Institutional arrangements and land trusts
‘Good Governance’ is the new catchword in land administration, particularly in the context of developing and transitional economies. Internationally, the push is coming from the World Bank (Study on Governance in Land Administration) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (Good Governance in Land Tenure and Administration). AusAID’s ‘Making Land Work’ (Pacific Land Program) and the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat (PIFS Land Management and Conflict Minimisation initiative) augment this push at a regional level.
APCCRPR research and advisory initiatives analyse the strategic canons and aspirations of these well-intentioned initiatives from a real property rights angle. In 2007, APCCRPR members undertook a major Review of Customary Property Rights and Formal and Informal Institutions for Economic Development and Conflict Minimisation on behalf of the Land Management and Conflict Minimisation initiative of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Through the application of a model of generic institutional change, we proposed a framework to engage and resolve current structural limitations by converting Land Administration policy and legislation into strategies, systems, and programmes.
The APCCRPR is represented on the FIG Task Force on Institutional and Organisational Development, which provides links to the World Bank, UN Agencies and the Commissions of the International Federation of Surveyors.
Additionally, APCCRPR members have undertaken research on Land Trusts and Community Forestry, which won a 2009 Outstanding Paper award from Emerald Publishing.
