'Property Ladder' Helps Poor Gain Land Rights] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:Agriculture Repor] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [00:04.90]Less than a third of people in developing countries [00:08.93]own or have any official right to the land they live on. [00:13.87]Groups like UN-Habitat and its partners are working [00:18.72]on a simple way to secure land rights for millions of people. [00:24.50]Development experts say gaining land rights [00:28.07]is important for reducing poverty [00:30.88]and increasing economic growth and food production. [00:35.73]Poor people can then use the land as security to get bank loans. [00:42.20]Land records can also show foreign investors [00:46.56]that the land and the rights of those on it are legally secure. [00:52.37]Foreign demand has increased in recent years [00:56.43]for agricultural land in Africa, Asia and South America. [01:02.76]UN-Habitat official Clarissa Augustinus in Nairobi, Kenya, [01:08.36]explains why land records are so important. [01:12.89]CLARISSA AUGUSTINUS: "When an investor goes to the government [01:15.59]and says 'I want a piece of land,' [01:17.28]the government looks on their maps [01:19.37]which show that that particular piece of land is empty, [01:23.96]and they give it to an investor. [01:26.95]But when the investor goes there and looks at the land, [01:30.49]he sees that it is fully occupied [01:32.61]by a tribe or a family or whatever." [01:34.97]Forcing the people off the land can harm the image of the investor. [01:40.60]CLARISSA AUGUSTINUS: "It can cause what the European investors [01:43.21]are calling reputation risk." [01:45.23]Ownership documents like deeds and titles are rare, [01:49.21]she says, because establishing property lines [01:53.03]and recording land is expensive. [01:55.82]CLARISSA AUGUSTINUS: "You could be talking [01:57.16]a couple of hundred dollars to create a deed or a title. [02:00.22]And most countries cannot afford to give the majority of citizens, [02:05.05]at this point in time, [02:06.75]ownership rights because of the cost of creating it, [02:10.59]and most individuals cannot afford to subsidize it." [02:15.37]UN-Habitat says the answer in some countries [02:19.70]is to create a series of steps in gaining land rights [02:24.51]-- a so-called property ladder. [02:27.28]First, people could receive a simple document [02:30.94]or starter title to the land they are on. [02:34.79]They would be safe from the threat of being forced off the land [02:39.77]by the state or wealthy buyers. [02:42.32]Higher steps would provide greater rights. [02:46.05]Finally, a majority of a community could decide [02:50.81]to allow individual ownership of the land. [02:54.70]Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia [02:59.14]are among the countries adopting property ladders. [03:02.74]Ms. Augustinus says Ethiopia has already provided [03:07.93]twenty million land certificates on the lower end [03:12.36]of the property ladder for about one dollar each. [03:16.36]In Southeast Asia, the United States Agency [03:20.97]for International Development is working [03:24.20]on a project to help Timor-Leste develop property rights. [03:28.94]The first step is an official certificate [03:32.90]recognizing a landholder's unopposed claim. [03:37.14]East Timor separated from Indonesia in nineteen ninety-nine. [03:42.96]The Indonesian army had destroyed land records [03:47.07]and forced communities from their land to break up resistance. [03:51.77]And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [03:57.14]I'm Bob Doughty.