Access to rural land in Colombia: seminar hosted by Universidad Externado to analyze the legal paths to speed up the formalization processes in the country
The Externado University of Colombia, the Embassy of the Netherlands and Kadaster held on August 16 the Seminar: Access to Rural Land in Colombia. Legal analysis of the Fit-for-Purpose approach.
The event presented and discussed the main research results on the legal barriers to rural land titling, and presented alternatives for improvement aimed at speeding up the processes and procedures of the Social Ordering of Rural Property and the formalization of rural land. The research was conducted by Externado University last year.
The hybrid seminar was attended by a large variety of professionals, institutional actors, stakeholders such as women farmers from communities waiting for regularized land after concluding fieldwork, expert researchers, professors and students amongst others.
Students shared their experiences in training local grassroots surveyors for land measurement in the field, as they did in El Batán, Hobo. Betty Góngora and Aurora Martínez, community leaders of Vista Hermosa, Meta, called for speeding up the land titling processes: “Young people are organizing themselves to seek fair prices and learning and teaching how to farm organically. With the titles, they can have more certainty and realize they can also do business in the countryside”, Betty Góngora.
Recommendations were presented to legally facilitate participative methodologies related to the peace agreement goals. In several panels representatives of UPRA, Kadaster, ANT, and the Colombian Commission of Jurists, among others, reflected on actions in the sector, for instance, “The cadastre is with the people, for the people” (Gustavo Marulanda, Director IGAC).
With the results of this seminar, we intend to continue supporting national goals in land matters and promote in-depth discussions that allow for greater clarity on the existing legal barriers and possibilities.