Titles issued in new computerised land certificate system

As anyone who has had to endure the painful process that is a trip to the land?s office in Belmopan will tell you, any improvement in the system is greatly appreciated. And this morning, during official ceremonies in the Corozal District, residents of Sarteneja reaped the benefits of those improvements as eight hundred land certificates were issued. The handing-over is part of a new management programme being implemented by the Lands and Surveys Department. According to Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Johnny Briceño, the security residents can now feel in their land ownership will soon be duplicated throughout the country.

Johnny Briceño, Min of Natural Resources/Environment
?What we are doing is trying to move as much as possible from the different land systems into one, the Land Registry. Under the Land Registry it?s a simpler process, it is a process where government guarantees the title. So today here in Sarteneja, under the Land Management Programme, we are issuing over eight hundred documents to the people of Sarteneja, their land documents. So what I have been telling them today now as they get these documents now, they have a security of tenure, the Government of Belize is guaranteeing under that title that that land exists, that it is unencumbered, and that they are the true owners of that land.?

According to Briceño, in addition to computerising the system, work is ongoing with rural communities and villages to facilitate the delineation of boundaries, and there are also plans to form a national planning unit to coordinate how land is developed in the country.