Illegal Settlements Research Articles

Application of GIS and multicriteria evaluation in locating sustainable boundary between the tunari National Park and Cochabamba City (Bolivia)

AbstractIncreased population growth and urbanization, has caused increase in demand for land around the city of Cochabamba, which has led to encroachment into the National Park and the construction of illegal settlements. This has created a number of problems, some of which are the direct consequences of the new settlements in the ‘Tunari’ foothills. These settlements constitute a threat to the environment and people because of their location in flood risk and aquifer recharge areas. In response to this problem the city authorities are considering relocating the boundary between the National Park and the city. This study has focused on the design and evaluation of alternative locations for a sustainable boundary between the north of ‘Cochabamba City’ and the southern boundary of the ‘Tunari National Park’. In this process, a rational and systematic approach of collaborative‐decision‐making, supported by geographical information systems (GIS) and multicriteria evaluation (MCE) has been employed and evaluated. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On the mystery of capital and the myths of Hernando de Soto: What difference does legal title make?

Hernando de Soto's new bestseller, The Mystery of Capital, attributes the failure of capitalism in the Third World to the lack of property titles. Many governments around the world are following this advice and are busy distributing legal titles to self-help families. Using data gathered in the now legalised self-help settlements of Bogota , the paper questions a number of the alleged benefits of legalisation. It shows how sales are more common when people lack legal title, how informal finance is available at the commencement of an illegal settlement and how little formal finance is forthcoming after legalisation. Most importantly, it shows that there is little sign of a secondary housing market. And, if there is little possibility of selling a house, home ownership in the self-help suburbs can offer little in the way of capital accumulation. It is hard to make money from a house that cannot be sold. Perhaps, de Soto's argument is less a panacea than a populist dream.

Quito : Un environnement socialement disputé : Point de vue des uns et habitat des autres

Quito : a socially disputed environment The local authorities of the fast-growing capital of Ecuador, Quito, in their efforts to protect the natural environment, are coming up against a problem of illegal settlements of poor households on the city's woodland slopes, its essential green lungs. The extent of public condemnation of the encroachment on the slopes by squatter settlements is only equalled by the discretion of the reactions to prestige buildings that are also appropriating these quality spaces.

The future of informal settlements: lessons in the legalization of disputed urban land in Recife, Brazil

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between legalization of land tenure and people's capacity to compete for and sustain their stake in the urban land market. Two aspects of land regularization are taken into account: the benefits of land regularization (as collateral for investments); and the perverse aspects of disputes over improved land (due to increased scarcity of illegal, but affordable housing land). Most research on illegal urban land has systematically investigated how to legalize illegal settlements to improve the effectiveness of service provision, whilst attracting public investments. But, few understand the underlying factors motivating people to improve and consolidate their houses where no legal tenure exists. The absence of substantial understanding about people's perceptions of their tenure security has encouraged most research to conclude that improving tenure security leads to higher levels of housing consolidation. What this paper shows is that the relationship between people's perceptions of land tenure security and housing consolidation is much more malleable and complex than conventionally assumed. The subtle difference between tenure of the land and tenure of the house indicates that people are willing to invest in their housing conditions almost irrespectively of their land tenure situation. This finding challenges the orthodox views of the property rights school of thought. In addition, this paper contends that what legalization is really doing is to reduce the available land stock for the poorest families, because legalization decreases the amount of illegal land (illegal land is undesirable, but affordable for the poor). The orthodox legal system needs to be revised to include the poorest families in the urban society of the new millennium.

Developing community-based watershed management in Greater São Paulo: the case of Santo André

This paper describes how watershed protection is being combined with settlement upgrading and land-use management within an area that serves as one of Greater São Paulo’s main sources of fresh water. This is being undertaken in the municipality of Santo André. Unlike previous watershed protection measures, which proved ineffective, it recognizes the need to combine the protection of water-sheds with the improvement of conditions in existing settlements and guiding, rather than prohibiting, further settlement. The paper describes how the community-based watershed management involves the inhabitants of illegal settlements and other stakeholders in an adaptive planning framework that first seeks consensus on what is to be planned before developing the plan, its implementation and its operation, maintenance and monitoring.

Policy Measures for River Water Management in Barada Basin, Syria

Barada Basin, where the capital of Syria, Damascus, is located, and hence where most of the human activities are concentrated, suffers from serious environmental problems due to the huge migration from rural areas, illegal settlements, industrialization, and urbanization, and overexploitation of environmental media. According to the list of priorities that has been set by Ministry of Environment and WB in 1997 an immediate action plan should be carried out to address the water pollution issues in Barada Basin. Huge amounts of wastewater (domestic, industrial, and agricultural) are discharged every day to the land, Barada and Awaj Rivers without sufficient treatment converting the only-two water bodies in the region to waste dump. In this paper, the water pollution problem in Barada Basin has been analyzed. Simulations of a mathematical model have been run in order to find an optimal feasible policy improving the environmental status in Barada Basin. This model includes an ecological model that describes the behavior of the pollutants and an economic model that describes the market instruments. A set of policies have been proposed based on the simulations.

De lo privado a lo público : género, ilegalidad y legalización de la tenencia de la tierra urbana

Los asentamientos populares de las ciudades latinoamericanas, asiáticas y africanas se caracterizan por la ilegalidad de la tenencia de la tierra. La legalización de la tenencia es un elemento básico para el mejoramiento urbano en tales áreas. Este artículo tiene dos objetivos. El primero es explorar las consecuencias de la legalización o “regularización” de los asentamientos ilegales sobre la seguridad de tenencia de las mujeres. La segunda es examinar cómo los dualismos conceptuales de la tradición intelectual occidental y sus connotaciones en términos del género, influyen en nuestro entendimiento de la (i) legalidad y de la legalización de la tenencia de la tierra. Se explora qué se puede aprender con respecto a la ilegalidad en la tenencia y a la regularización, como resultado de considerar el dualismo “legal/ilegal” como una variación del dualismo “público/privado”, tema de debate de los teóricos feministas desde hace varias décadas.

A New Model of Urban Land Regularisation in Mexico? The Role of Opposition Government

Tenure legalisation is often depicted as the key to upgrading illegal settlements. To date, however, the processes of upgrading and legalisation have mostly operated independently in Mexico. Regularisation has instead served to tie the urban poor into a political system dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. To decry the political uses of illegality is not, however, to argue that legalisation is undesirable. This article discusses recent attempts to construct an alternative, more democratic, model of regularisation in the city of Guadalajara. These are the work of municipal and state governments won in 1995 by the National Action Party. The article assesses the new strategy, showing how it differs from the existing model of regularisation. I attribute the emergence of the new model to the rise of opposition government. The article therefore contributes to the growing literature on opposition government in Mexico's cities.

Ilo: a city in transformation

This paper describes the progress made in the city of Ilo over the last 15 years and discusses the reasons for its success. Progress includes the much improved provision for water, sanitation and electricity, and the tree-planting and street-paving programmes. It also includes a municipal programme that has ensured that land is available for housing that even low-income households can afford, and that has avoided problems of illegal settlements – despite the city's rapid population growth. It also describes some of the public works – for instance, the pier and sea walkway, and the parks – and how some 300 projects were financed and executed through partnerships between municipal government and community-level management committees. However, the paper's intention is to go beyond the description of achievements, to a consideration of the processes that underlie them. Drawing on the author’s dialogue with the current mayor of Ilo, the paper discusses how the combination of local factors, a broader national and international context and local leadership has helped form the basis for these achievements. It highlights the importance of a mode of government that helps encourage trust, that meets its commitments and that respects agreements developed with the inhabitants.

ILLEGAL RESOURCE USE AND RESETTLEMENT OF PEOPLE FROM KARUMA WILDLIFE RESERVE IN UGANDA

ABSTRACT Provision of land and resettlement of people living illegally in protected areas are important processes in economic empowerment of local communities and conservation of natural resources. This study highlights a prevailing natural resource management problem, that is, illegal settlement and resource use in Karuma Wildlife Reserve. The aim of the study was to assess whether or not voluntary resettlement of encroachers in the reserve could help to reduce illegal use of resources. This was accomplished by carrying out household interviews and visiting the resettlement sites. It was found that provision of land alone for settlement and farming cannot reduce illegal resource use. Local communities need financial support to carry out other alternative economic activities to improve their incomes and reduce dependence on protected resources. It was concluded that people living in abject poverty cannot support conservation of resources without alternative income generating activities. Moreover, local co...

Street politics: poor people's movements in Iran

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, an active political movement emerged on the streets of Iran's largest cities. Poor people began to construct their own communities on unused urban lands, creating an infrastructure--roads, electricity, running water, garbage collection, and shelters--all their own. As the Iranian government attempted to evict these illegal settlers, they resisted--fiercely and ultimately successfully. This is the story of their economic and political strategies.

Reconstructing social capital in a poor urban settlement: the Integral Improvement Programme in Barrio San Jorge

This paper describes how the continuous support provided by an external team over a ten year period in a lowincome informal settlement in Buenos Aires (Barrio San Jorge) resulted in a development process which helped to improve living conditions, to change the inhabitants' relationship with society and to reduce the deprivations normally associated with low income. Over time, and with each new initiative seeking to build on the momentum achieved by previous initiatives, considerable improvements have been achieved, including improvements in housing quality, access roads, land tenure and provision for water and sanitation and for child health and development. Perhaps as important has been the development of a representative community organization within the barrio since no such organization had existed previously. This, in turn, has helped change the relationship of this settlement's inhabitants with the rest of society - the settlement is no longer “illegal” as the inhabitants are acquiring legal tenure of the land on which they live, as provision for water and sanitation is now managed by the official utilities and as an engagement has developed between the inhabitants and government agencies at municipal and other levels. This case study suggests that many low-income illegal settlements need a long and continuous support programme to allow the many kinds of deprivation and illegality their inhabitants face to be addressed. Poverty is not “solved” through one or two quick, sectoral interventions. Action is needed on many fronts. But this case study also shows the important catalytic role that international funds can have in helping low-income communities develop their own representative organizations. This is important for allowing them to address their own problems but it is also central to them being able to successfully negotiate with their own local governments and utilities for the infrastructure and services to which they are entitled.

Reconstructing social capital in a poor urban settlement: the Integral Improvement Programme in Barrio San Jorge

This paper describes how the continuous support provided by an external team over a ten year period in a lowincome informal settlement in Buenos Aires (Barrio San Jorge) resulted in a development process which helped to improve living conditions, to change the inhabitants' relationship with society and to reduce the deprivations normally associated with low income. Over time, and with each new initiative seeking to build on the momentum achieved by previous initiatives, considerable improvements have been achieved, including improvements in housing quality, access roads, land tenure and provision for water and sanitation and for child health and development. Perhaps as important has been the development of a representative community organization within the barrio since no such organization had existed previously. This, in turn, has helped change the relationship of this settlement's inhabitants with the rest of society - the settlement is no longer “illegal” as the inhabitants are acquiring legal tenure of the land on which they live, as provision for water and sanitation is now managed by the official utilities and as an engagement has developed between the inhabitants and government agencies at municipal and other levels. This case study suggests that many low-income illegal settlements need a long and continuous support programme to allow the many kinds of deprivation and illegality their inhabitants face to be addressed. Poverty is not “solved” through one or two quick, sectoral interventions. Action is needed on many fronts. But this case study also shows the important catalytic role that international funds can have in helping low-income communities develop their own representative organizations. This is important for allowing them to address their own problems but it is also central to them being able to successfully negotiate with their own local governments and utilities for the infrastructure and services to which they are entitled.

UNICEF's urban basic services programme in illegal settlements in Guatemala City

This paper describes the Urban Basic Services Programme that UNICEF's Guatemala Office developed in Guatemala City between 1984 and 1993. Working initially with other NGOs and subsequently with government agencies, the programme developed a variety of community based, community directed initiatives for water, sanitation and drainage, housing improvement, health promotion, health care and child development in the illegal or informal settlements in which close to half of Guatemala City's population live. The programme included an innovative network of health promoters elected from their own community and new models of community based day care.

Attributes of informal settlements affecting their vulnerability to eviction; a study of Bangkok

Attributes of informal settlements affectig their vulerability to eviction: a study of Bangkok's Informal settlements considers what makes an informal or illegal settlement in Bangkok susceptible to eviction by comparing characteristics ofthose settlements from which inhabitants were evicted between 1984 and 1988 with settlements which were not. It considers the extent to which such factors as the size of settlement, distance from city centre, age, level of illegality, degree of community organization, and the extent to which the inhabitants feel threatened by eviction are related to whether the inhabitants are evitced or not.

The People's Dialogue on Land and Shelter: community-driven networking in South Africa's informal settlements

The People's Dialogue on Land and Shelter: communitydriven networking in South Africa's informal settlements describes a network which links representativesfrom illegal and informal settlements. The paper describes the evolution of the Dialogue from a workshop to a permanent process of internal and international exchange programmes linking squatter communities and a community based credit scheme.

A new approach to youth activities and environmental clean-up: the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) in Kenya

A new approach to youth activities and environmental clean-up describes the work of the Mathare Youth Sports Association in Kenya which has developed a large sports and environmental programme for children and youth in one of Nairobi's largest illegal settlements.

May'avdut le'herut : Israeli Grassroots Revolts Against the Paternalistic Socialist System

Volume 10, No.1 Fall1991 MAY'AVDUT LE'HERUT: ISRAELI GRASSROOTS REVOLTS AGAINST THE PATERNALISTIC SOCIALIST SYSTEM Sam Lehman-Wilzig Sam Lehman-Wilzig is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, where he has been teaching since 1977. He is the author of Stiff-Necked People, Bottle-Necked System: The Evolution and Roots of Israeli Public Protest, 1949-1986 (Indiana University Press, 1990). The present article is a synthesis of his soon-to-be-published book WILDFIRE: Grassroots Revolts in Israel in the Post-Socialist Era (SUNY Press, 1991). Introduction 11 The State of Israel is one of the world leaders in protest per capita.1 Nevertheless, such extra-parliamentary activities-especially those protest campaigns which are large scale and of long duration-have been shown to be relatively ineffective in achieving their goals.2 Assuming that Israelis will not just return docilely to their personal lives in the wake of such protest inefficacy , and assuming as well that the serious domestic problems which engendered such protest in the first place continue to fester, the obvious ensuing question is where do they go from there? What alternative means lie at the Israeli's disposal to carry out change? The answer is that from the late 1970s onwards Israelis across the board have begun to take matters into their own hands. I call this "Israel's Grassroots Revolt"-not because it is well organized as are many similar phenomena in the U.S., for example, but rather because for the first time in Israel's 1Gadi Wolfsfeld, The Politics of Provocation: Participation and Protest in Israel (Albany: SUNY Press, 1988); Sam Lehman-Wilzig, Stiff-Necked People, Bottle-Necked System: The Evolution and Roots ofIsraeli Public Protest, 1949-1986 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), chapter 4. 2Lehman-Wilzig,op. cit, ch. 9. See too Shmuel Lehman-Wilzig, "Me'kha'ah Tziburit Be'Yisrael: Ha'im Hee Matzlikhah?" in Medina, Memsha~ Ve'yakhassim Bein'leumiyyim, Number 31 (Summer/Autumn 1989), pp. 111-125. 12 SHOFAR history there exists a social phenomenon which has been initiated almost exclusively by "the wolman in the street" and of which a vast adult majority in the country has participated in one form or another. What is the gist of this grassroots revolt? The establishment by the public (and not the governing authorities) of alternative social and economic service systems, when and where the official ones do not function adequately or function in grotesque fashion. Often, "alternative systems" may be too strong a term, for usually there does not exist (at least at first) a conscious desire on the part of the initiators to institute an entire apparatus to compete with the governmentally sanctioned one. However, where the government's response is late in coming (or there isn't any at all), a fairly full-fledged service system does evolve. In any case, as I will argue later on, the critical aspect here is not the intent of those in revolt but rather its ultimate result. Issues Under Revolt It would be useful to first describe Israel's sundry grassroots revolts, to illustrate the nature and essence of this contemporary phenomenon. 1) Illegal Settlements: Starting in the 19708, Gush Emunim began circumventing the authorities by establishing "settlements" overnight. While in and of itself such activity did not set up a huge number of "facts in the field," the perception (and part reality) of do-it-yourself success became the opening salvo of the coming societal battles. The tremendous public controversy engendered by this anti-establishmentarian activity, and the obvious capitulation of the government in the face of these settlers' steadfastness, could·not but plant seeds in the minds of other Israelis, ripening over time. Subsequent developments were to bear this out-on both sides of the ideological divide. I would argue that (on the Right wing) increasing settler vigilantism in the territories during the 198083 was but a logical extension of the earlier illegal settlement activity. On numerous occasions, the settlers took matters into their own hands-either by overreacting in self~defense, or even through pre-planned violent (although rarely fatal) confrontations with surrounding Arab communities. In addition, and even more insidiously...

Squatters' Rights and Urban Development: An Economic Perspective

Up to 35 per cent of urban dwellers in Third World cities are squatters. The characteristics of the squatting phenomenon are both varied and puzzling. Of particular interest are the observations that (1) landowners often do not collect rent from squatters for use of the land and (2) costly evictions are sometimes used without subsequent development of the land, which in many cases is resettled by squatters. We present an economic model of landowner- squatter interaction which is consistent with these observations. This model is then used to enlighten certain aspects of socially optimal land management policy for squatter areas. The phenomenon of squatting in Third World cities is widespread and growing. Recent studies have shown that up to 35 per cent of the total urban population of developing countries lives in squatter settlements. The current and mostly non-economic literature has mixed views regarding whether squatting is a problem or a solution to efficient urbanization. Attitudes concerning squatter settlements range from disgust concerning living conditions in such illegal (or quasi-illegal) spontaneous settlements to admiration for the resourcefulness of the inhabitants as they provide themselves with at least some shelter using the minimal inputs available.' The literature has consequently not provided a useful conceptual framework to guide government policy. In this paper we develop a formal economic model to understand the various forms of squatting in Third World cities. We then use the model to address some vexing policy questions: Do private landowners evict squatters too frequently or too infrequently? Should any or all squatters be evicted? Should they be provided with basic infrastructure services? Should they be given unambiguous property rights to the land they occupy? Applying the 'Coase Theorem' to the squatting problem, we might conclude that the observed rate of evictions was just right. Evictions occur only if the value of land use to squatters is less than the sum of the alternative development value to the landowner plus the cost of evictions. This economic logic follows, since squatters would outbid any competing use of the land if indeed they valued it more. Thus, any policy that gave more property rights to squatters would be a pure transfer from landowners to squatters. Social welfare would be unaffected. However, transaction and bargaining costs associated with the transfer of ownership of land to squatters, which are likely to be important in the squatting problem, can invalidate this simple intuition.2 Landowners incur costs when they try to enforce property rights either by collecting rent or evicting. Collect- ing rent formalizes the relationship between renter and landowner. The land- owner would then have to incur the costs of providing basic services (water

Housing and urban poor

Research Officer, Kwasi Owusu‐Adade, at the Building and Road Research Institute at Kumasi, highlights the role housing plays in the life of the rural migrant and concludes that a greater commitment by government could be demonstrated in practical terms. Low‐income housing requires a supply of land on a rolling basis with the encouragement of locally produced materials, material depots and the provision of basic amenities for illegal settlements which do not seriously inhibit future overall development.