Creating geospatial autonomy for Indigenous communities

Together with the local community organisation Cabildo Arhuaco del Magdalena y la Guajira, we developed a GIS for the Arhuaco community living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This GIS allows them to manage their own land data. It also gives them a stronger technical and legal position in conversations with various state institutions.

Ancestral knowledge and technology go hand in hand

In the Sierra, ancestral knowledge and technology reinforce each other. Combining them is key to inclusive land governance. Diana Balaguera, land team leader for Cabildo Arhuaco, explains: "The deepest lesson is that technology does not have to be at odds with spirituality or tradition. Instead of fragmenting, they unite and strengthen each other."

Academia as foundation for further development

To bridge the gap between local knowledge from Indigenous communities and technical information, we worked together with leading universitites. Professor Javier Fuentes of the Universidad Distrital advocates for an inclusive system that maps more than just deeds: "Why should a cadastre only map what is in a deed when I can also map the territory of a jaguar or an Andean bear?" Javier Morales of the University of Twente focused on making the technology more accessible so Indigenous communities can easily turn their local knowledge into reliable data.

From local success to state policy

This collaboration between Kadaster, universities, and ethnic authorities has allowed Indigenous communities to develop the technical capacity to map and protect their land. However, Diana Balaguera notes that the process is still in its infancy. The great challenge remains to turn local successes into scalable intercultural state policy. Nevertheless, digitizing their ancestral memory has allowed Indigenous communities to move from managing scattered paper records to leading a geospatial autonomy that allows them to speak on equal footing with the Colombian State.

More information

• For the Booster project we partnered with:
  • Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas
  • The ITC Faculty of the University of Twente
• Read more about the Tierra en Paz project on our project page Colombia: Land at peace.
• Read more about the LAND-at-scale project on our project page Colombia: Land at scale.

Structural challenges

Several structural barriers remain. Participatory methods are not widely adopted within public agencies. Peasants, women, youth and ethnic communities are not always equally involved. Coordination between key land institutions such as ANT, IGAC and SNR is weak, which makes data integration difficult. In addition, the legal framework—such as Law 160 of 1994 and Decree Law 902 of 2017—limits flexibility in land formalization.

Ample opportunities

At the same time, implementation experiences have generated important lessons. Meaningful community participation in data collection and validation strengthens trust, legitimacy and local ownership. Differentiated approaches are essential to ensure inclusive engagement. And innovative methodologies such as FFPLA can enhance efficiency without compromising participatory standards. 

4 areas for strategic improvement

Building on these findings, the document outlines opportunities focused on 4 priority areas:

• Institutionalizing community participation through national guidelines and quality assurance protocols.
• Strengthening institutional and territorial capacities to ensure sustainable implementation.
• Advancing toward a sustainable multipurpose cadaster model that includes maintenance mechanisms, clear role distribution and community-based reporting systems.
• And developing autonomous land administration systems for collective territories that respect principles of self-governance, interculturality and long-term sustainability.

Together, these strategic lines position participatory land governance not as a pilot experience, but as a scalable and coherent component of Colombia’s broader land administration policy framework.

Growing openness to explore new methodologies

Some recommendations addressed to the Geographic Institute Agustín Codazzi (IGAC) were incorporated into Colombia’s National Development Plan and through Law 2294 of 2023. This strengthened IGAC’s role as cadastral authority. The law has several positive effects:

• It reinforces the mandatory use of official data in formalization and cadastral processes (Art. 37).
• It formally recognizes IGAC’s authority to request and consolidate information within the national cadastral information system (SINIC) (Art. 43).
• It strengthens interoperability in multipurpose cadastre processes, including in ethnic territories (Art. 45). 
• It designates the National Land Agency (ANT) as a cadastral manager under IGAC’s guidelines (Art. 50).
• And it establishes the Land Administration System (SAT) (Art. 53), integrating cadastre, land registry and territorial planning with the participation of ethnic and rural communities. 

These developments reflect a growing openness within public institutions to explore new methodologies and strengthen collaboration.

A training programme for community surveyors

At the same time, Kadaster cooperated with Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas to design a training programme for community surveyors. The course equips members of Gobierno Mayor, belonging to different Indigenous communities, with essential tools, like the management of Field Maps app. In this way they can document and measure their own territories as a basis for strengthening land governance. This process was supported by technological expertise from our partner Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente. He contributed a session focused on the use of spatial data technologies and the opportunities and challenges of community-led data collection.

Systemic change in land administration

Together, these experiences demonstrate that systemic change in land administration requires coordinated action among public institutions, communities, academia and international development partners.

More information

• Read more about the LAND at scale project on our project page Colombia: Land at scale. 
• Read more about our Land in peace project on our project page Colombia: Land in peace.  
   

A viable business model

This expansion significantly increases the scope of work, requiring substantial additional staffing, operational resources, and financial capacity. This raises an immediate and essential question: how will these costs be sustainably financed, and what business model will support this new mandate?

Fee-based government services

Through several missions, we worked with ANDF to develop this business model. It enables the organisation to secure the financial means needed to maintain its digital land administration system. This helps ensure the delivery of modern digital services to the public. Drawing on our experience as a fee-based government service provider, we supported the design of a fee structure for registering transactions. These include services such as property transfers and parcel subdivisions.

Reducing the price of property transfers

Together we examined all relevant financial flows. For instance, all applicable transfer taxes. And also, fees charged by stakeholders across the service chain, such as notaries and private surveyors. Although further refinement is still required, estimates indicate that a property transfer could be registered for the equivalent of approximately € 40, excluding tax. This is significantly lower than the several hundred euros historically charged. Yet it is still a meaningful amount in a country where the minimum monthly wage is roughly the equivalent of € 80.

More information

For more information on our cooperation with ANDF, please visit the page Benin: Boosting the national land administration.

Almost 500,000 plots registered

The e-FB system visualizes property information and plot boundaries digitally. This speeds up processes and makes them more transparent. For the first time, Benin has a uniform, up-to-date map linked to legal data. So far Benin has registered the presumed ownership of almost 500,000 plots in 12 municipalities. This was done with special attention to and active input from vulnerable groups such as women, youth and small farmers.

A steppingstone to formal land titles

Registration of presumed ownership is an important step toward obtaining formal land titles (Titre Foncier), which offer the highest level of legal security. Once registered, the presumed owner receives a Certificat d'Enregistrement au Cadastre (CEC). Since April of this year, legislation allows this certificate to be transferred to another presumed owner. Municipalities are responsible for keeping track of these transactions. Local teams have been trained to enable this.

Moving forward with financial support

Besides financial support from the Dutch Embassy, the World Bank is also investing substantially in the development of land administration in Benin. This will enable Benin to take big steps towards a cadaster on a national level.

More information

• For more information, please visit our Benin project page.
• The Beninese television news recently aired an item on the certificate system. You can watch the episode in French on YouTube. 

Exploring durable solutions for IDPs

In this project we explored how land information and land administration can better support the human rights of IDPs and reduce land‑related conflicts. We also researched how this can contribute to durable solutions for IDPs. Meetings, such as a multi‑stakeholder roundtable and a dedicated workshop, and a field visit gave us a good view of the current land tenure context in Mexico.

Challenges ahead

There are certainly challenges to be reckoned with. Mexico’s land information systems cover the entire country. Yet, the data is often fragmented, partially outdated and uneven in quality. This is particularly true for social land, meaning agricultural land that is communicably owned by (indigenous) community members. Limited data sharing mechanisms and overlapping mandates further complicate the picture.

Committing to improvement

Yet there are also many promising signs. The project team witnessed a strong commitment among stakeholders to build durable solutions for IDPs. They are motivated to improve their cooperation and build on existing initiatives, such as Mexico’s ongoing modernisation programme. Our project showed that, despite the complexity of Mexico’s land administration system, there is opportunity to improve the protection of housing, land and property rights for IDPs in Mexico.

More information

• For this project we partnered with
  • Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
  • UNHCR Mexico
  • CADH Oaxaca
• Read more about our other projects on the page Our projects.

Twinning projects

The mission is part of the EU Twinning projects. These are designed to foster institutional cooperation between public administrations in EU Member States and partner countries. Through peer to peer exchange, experts share practical knowledge and proven approaches to support the development and modernization of public institutions. 

Building on legacy

Jordan has a long tradition in land administration, dating back to 1927. Rather than replacing existing systems, the Twinning project focuses on building upon this legacy. Guided by the United Nations’ Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA), the project aims to address modern challenges such as digitalisation, interoperability and sustainability.

Cooperation between Jordan, Spain, Croatia and the Netherlands

For this first mission, experts from the Netherlands, Spain and Croatia worked closely with their Jordanian counterparts to assess the current land administration system. We divided responsibilities according to each partner’s area of expertise. This ensured a coordinated and complementary approach. 

Future-oriented partnership

Kadaster International’s contribution focuses on supporting the development of an LADM country profile and a prototype to make land administration more efficient and user friendly. With a history of positive cooperation between Kadaster and DLS, this project represents a strong step forward in a trusted and future oriented partnership.

More information

• Read more about our collaboration with the DLS in Jordan on our project page Jordan: realizing future-proof land administration.
• This project is in partnership with: 
  • RVO (The Netherlands Enterprise Agency)
  • The Spanish General Directorate for Cadastre 
  • The Spanish Ministry of Finance, supported by Foundation for Internationalization of Public Administration
  • The Spanish National Centre for Geographic Information 
  • Spanish Notary
  • Spanish Property Registry
  • State Geodetic Administration in Croatia, supported by Central Finance and Contracting Agency

5 years of effort in 2 days

We also looked at emerging technical opportunities. Since 2011, Kadaster has transformed its topographic map production, using modern automatic generalisation techniques. As senior adviser Magdalena Grus put it: “What if 1 click could turn 5 years of effort into 2 days? Let’s aim for that.” Furthermore, we introduced LEAN methodology, open data policies and applications of these new data. 

Key takeaways

After 3 intensive days, our colleagues from Cyprus had gained knowledge of: 

• the main steps involved in automated generalisation, including the importance of input data (topology and data cleansing), pre-processing, quality and purpose of output data.
• multi-resolution data representation techniques. For instance scale-specific symbolisation and geometry transformation.
• the key components of quality assurance processes prior to generalisation. Such as completeness, positional accuracy, attribute consistency and topological correctness.
• practical examples of generalisation workflows and implementations.
• translating Kadaster's approach to its own organisational context by contributing to a roadmap for implementing generalisation at DLS.

More information

• Are you interested in a course on modern topographic mapping? Please contact us for more information via our contact form.
• Our partner in this project was the Department of Lands and Surveys in Cyprus. 
   

Extensive data collection campaign

Following the training, we gave 5 sets of field work equipment to MATHU. MATHU will lead the pilot process with our technical support. Over the coming months, 5 teams will conduct an extensive data collection campaign in the 7th district of N’Djamena and in the rural neighbourhoods of Linia.

Scaling up land recordation efforts

This new phase follows the successful completion of the jointly co-created fit for purpose land recordation methodology. This now forms the foundation for the upcoming pilot activities. The assessment of the piloting phase will provide a profound basis for scaling up land recordation efforts in a more transparent, participatory, and inclusive manner. It will also support the ongoing work surrounding the development of the new land policy.

More information

• The project “Improving Local Land Governance in Chad” is funded by RVO as part of their Land-at-Scale programme. It is implemented by a consortium consisting of Oxfam, Kadaster, and FAO, in collaboration with MATHU.
• Read more about our projects in Chad on the page Chad: improving land registration. 
   

Strengthening land governance

The workshop was facilitated by Kadaster, in partnership with the Instituto Governança de Terras (IGT) and support from FUNAI, the National Indigenous People's Foundation. This is an important step towards strengthening land governance and protecting indigenous territories in the Baixo Tapajós region.

Taking ownership of the process

The workshop was very well received by both the traditional leadership and the youth, who are committed to being ‘guardians of the forest’. The workshop’s interactive approach helped build trust and allowed participants to take ownership of the process. The team emphasized, however, that data collection is only the beginning. Continued training and data integration will be essential to achieve long-term impact.

Combining technology with local knowledge

The workshop was funded by the Dutch Embassy in Brazil. It serves as a proof-of-concept for combining technology and local knowledge to safeguard indigenous territories. Its success could influence broader land governance and climate resilience strategies in the Amazon region in alignment with the global goals of COP30 in Belém.

More information

Read more about our projects in Brazil on the Brazil project page.

Presentations on key topics

3 of our colleagues went to Brazil to attend the conference. They gave presentations on key topics: 

• Rohan Bennett, chair of the FIG commission on land cadastre and management, opened the conference. He also co-presented the talk Global snapshot cadastre 2025. This talk offered insights into global cadastral trends.
• Paula Dijkstra shared her experiences with projects in Latin America in her talk From standards to solutions.  She highlighted Kadaster’s role in supporting sustainable land administration in the region.
• Claudia Lindner discussed the role of digital transformation for integrated land management, with a focus on Brazil and Mexico. And she chaired a roundtable on conceptual frameworks for climate resilience and sustainable development.

A great opportunity for networking

The event brought together over 150 participants from more than 20 countries. A great opportunity for networking. We explored opportunities to collaborate on several topics, such as:

• fit-for-purpose land administration
• interoperability
• data integration
• capacity-building initiatives

We are committed to working with our partners towards inclusive and resilient land governance.

Dialogue and innovation

LADM-based solutions are gaining in popularity in Brazil, and this event reflected Brazil’s growing commitment to addressing rural land issues. The high-quality organisation, multilingual interpretation and cultural elements created an inspiring atmosphere for dialogue and innovation.

More information

• The conference proceedings, including all presentations, can be found on the page of the FIG Joint Land Administration Conference.
• Learn more about FIG in general at Fig.net. 

Why is this important?

"About 10 years ago, the government recognised much of Brazil’s territory as indigenous. This is incredibly important for protecting the rights of the indigenous population and their way of life, which is closely linked to the natural environment. People primarily live from subsistence farming, hunting and fishing. This way of life is under pressure from land claims by, for example, (non-indigenous) soy farmers and encroaching urbanisation. Because land rights in these areas are not properly registered, this leads to many conflicts. This project aims to provide clarity and legal certainty, especially for the indigenous population who are trying to protect their habitat."

How do you support them?

"With a well-functioning and transparent measuring and registration system. We help the local population, and the government properly map the area and its landowners. It is a large, jungle-like area. We are considering which technology will work in these circumstances. For instance, do you have sufficient GPS reception on your mobile phone? We are also exploring which software we can use to map the measurement data and how they can easily maintain that information themselves.”  

What is the ultimate goal?

"Making it clear that this is indigenous territory, that the boundaries have been precisely mapped, and that the government recognises those boundaries. And that Brazil in this way protects their land in an effective manner, from illegal logging or improper use. If this project is successful, we will have a good example that we can apply in many other areas with indigenous people and governments."

More information

• Read more information about this project on our project page.

More than just an asset

Their goal is to legally register unrecognized plots within their ancestral territory by making use of the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) tailored to Indigenous needs. The workshop emphasised the importance of integrating intercultural perspectives into land administration efforts. And to recognise land not merely as an asset, but as a living space tied to memory, identity, and spirituality.

Data as a tool for inclusion

During the Global Land Forum, Kadaster International and the University of Twente (ITC) led a second workshop. This session focused on designing mobile data collection forms based on LADM principles. The approach emphasized community participation and showed how data can support inclusive decision-making and fair land governance.

Representatives from Colombia’s National Land Agency and Topographic Institute also joined the workshop, underlining the importance of collaboration between communities and government institutions.

Looking ahead: the Booster Project

These events brought together experts, communities, and governments to share knowledge on land rights and governance. It also offered us a moment to reflect on progress and challenges in Colombia. We continue our efforts through the Land-at-Scale Booster Project, which aims to deepen the impact of land governance efforts and continue building bridges between local knowledge and institutional frameworks.

More information

• Read more about our project in Colombia on our project page.

The Sierra Leone Land Administration Project

The training supported the Sierra Leone Land Administration Project, a national initiative aimed at strengthening land governance. It forms part of a broader 6-year training plan that seeks to upskill over 1.100 land professionals in Sierra Leone. Ensuring sustainable reform and fair access to land in Sierra Leones future. 

Global knowledge exchange

The School for Land Administration Studies is a collaboration between Kadaster and University of Twente’s Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC).  This collaboration reinforces the ongoing commitment to global knowledge exchange and capacity development in land administration.

More information

• The Sierra Leone Land Administration Project is funded by the World Bank.
• Read more on the page School for Land Administration Studies. 

International impact 

Frank clearly advocated for international collaboration. He sincerely believed in the power of land rights and geospatial information for good. He took great joy to work and learn with kindred spirits around the world to make a lasting impact. Particularly noteworthy is his work for the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) initiative. He chaired the Europe region until his passing. His drive to accelerate developments that make a difference in people's everyday lives will not be forgotten.

Mapping the present and the future

These key partners will describe current Tunisian land registration and formalisation processes. They will also assess the impact of land disputes, the roles and responsibilities in the Tunisian government and the expectations of key stakeholders, especially young farmers. Kadaster will share land registration practices from the Netherlands, and will help develop a land consolidation plan suitable for Tunisia.

Taking the project forward

During the kick-off workshop in July 2024, the key partners agreed on how to cooperate and coordinate the project. They also set up a facilitation and coordination committee.

Kadaster advisor Marije Louwsma led in-depth working sessions on the status and practices of land administration in Tunisia, the types of land consolidation in the country, and their agricultural sector.

We shared experiences with working with the canvas, developing customer strategy scenarions and various forms of customer research. Using the customer canvas the participants reflected on what value they want to offer to their different users. And how they want to deliver on these promises.

Future work and goals

After two intensive days, the participants were tired but satisfied. One participant said: 'We learned a lot about marketing aspects, but we also learned how to work together in the workshop. We don't take the time for that in our daily work.'  Each team concluded with an action list that they presented to the director of ASIG. 

The follow up plans focus on customer value, partners, channels, customer promise and the possibility to create revenue. They want to achieve these goals through:

• Having more sessions to detail the ideas and plans created during the workshop.
• Developing the Marketing-function within ASIG (capability).
• Performing marketing research questionnaires to harvest needs and wishes from customers.
• Refining the marketing promise and strategy quarterly.

More information

• Read more about our project in Albania on the project page.

The challenge

National registries are heavily regulated, including land administration. Rapid advancements in fit-for-purpose (FFP) technologies and field data collection require adjustments to existing norms. This makes scaling up difficult. Those involved with the Colombian Land Agency emphasize the need to innovate regulations to simplify and speed up the process of land regularisation.

What does this approach look like in practice?

The idea is to regularise lands of several entire villages in a fast and affordable way, starting from scratch and ending with cadastral maps and accompanying formal titles. Without the usual obstacles of searching for old paper titles that can’t be found in governmental damp cellars all over the country, without old dated regulations on the minimal farm parcel size or without obsolete laws defining roughly the forest areas. This requires the formal support of all governmental institutions involved for each regulatory obstacle regulation that has to be lifted in the sandbox. 

Colombia's sandbox potential

Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce oversees the  possibility of executing sandboxes. Experiences in land administration and studies by Externado University highlight this approach’s importance for scaling up FFP innovations. 

Urgent need for efficiency

According to a recently released official document it will take 265 years to adjust the current informal land ownership to formal landownership for the entire country. The timeline worsens when considering the ongoing maintenance of land administration as the government often processes data slower than the changing reality. 

Support from RVO

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) runs the Land-at-Scale programme. This programme supports a sandbox project in Colombian land administration. This project builds on RVO’s experience with applying FFP methodologies to simplify rural land administration rules.  Future plans include linking this project with a larger EU cooperation programme focused on peace and nature preservation.

More information

• Read more about the project in Colombia on our project page.

What are the key challenges in the land sector? 

“Key issues include defining clear responsibilities among stakeholders and establishing a cohesive vision for the land sector. Furthermore we need to update legislation that respects local customs and improve land administration procedures. Land disputes, widespread corruption and forgery in land transactions further complicate matters. Effective collaboration between judicial and land registry services is crucial to address these challenges and to manage land issues efficiently. Currently, more than 80% of disputes handled by courts are about land issues.”

What is your future vision for Chad?

“Looking ahead 10 to 15 years, Chad aims to draft a new national land policy to enhance property rights and land tenure. This policy should incorporate social and gender inclusiveness and innovative conflict mechanisms. It should also include the establishment of a ‘one-stop shop’ for land affairs. This should lead to streamlined land documentation processes. Other benefits are improved rural and urban living environments as well as better city management.”

What is needed to achieve this? And how can Kadaster play a role? 

“Reliable and up-to-date data is essential for effective land governance. It facilitates the planning of long-term land use, urban mapping and risk reduction strategies. However, utilising this data effectively requires education and training. Government agencies need to closely coordinate with development partners such as Kadaster. This is essential for successful data collection, analysis and management. The absence of accurate data hampers crisis planning and service provision. It hinders governments' ability to secure funding and undermines coordination efforts. Therefore, investing in data reliability and information infrastructure is critical for sustainable and equitable land management in Chad.”

Read more?

• More information on our cooperation with Chad can be found on the project page for Chad.
• Would you like to stay informed on news from Kadaster International? Then sign up for the digital newsletter Abroad.
• Read more about all of our international projects on the projects page. 
   

The main goals of the IMLRI project were to:

1. digitally transform ATR/BPN into a customer-oriented data management entity
2. build public trust in land administration e-services through data quality improvements
3. complete the cadastral map with local participation methods

ATR/BPN managed to map over 80 million land parcels in the last five years. Half of those were also legalised. This is an enormous driver for economic growth and spatial planning. Furthermore it advances human rights in terms of ownership. 

Kadaster's role and project activities

We supported the ATR/BPN staff and leadership in speeding up this process. We provided capacity development, guidance, advice, hands-on know-how and many activities, including: 

• face-to-face workshops 
• webinar series
• knowledge exchange roadshows
• collaborative publications
• reviews of ATR/BPN services and tools

Overcoming challenges

All this was done mostly during the COVID-pandemic. This made travelling and knowledge exchange considerably more difficult. Despite these challenges we adapted our approach and visited 10 local offices to provide advisory support. We also trained more than 1000 ATR/BPN staff members across Java and Sumatra. 

Recent developments

At the wrap-up workshop in June 2024, it was evident that ATR/BPN made significant progress in digital transformation. And that this progress was partly based on Dutch Kadaster examples as PDOK and our Dutch Key Register system. New service standards and office designs ensure transparency and customer satisfaction. New apps and e-services are either developed or under development. Internal processes are being digitised. Data quality improvement programs are in place to enhance legal and spatial data.

Future collaborations

Looking ahead, there are many opportunities for further collaboration between Kadaster and ATR/BPN. We will continue to play a coaching role on topics including 3D cadastre, key registers, NSDI, land-use planning and value-add data product creation. An Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the end of 2023 to formalize this ongoing partnership.

More information

• Read more about this project in Indonesia on the project page.

The Land-at-scale programma

The Land-at-scale programme supports indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. Aiding them in formalising land processes and fostering sustainable economic development in the various Colombian regions. The programme was implemented by Kadaster, Icco Conexión and Tropenbos Colombia.

More information

• Read more about the project of Kadaster in Colombia on the project page.
• For more information about the activities in the indigenous reserve, see the La Teófila story map.