John Drysdale explains how GIS technology is helping former refugees in Somaliland to gain title to their land.

Many farmers in Somaliland are former refugees who abandoned their farms and fled to Ethiopia during the civil wars in Somalia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. On their return, the farmers had no formal proof of ownership, and the unclear boundaries between farms led to fierce and often prolonged conflicts. With no police presence in the rural areas, many farmers defended their territorial rights with AK47s, to the death if necessary.

For the past seven years, the Somaliland Ministry of Agriculture has supervised the demarcation, surveying and mapping of farms and adjudicating farmers’ freehold ownership rights. Supported by the UNDP and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the programme relies on GIS technology, the Natural Area Coding (NAC) system and teams of young newly trained Somalis.

The programme has helped to resolve many disputes and has contributed to the general development of the areas that have been surveyed. Farmers who have secure title to their land can use it as collateral for loans to invest in production, but such ownership rights can only be granted after the land has been officially surveyed and mapped.

Creative cadastral surveying

The programme is being implemented by Cadastral Surveys, a UK-based NGO, in collaboration with a Canadian company, NAC Geographic Products Inc. (NACGEO). The aim is to demarcate, survey and map farms of about 5 hectares each in the Gabiley and Dilla districts of western Somaliland .

Surveying and mapping the many small farms in these districts may look like a formidable and expensive exercise, but it is not. With the help of the Ministry of Agriculture and the staff of UN agencies, Cadastral Surveys brought together and trained a group of young unemployed Somalis. During a four-month training course, they were taught the basics of surveying and demarcating land and to use surveying equipment such as theodolites, liquid compasses and total stations (electronic distance measurement devices) to calculate areas and boundaries. They also learned how to create thematic wall maps and compile comprehensive databases, as well as to produce laminated farm registration certificates to be issued to farmers. To keep overheads to a minimum, a retired surveyor and a computer expert provided training in how to create maps using ArcView, a geographic information system (GIS) software package.

The NAC system

The measurements recorded by the three field teams are sent to the Cadastral Surveys head office in Gabiley. There, the raw data are examined to correct any obvious errors and are entered into ArcView to create a preliminary schematic map showing the location and boundaries of each plot. This basic map, or ‘ground layer’, is emailed to NACGEO, where cartographers superimpose onto it a rectangular grid of NAC coordinates, which are more compact than those used by the GIS. Any point on the map can now be identified with an NAC, giving every farm plot a unique ‘address’.

The new two-layer map is returned to Cadastral Surveys in Galibey, where it is fed into the GIS database. Further layers can be added to indicate other relevant details, such as the location of wells and rain gauges. The finished product is a wall map showing the surveyed property boundaries and their coordinates, which is displayed in all government and UN agency offices for all to see.

The survey teams then return to the field and paint the NACs onto concrete ‘boundary blocks’ that have been embedded in the ground on each farm. The NACs are stored in a ‘master’ database maintained by Cadastral Surveys, and at the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry is now using the database to update land sale and inheritance records and, crucially, to issue land registration certificates and freehold title deeds to individual farmers.

A positive impact

So far, Cadastral Surveys has demarcated and mapped more than 6500 farms occupied by 39,000 former refugees in Gabiley and Dilla districts. Currently, the three field survey teams and one in-house team are surveying and mapping nine farms per day. By the end of 2005, Cadastral Surveys expects to double its output from 234 to 468 farms a month.

The evident success of the programme has aroused considerable interest. In 2004, for example, Cadastral Surveys was invited to explain the process at a round table organized by the UN Economic and Social Council. Furthermore, a generous donation from the UK company De La Rue to the University of Hargeisa has been used to purchase equipment for the new Institute of Land , Soil and Water Surveying. In October 2005, 52 students completed the Institute’s first 12-month diploma course on land surveying and mapping.

The process of surveying, mapping and adjudicating freehold ownership of farmland has helped to bring to an end the bloody territorial disputes, and to rebuild communities. The farmers now have a valuable legal asset that they can use as collateral for loans and can pass on to their children.

John Drysdale (john_drysdale@yahoo.com) is director of Somaliland Cadastral Surveys. For further information, visit www.somalilandsurveys.info.

This project was first featured in ICT Update 17, May 2004.

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