International Land Measurement Standards: A Perfect Fit

摘要

We have almost reached the end of a long road; the International Land Measurement Standards (ILMS) have undergone an open, global consultation and draft versions have been downloaded hundreds of times. The consultation has not only helped the coalition of more than 30 national and international organisations and institutions gather global market insight and commentary, but also to inform the wider finance, legal, land acquisition and investment professions about the ILMS and the impact they will have on their work. Furthermore, the consultation has opened the debate on some new major global guides from UN agencies and helped embed ILMS in them. When the coalition was formed in June 2016 at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy, it was agreed that ILMS would be international, principle-based standards for recording and reporting information relevant to land and property transfers. The standards aim to reduce the risks in such transactions by ensuring consistency and supporting land governance, robust conveyancing, secure lending and land registration. Global consistency is provided by standards for classifying, defining, measuring, analysing, presenting and reporting land information, which can be applied at project, regional, state, national and/or international levels. ILMS are therefore both the standards themselves and a framework for reporting. During the consultation, it has also become apparent that their flexible and non-prescriptive quality is a powerful incentive for adopting them, linking them directly to the concept of being fit for purpose. Their non-prescriptive nature means the ILMS are aspirational rather than rigid, which is especially important where high levels of informal land ownership and land use occurs.