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Land titling in Peru
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Remapping Rio de Janeiro
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Millions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean lack legal title to the land they live on or cultivate. They can't
use their property as collateral to obtain credit, can't request basic public services and utilities, and consequently have little
incentive to take good care of the land or make improvements. Meanwhile, local governments cannot collect taxes from
unregistered landholders, which undermines their ability to provide services. To help end this vicious cycle, governments in
Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Belize, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala are using IDB financing to regularize the legal
status of millions of parcels and build state-of-the-art land registries. In Peru, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture is
using IDB funds for a program to produce accurate and up-to-date records for some six million rural landholders. Equipped with
aerial photographs, field teams from the ministry's land titling unit are fanning out across the countryside to visit individual land
owners. The teams verify lot boundaries by walking along the perimeters with owners, and they obtain records and testimony
from neighbors to certify ownership. Correct lot dimensions and landowner information are then entered into a GIS software
database and linked to digitized versions of the aerial maps. Landowners ultimately receive accurate cadastral certificates and
land titles. If they have questions about boundaries or tax assessments they can visit public registry offices, view a digital image
of their lot, and get print-outs of relevant records. In Rio de Janeiro similar technology is being used to remap the entire
metropolitan area, including low-income neighborhoods that have never been accurately mapped before. When completed, the
IDB-financed project will combine aerial photographs with detailed digital maps for 600 square km of municipal land. Streets
will be named and houses numbered so that owners can apply for legal titles.
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