90,000 Families Will Benefit from Property Titles
MANAGUA, March 26th, 2013– More than 90,000 families will benefit as a result of a US$40 million project approved on Tuesday by the World Bank Board of Directors (WB). The second stage of the Property Regularization Program (PRODEP II) regulates property rights and modernizes institutions in charge of managing land in Nicaragua.
The Attorney General of Nicaragua, Hernan Estrada, indicated that “the modernization of the entire public land registry system has been one of the greatest achievements of the first stage of the project, including the development of the Integrated Cadastral and Registry Information System (SIICAR), which it will continue to promote.”
Estrada expressed his satisfaction with the achievements of the first stage of the Project that began in 2002, adding that “it has favored indigenous communities in particular, after providing fifteen property titles, which put an end to an ancestral demand from these people, who are part of our multi-ethnic and pluri-cultural State.”
Camille Nuamah, World Bank Representative in Nicaragua, explained that, as of today, “an average of 24,000 km2 have been registered, equivalent to 18% of the national territory. Of these, 13,000 km2 correspond to areas registered by the project in Leon, Chinandega, Esteli and Madriz departments.”
“In the second stage we expect to register 33,000 km2, totaling 25.4% of the national territory; our goal is to sweep a further 9,000 km2 in 8 municipalities of Jinotega department and 12 in Nueva Segovia,” Nuamah added, also highlighting the gender approach used in the project, given that at least 50% of the titles are given to women or partners.
Close to 70,000 property titles have been delivered so far, 24,000 of which are the result of a cadastral sweep that led to the registration of 224,000 plots. The second stage will continue this process in order to benefit a further 90,000 poor families in rural and urban areas, particularly the underprivileged population with few chances of development and hindered by the lack of a property title.
The new project stage includes support for the Nicaraguan Institute of Land Studies’ (INETER) Physical Cadastre, where land owners from the reformed and private sector already have their updated property information. In order to favor the development of the municipalities, it will also continue to support the Nicaraguan Institute of Municipal Development (INIFOM).
The second stage, which ends in 2018, will continue to work on an alternative solution for land property conflicts by training the mediators and institutional staff in charge of these activities, and supporting the establishment of technical regulations with the intention of solving land property disputes.
The project also includes a significant environmental component, as it contemplates the demarcation of protected areas such as the Dipilto and Jalapa ranges, Yali Hills, Peñas Blancas Massif, Kilambe and Datanli - El Diablo Hills in Nueva Segovia and Jinotega departments, located in the north of Nicaragua near the border with Honduras.
