Clear, stable property rights are essential to the modernization and stability of Central America. Attracting investment, constructing new housing, facilitating financing, and avoiding needless litigation all depend on knowing who owns what. Recognizing this fact, all of the countries in the region have been making significant strides toward the creation of comprehensive, modern property registration systems. With the assistance of various multi-lateral institutions, all five countries have recently launched projects aimed at modernization of their registries and cadastres. At the same time, they have been striving to improve their existing records and to streamline their registration processes.

Although great progress has already been made, several important aspects of the reform initiative remain unsettled. Much work remains to be done on such fronts as: improving the mechanisms for resolving the disputes that arise from the titling process; maximizing the integration of the mapping and titling systems; coordinating registration with other preconditions of a vibrant real-estate finance system; and (last but not least) lending an overall policy direction to the reform process.

The leaders of the reform efforts in each of the five countries have learned many important lessons from their recent work. The purpose of this conference is to bring those leaders together - along with representatives of international institutions with expertise in this field - to share their insights and plan for the future.

The choices made in designing and implementing cadastres and registration systems will have major impacts on all sectors of the Central American population. Here are just of few examples of such effects:

1. The most obvious but perhaps most important role of reliable registries is the stimulation of investment. With distressing frequency, businesses back away from otherwise attractive investments in Central America because they can't be sure of the security of the titles of the land on which they hope to situate their project. Reducing this deterrent is crucial.
2. The current confusion involving land titles in the region contributes to underdevelopment of the system of real-estate finance. Banks are reluctant to provide landowners long-term loans at reasonable interest rates without assurance of the quality of the titles that are pledged as collateral. For similar reasons, international financial institutions are reluctant to buy packages of Central American mortgages. The net result is that interest rates in the region remain unnecessarily high, the funds available for financing are sharply limited, and long-term loans are not available. These conditions impede the adoption of a wide variety of development and improvement projects -- from new industrial facilities to the construction of low-income housing. Clarification of the titling system, in short, will have major social and economic benefits.
3. The administrative and judicial procedures for resolving conflicts that arise from the registration process have received insufficient attention in the efforts in reform the registries. The result is that the potential advantages of the technological modernization of the registries are not being fully realized. The implementation of a reliable, fast dispute-resolution mechanism - especially if reinforced with a public or private system for guaranteeing the quality of titles - would do much to ease the burdens on landowners and attract investment.
4. The principle of adverse possession awards title to long-term occupants of land. The way in which that principle is defined and applied frequently has dramatic effects on the ownership and stability of land. If the time period required to gain title in this fashion is short, the opportunities for poor farmers to acquire land increase. Simultaneously, however, the danger that landowners will be obliged to surrender their properties to short-term squatters also increase. If the time period is long, the foregoing danger diminishes, but the ability of landowners to rely upon the documentation for their title, free of the risk that some ancient claim will be deployed against them, also declines. The best system of rules is not obvious - and will likely vary with the special histories and needs of each country. But it is plain that this issue merits more attention than it has received to date.

On March 18-19, 1999, the Central America Project will host a two-day conference at Harvard University to consider these and other aspects of the modernization of Central American registries. The objective of the conference is to identify issues and strategies that each country might use to refine its own system, not to generate a single blueprint applicable to all five countries.

We have invited high-level representatives of each of the five countries in the region to discuss the progress that has already been made in their respective jurisdictions and to consider ways in which their registry systems might be further improved. To enhance the discussion, we will supply the conference participants with the following:

• a background paper, prepared by jointly the Central America Project staff and local officials, summarizing the condition of the registries in each of the countries and the reform efforts already underway;
• a presentation by a representative of the International Finance Division of Fannie Mae (the dominant issuer of mortgages in the United States), discussing the relationship between registration systems in other countries and the development of secondary mortgage markets;
• a paper and an accompanying presentation discussing the ways in which multi-lateral financial institutions have influenced the reform process in the past and might continue to shape it in the future.

The languages of the conference will be Spanish and English. All documents will be available in both languages, and simultaneous translation will be provided. All of the sessions will be recorded. After the conference, all participants will be supplied summaries of the proceedings.

Lic. Jorge Rolando Barrios
Registrador General de la Propiedad
Guatemala

Celia Lissette Ordonez Rubio
Guatemala

Sandra Elizabeth Vargas Aldana

Gladys Chacon Corado
Guatemala

Renato Cheng Tabarini
Guatemala

Edgardo Caceres Castellanos
Magistrado Propietario
Honduras

Soria Dolores Caceres Andino
Coordinadora Componente Modernizacion del Derecho
Honduras

Lic. Francisco Rosales Arguello
Magistrado Sala Constitucional, Contencioso Administrativo
Corte Suprema de Justicia
Nicaragua

Myriam Esperanza Jarquin de Medina
Nicaragua

Dr. Rubén Mejía Peña
Ministro de Justicia
El Salvador

Lic. Silverio Henriquez
Director Ejecutovio
Centro Nacional de Registros
El Salvador

Lic. Guillermo Diaz
Coordinador de Desarrollo de Sistemas
Centro Nacional de Registros
El Salvador

Carmen Rivera
Economista
El Salvador

Licda. Yamileth Murillo Rodriguez
Subdirectora Registro Publico
Costa Rica

Eduardo Alvarado Miranda
Costa Rica

Ana Lobo Inneeken
Costa Rica

Jaime Weisleder

Steven Hendrix
USAID
Guatemala

Jolyne Sanjak
USAID

Jorge Obdiente
Panama

Prof. Arnoldo Camacho
INCAE

Cora Shaw
World Bank

Isabel Lavadenz
World Bank

Licdo. Sergio Leonardo Mijangos Penagos
World Bank
Guatemala

Kosia Kozinski
Fannie Mae

Kevin Sullivan
Fannie Mae

Dennis Robinson
Vice President, Programs and Operations
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Prof. William Fisher
Harvard Law School

Prof. Martha A. Field
Harvard Law School

Prof. Luis Salas
Florida International University