Countries are increasingly embracing drones and satellites to map land and minimize conflict rising from ownership disputes, but unequal access to the technologies can further endanger the rights of vulnerable people, analysts have said.
With the easy availability of uncrewed aerial vehicles, satellites and GPS, countries from Kenya to the Philippines are able to quickly survey areas that would otherwise require trained staff to manually record data.
However, experts said that those strategies could undermine the land claims of people living in such regions if they are not connected to the Internet and are unable to take part in the process.
Several Indian states are using drones and satellites to update land records dating back to the colonial era.
The Philippines in December last year became one of the first nations in Asia to unveil an official policy allowing drone-assisted surveys for land titling.
In a country where legal titles cover only half the property, titling a plot of land requires submitting a survey for government approval.
That can be expensive and time-consuming, said Rhea Lyn Dealca at the Foundation for Economic Freedom, a Philippines-based advocacy group that has joined government officials, service providers and community leaders in pilot projects.
“Drones reduce the cost and time of surveys, and unlike traditional survey maps, the high-resolution photographic maps help residents verify their lots more easily,” she said.
“Community participation is important, even with more sophisticated technology,” she added.
Satellites and drones can significantly extend a government’s reach — particularly in rural areas — and increase accuracy and efficiency, said Beth Roberts, a program manager at the land rights advocacy group Landesa in Seattle.
Where governments do not have adequate resources, civil society and land users themselves can use drones and other technologies to establish and verify boundaries, she said.
However, residents must be able to participate in the processes and validate the information, which can be a challenge if they do not have access to the Internet, Roberts said.
“Billions of people remain unconnected to the Internet. As governments shift to high-tech tools to map and record land rights, the digital divide has the potential to further marginalize rural communities and individuals,” she said.
Roberts said that people must be informed of their land rights and be empowered to ensure that they are respected.
“This is especially important for groups and individuals who are likely to be excluded — among them women and youth,” she said.
In Indonesia, rights groups said that millions of people have been denied legal titles because they live in conflict areas that fall outside the government’s mapping exercise, which it says applies only to places where land title is “clean and clear.”
However, non-state groups have also seized on technology to provide legal titles.
In Myanmar’s Kayin State, a decades-long fight for autonomy killed hundreds and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes.
The war officially ended in 2012, when the Karen National Union and the military signed a ceasefire, but rights groups said threats to land tenure security have increased since then.
Rising investor interest in logging and mining, and the Burmese government’s move to set aside protected areas, raise the risk of land expropriation, said Saw Alex Htoo at the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network.
The network has been mapping land, including community forests and areas held under customary law, using GPS and GIS technology, and verifying the results with villagers, he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to