Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel, Grenville Barnes (1995):
Assessment of the Praedial Property Registration System in Peru

F. Proactive Approach to Formalization of Property Rights

Experience around the world shows that major reforms, such as those achieved in the implementation of the Registro Predial, do not occur without a champion. This is a person or institution (public or private) which takes up the challenge of change and responds with a missionary zeal that provides the energy or momentum required to accomplish the reforms. Clearly, ILD has played this role and it is doubtful that the success to date would have been achieved without its early involvement. Part of this challenge involved giving titling and registration a high profile in the political debate about land, both at the level of senior government officials and at the person-on-the-street level.

Unfortunately, because of the limitations on geographic coverage and the time and money constraints of a pilot project, there are still questions as to whether this effort could be sustained over several years in order to cover the whole country. The key question is whether this is due to a lack of financial resources, the removal of political support at the highest levels, lack of interest by landholders, or the pilot nature of the work.

The involvement of community leaders and others at a local level also signals a welcome change from the top-down strategies that have been used previously throughout Latin America and elsewhere in the world. This is especially effective where there is a pre-existing administrative structure in a community and the community leaders have the full support of their constituents, as has usually been the case in Peru.