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Background Information
PCGIAP and Land Administration
International Workshop on Good Land Administration
PCGIAP Round Table Meeting
PCGIAP and Land Administration
PCGIAP has made significant achievements since its inception in 1995. It has provided a focus for spatial data infrastructure initiatives across Asia and the Pacific region and for sharing experiences about designing, building and managing regional SDIs.
The national mapping agencies in member states have shown leadership in these initiatives, suited to the evolving nature of SDIs with their traditional focus on small scale national initiatives. However, several members of PCGIAP have expressed a desire to have a better mechanism for sharing experiences about not only mapping and SDIs but also in land administration in the region in a similar manner to the European system under the UNECE Working Party on Land Administration (WPLA). While PCGIAP actively supported sharing of experiences through its previous Working Group 3 (Cadastre), countries such as Mongolia now view this as insufficient. These countries need a much more focussed and institutionalised arrangement, desirably under a UN mandate.
This situation presents an opportunity for PCGIAP to widen its mandate, to continue to remain fully relevant to member countries and to assist national governments to seize opportunities created by the newest spatial technologies that increasingly integrate ALL spatial, geocoded information. This initiative would also strengthen PCGIAP and ensure a stronger attendance at meetings. It has been suggested, that unless it broadens its scope to include land administration activities (and all core land information), PCGIAP risks encouraging countries, by necessity to create a parallel organisation responsible for national large scale land information as an integral component of a national SDI. Duplication would inevitably weaken PCGIAP over time as the authoritative manager of spatial information in the region.
As a result of this, there was a recommendation as part of a White Paper titled “A vision for PCGIAP in a spatially enabled world” presented at the PCGIAP meeting in Korea 13-15 June, 2007 that PCGIAP explore possibilities and structures to ensure that national mapping and geographic information agencies as well as cadastral and land administration agencies are represented for each country in the Asia and Pacific region. This would mean that countries where the national mapping and land administration/cadastral activities are combined (such as Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Mongolia, Fiji, New Zealand, Fiji, etc) would normally be represented by one person even though they may wish to have two representatives representing each broad area of national mapping and land administration. Where the functions are split between two agencies then two representatives would attend PCGIAP.
PCGIAP technical sessions could typically have two parallel sessions, one for national mapping and NSDI initiatives and one for land administration matters. There would also be plenary sessions to integrate activities in support of the common vision of spatially enabling governments and society. The organisational model would provide an innovative approach to functional and seamless treatment of land information, and assist countries in the region to position themselves for world leadership in take up of new technologies and delivery of government services that depend on a fully integrated approach to managing spatial information.
In response to this, at the PCGIAP meeting in Korea, the PCGIAP discussed the proposal by Mongolian member regarding the need to establish a better mechanism to discuss and share land administration experiences in the Asia and Pacific region. While welcoming discussion on this matter and appreciating the need for better mechanisms to share land administration experiences in the region, the initial response from the PCGIAP members at the meeting was that more time is needed to discuss the matter and that it is important for PCGIAP to maintain a dialogue with member countries on this issue.
Further, in the short term PCGIAP asked Professor Ian Williamson, Chair of PCGIAP WG3 to represent PCGIAP at the Roundtable in Mongolia to discuss this issue on Friday 29 June, 2007. The Roundtable was part of the Mongolia Workshop on “Good Land Administration – Its role in Economic Development”. Professor Williamson advised the Roundtable that PCGIAP was pleased to consider all suggestions and recommendations that arise from this Roundtable at its next PCGIAP Board Meeting in Canberra, Australia in April, 2008.Sustainable development and meeting "the triple bottom
line" (economic, social and environmental objectives) requires
an understanding of the natural and built landscape in order to
observe and monitor change and to create realistic simulations
of the evolving environment. This requires access to both built
and natural environmental datasets. Over the last decade these
needs are being addressed by establishing spatial data infrastructures
(SDI) where one of the key objectives is the integration of these
datasets, and specifically cadastral (built) and topographic (natural)
spatial data (Figure 1). The drive to establish SDIs is also driven
by a need for governments and businesses to improve their decision-making
and increase efficiency (Gore, 1998), as well as the advent of
accessible, powerful information and communications technologies.
International Workshop on Good Land Administration
As a result of the discussion on sharing experiences in land administration in Asia and the Pacific, the Mongolian Government through the Administration of Land Affairs, Geodesy and Cartography of Mongolia (ALAGaC) and the support and close cooperation from PCGIAP, has proposed to organise two activities i) International workshop “Good Land Administration – Its Role in Economic Development and ii) PCGIAP round table on the need for better mechanisms for sharing land administration policies, strategies, related technologies and experiences in the Asian and Pacific region, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This was excellent meeting point of officials, academics, non-governmental organizations’ and private sector representatives working in the land administration sector in Asia and Europe. The workshop was co-organized and co-sponsored by international organizations such as Swedesurvey – overseas agency of the National Land Survey of Sweden, Asian Development Bank, UNDP Mongolia, Open Society Forum, GTZ – German Technical Assistance, FIG – International Federation of Surveyors, UNECE WPLA – Working Party on Land Administration, GSDI – Global Spatial Data Infrastructure and Eurogeographics.
A key aim of the workshop was to establish a land administration sector network and a mechanism to share experiences in cadastre, land administration and related SDI initiatives between Asia and the Pacific and European countries. The Workshop discussed the establishment of a working party on land administration or similar within the Asia and the Pacific countries desirably under a UN umbrella to ensure that the land administration and SDI areas are well linked and coordinated.
130 participants from around 20 countries have discussed and presented on the following three themes: i) Good Governance – Good Land Administration, ii) Putting land into economic process and iii) Land Information System in place, what next?
As the result of the workshop a Mongolian Declaration on Land Administration to support Sustainable Development was adopted. In particular to integrate spatial and SDI aspects with land related activities. This declaration recommended that the land administration should be approached holistically addressing all aspects of sustainable development – economic and social development and environmental management and protection.
PCGIAP Round Table Meeting
A roundtable discussion on the need for better mechanisms for sharing land administration policies, strategies, related technologies and experiences in the Asian and Pacific region was coordinated by PCGIAP on 29 June 2007 as part of the workshop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The Roundtable discussion included representatives from PCGIAP member countries (Australia, Mongolia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and Korea) as well as the Chair of the UN ECE Working Party on Land Administration (representing cadastre, land registry, valuation and related land agencies from the 52 UNECE countries), the Executive Director of Eurogeographics (an association representing geographic information, mapping and cadastre organizations in Europe), the President of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association and Professor Peter Dale, Honorary President of FIG. Professor Ian Williamson, Chair of PCGIAP WG3, represented the President of PCGIAP and chaired the Roundtable on behalf of PCGIAP.
Professor Williamson presented the PCGIAP White Paper on the need for improved sharing on land administration experiences in the region as well as the PCGIAP response endorsed by PCGIAP at its meeting two weeks before in Korea. He presented a summary of the activities of PCGIAP in the cadastral and land administration areas undertaken by WG3 since 2000. He also made a presentation on the relationship between land administration and national spatial data infrastructures, and their role in supporting sustainable development. These opening presentations by Professor Williamson were followed by presentations from the Chair of UNECE WPLA and the Executive Director of Eurogeographics on lessons and successful European mechanisms to share land administration experiences that have evolved since the mid 1990s. The common message from these presentations was the importance of representing national geographic information activities, mapping, cadastre and land registry organizations in the one regional administrative structure that has reports to the UN.
As the results of the round table meeting the participants have agreed that it is very important to have one regional administrative structure representing national geographic information activities, mapping, cadastre and land registry organizations and that reports to the UN. It is proposed that PCGIAP shall take the initiative and start discussions with the member countries of PCGIAP and relevant international organizations. The outcome of the round table is summarized in the Report to PCGIAP on the outcomes from the Roundtable discussion on the exchange of land administration experiences in the Asia and Pacific region.
Last modified: 22-May-08
Maintained by: Andrew Binns
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