In Brasil, 1 percent of the population owns 49 percent of land. Source (Financial Times, 0 April 2010)
In Britain, 0.3 percent of the population owns 69 percent of land. Source (Financial Times, 0 April 2010)
Globally, more people now live in cities and towns than in rural areas
Africa is now the World’s fastest urbanizing region and by 2050, 55% of Africans will be living in urban areas (from 38% in 2000)
Over 90% of new urban development in Africa is taking the form of slums
About 70% of urban population in Africa presently live in slums, and yet occupy less than 10% of urban and peri-urban lands
Research shows that in Africa about 60% of GDP is created in cities and towns
Formal land registration and administration have been unable to cope with rapid urban growth and as a result, between 50-70 percent of urban land in Africa is delivered through informal practices
In Zimbabwe, on 19 May 2005, with little or no warning, the Government embarked on an Operation to 'clean-up' its cities. It was a 'crash' operation known as Operation Murambatsvina and affected over 700,000 people.
In Ghana, some 800 people also had their homes destroyed in Legion Village, Accra, in May 2006, while approximately 30,000 people in the Agbogbloshie community of Accra have been threatened with forced eviction since 2002.
In Kenya, at least 20,000 people have been forcibly evicted from neighbourhoods in or around Nairobi since 2000.
In Equatorial Guinea, at least 650 families have been forcibly evicted from their homes since 2004, when the government embarked on a programme of urban regeneration in Malabo and Bata.
In Luanda, the capital of Angola, at least 6,000 families have been forcibly evicted and have had their homes demolished since 2001.
In Sudan, more than 12,000 people were forcibly evicted from Darusalaam camp in August 2006.
58 per cent of all households in South Africa are living without security of tenure.
In Nigeria, some 2 million people have been forcibly evicted from their homes and many thousands have been made homeless since 2000.
More than 3 million Africans have been forcibly evicted from their homes since 2000.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the 1998 Regularization of Tenure Act established a Certificate of Comfort that can be used to confer security of tenure to squatters as the first step in a process designed to give them full legal title.
Some 25,000 evictions are carried out annually in New York City alone.
In Atlanta, some 30,000 people were forcibly evicted prior to the 1996 Olympic Games, while the oldest public housing project, Techwood Homes, was deliberately de-tenanted because it stood in the way of a 'sanitized corridor' running through to CNN headquarters and the city centre.
Between 40 and 70 per cent of the population of Brazil’s main cities are living in irregular settlements.
Some 720,000 people were forcibly evicted in Seoul and Inchon, Republic of South Korea, prior to the 1988 Olympic Games.
The number of people forcibly evicted to give way to dams in India alone since 1950 has been estimated at 50 million.
The economic boom in China has significantly reduced security of tenure. Rapid urban growth is a major cause of forced evictions. 1.7 million people have reportedly been evicted in Beijing (China) in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games.
Everyone who returned to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime was a squatter.
In Sri Lanka, large numbers of those displaced by the tsunami in late 2004 are still prevented from returning to their original homes and lands.
The Government of Myanmar forcibly evicted more than 1 million residents of Yangon, Rangoon.
An restitution programme in Kosovo has provided legal clarity regarding tenure and property rights to 29,000 disputed residential properties in the province since 2000.
Tools for Legal Integration and Provision of Environmental Improvements in Informal Settlements in Europe
The rapid economic and political change in Albania during the last twenty years resulted in rapid population increase in urban centers, mainly due to immigration of rural poor searching for job opportunities and better living conditions. Approximately two thirds of the buildings in urban areas are informal developments. The majority of informal developments are not connected to infrastructure and do not receive services such as education and health. The impact of informal developments on the environment is significant, especially in the coastal zone. Large areas of former productive agriculture land (300,000 hectares) have been converted to urban land use. Land administration capacity is not sufficient to support the maintenance of the first registrations following privatisation, never mind cope with the informal developments. For those reasonsthere is a massive mistrust to the system.Albanian government is very open about the informal development issue and did not (could not) stop it happening through prosecutions and demolitions. Government applies a “pro-growth” policy, aiming to economic development by not adopting strict regulations to control development; legalising properties (with few criteria for rejection) with the provision of registration (including building and parcel measurements) and infrastructure was selected as the preferred option. 127 new informal zones have been created to encompass 300,000 properties in informal developments.
Greece has experienced several “generations” of informal development. The detailed spatial and urban planning legislation is very complex (over 25,000 pages of legislation). This is not easily interpreted even by professionals, never mind citizens. Urban plan studies take on average 8-10 years and cost €6,000 per hectare. Towns are constrained and have limited space for further development. For that reason real estate values are extremely high for condominiums in planned areas (even within blue collar areas) while salaries are very low. Construction permitting in non planned areas requires involvement of more than 20 land related agencies and may last several years and in many cases requires court decisions. The statutory environmental constraints are not clearly defined and not delineated on maps. It is estimated that there are over 1 million informal developments across Greece. Greek government applies strong laws and penalties on environmental protection. This has significantly reduced the environmental impact of informal development, especially in coastal zones, archaeological sites and forests. Planning criteria usually do not include market interests though. The planning process runs at a different speed to market needs and cannot accommodate short term needs when there are large demands. This policy restricts any serious investments and impacts the economic development of the country.
Experience shows that neither legalization nor strict penalties nor demolition as such have ever managed to stop illegal development. There is a need for understanding that an integrated approach in land management is required; the specific goal of this study is to define options for solutions to the existing situation of unplanned urban development in the region, but also for adopting realistic and appropriate land policies in order to eliminate the phenomenon in the future.
The Expert Group Meeting on “Tools for Legal Integration and Provision of Environmental Improvements in Informal Settlements in Europe - Case Study: Albania, Greece” took place in Athens, 27-28 November 2008, at the headquarters office of the Technical Chamber of Greece, Karagiorgi Servias 8, Syntagma, Athens. The Expert Group Members who participated to the meeting are 4 experts fromFIG and UN-HABITAT: ProfStig Enemark, FIG President, Dr Clarissa Augustinus, Land Tenure and Property Administration Section Chief, Dr Chryssy Potsiou, FIG Commission 3 chair, Lecturer NTUA, Robin McLaren FIG Commission 3 expert; 5 experts from Albania: MrFlamur Kuci, Advisor to Deputy PM of Albania on territorial issues, Community planner,MsLubjana Nano, responsible for the First registration of informal buildings, MsSonila Jaza, Deputy Chief Registar,Ms Shpresa Leka, responsible for Urban Planning at National Agency of Legalisation, Urbanisation and Integrating Unauthorized buildings, and Mr Kristaq Qirko, ALUIZNI, Surveyor; and 5 experts from Greece: MrMarkos Fragioudakis, architect / planner, representative of the Technical Chamber of Greece;Dr Panos Lolonis,surveyor engineer NTUA, Director of the Greek Cadastre,Mr Stavros Iatrou,mechanical engineer NTUA, Mayor of Keratea, Mr Gerasimos Apostolatos, surveyor engineer NTUA, ex-Director of the Ministry for the Environment Physical Planning and Public Works and currently consultant of the Ministry,andProf Babis Ioannidis, Photogrammetrist, NTUA. The meeting was attended by 3 observers: Emiliana Gouga (Albanian) and Florida Sinani (Albanian), undergraduate students in the School of Rural and Surveying Engineers of NTUA, and Dionissia Perperidou(Greek) post-graduate student in the School of Rural and Surveying Engineers of NTUA. The TCG sponsored (partially) the organization of the meeting; Ms Kia Filippidou, director, and Notina Kontoyianni and Peny Zavou, staff members of the department for International Relations of the TCG facilitated the meeting. During the meeting, there were 11 presentations and in depth discussions during the 8 sessions with the following topics: “Introduction”, “Informal Development in Albania and Greece”, “Planning and Building permits and procedures – Institutional Strengthening of Municipalities”, “Affordable housing and Land-use planning policies-pro poor access to land, Legislation and Participation”, “Monitoring and Information Creation and Management”, “E-government, Coordination of Agencies- Proposals for Reducing the Phenomenon in the Future”, “Legalization versus Demolition”, “Conclusions –Future Plan”.
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