“A Policy Like No Other”; DPM Cordel Hyde On Land Distribution Initiative

Cordel Hyde

Now moving back to today’s budget debate, one of the exciting developments coming out of the Ministry of Natural Resources is the Briceño administration’s plan to survey and distribute eleven thousand parcels of land to first-time land owners across Belize. Prime Minister John Briceño announced the initiative during his budget speech. Today, the Minister of Natural Resources, Cordel Hyde, gave further insight into the land distribution program. He also spoke about his ministry’s efforts to reduce the backlog at the Lands Department.

Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources

“Last week we did an internal land clinic in Belize City. We did a record eighteen hundred and eighteen, some dating back ten years. Two weeks before that we did one in Corozal in which we did what was then a record, sixteen hundred and thirty instruments. Anybody from Corozal the yah, and two weeks before that we did one in Orange Walk, we did what was then a record, fourteen hundred instruments. Over the last two weeks the Land Registry has followed suite and did a land clinic of their own. Over that time they did twenty three hundred land certificates and titles. The Prime Minister in his budget presentation sited the almost eleven thousand lots currently being surveyed for distribution to the land poor, to first time land owners, if I dare say so I, eleven thousand lots to the land poor is a policy like no other. Three percent of the entire population as new land owners, that is the equivalent of ten million lots in the United States or half a million new land owners in Guatemala. And yes, there is the immediate value of awarding land to the landless, at ten thousand dollars per lot, and that is putting it conservatively, we are transferring a hundred and ten million dollars to the people who need help the most, who are most deserving, eleven thousand persons taking out of land poverty, lifted to the status of land owners and ownership of the asset is just the first step.”