LAND TENURE

 

Issues:

 

· Who owns the land in East Timor? · Recognition of traditional property rights using what mechanism? · Air space above land and water and earth below to be included when we talk about land · Who owns, who controls, who regulates, who uses? · Need to define different types of property rights · Government doesn’t own land- limits to government control · Regulation of foreign ownership · How to deal with existing investment · What regulations should there be? Size limits on land ownership? · Does UNTAET have authority over land or a new government? · How does UNTAET deal with people returning who owned land in Indonesian time, especially Indonesian citizens? How is extraction of resources from land going to be regulated? · Land zoning · Conflict between traditional rights and other demands for land resources.

 

 

 

PRIORITY ISSUES

STRATEGIES

Who owns the land in East Timor?
  1. Only East Timorese can own land in East Timor
  2. Ownership according to traditional mechanisms
  3. Need to determine citizenship of East Timor
  4. Rights of use of land by foreign investors
  5. Government to solve disputes over land between East Timorese
  6. There should be regulations to cover points 1-5
  7. This should start now.
  8. Consulstion with customary leaders in the development of regulation.

Regulation of foreign ownership

 

Size limits on individual ownership
  1. We need to set criteria to question if and to what extent we should set limits on land ownership
  2. Setting limits on land ownership is too impractical to practice
  3. There must be limits on land ownership or the poor people will suffer by not having access to land ownership.
  4. Need to find out population in each district
  5. Need for govt. regulations to recognise:
    - individual land
    - companies land
    - traditional land (tanah adat)
    - agricultural land
    - industri
    - tourism

Companies cannot own land, they can lease it from the govt. or from private landowners.

Conflicts between traditional rights and other demands on land resources