A one-day pilot workshop on customary boundary demarcation of Dormaa lands, has been held in Sunyani as a basis for an efficient and effective land registration system.
The exercise, under the Land Administration Project (LAP) is also to ensure peaceful co-existence of neighbours and orderly development in Brong Ahafo.
Participants included paramount chiefs and representatives of traditional councils that share boundaries with Dormaa Traditional Area.
Mr. Wilson Kwasi Opoku, Principal Staff Surveyor of the Lands Commission, who briefed the participants on the essence of the workshop, appealed for the co-operation of the communities for the success of the project.
He explained that under the exercise, existing maps, plans and land records, court judgments, adjudication agreements and composite plans would be used, whilst interviews and discussions would be held to assist in the data/information gathering and processing.
Mr. Opoku said during the scouting period of the exercise, the communities would have to identify agreements on boundary lines between stools and a clearance made for the erection of survey and boundary pillars.
A three-member team from DAOV TECH Design group led by Mr. Kwadwo Addai Deseh, Director and a Geodetic Engineer would undertake the surveying exercise.
Mr. Opoku noted that 80 per cent of land in the country was in the custody of chiefs who were in charge of stool/skin lands but the boundaries of most of the stools/ skins "have been found to be indeterminate".
He explained that this had necessitated the holding of meetings, workshops and consultations with the paramount and divisional chiefs, district assemblies, community-based and non-governmental organisations and the media for public education.
In a presentation, Mr. Kofi Blankson of the Planning Unit of the LAP, said the Project was instituted in 1999 to rectify the weaknesses in the land administration system and the general indiscipline in the land market.
Land encroachment, multiple sale of land, unapproved development schemes and haphazard development were traits of the general indiscipline, he said.
Mr Blankson said the long term objectives included improving security of tenure, simplifying processes of land acquisition and fostering prudent land management practices.
Mr. Vincent Oppong Asamoah, Municipal Chief Executive for Dormaa West, who presided, expressed the hope that the workshop would guide the chiefs and elders to sensitize their people to help eliminate disputes over land in the region for peaceful development.
Paramount chiefs and representatives of traditional areas of Drobo, Wenchi, Sunyani, Berekum, Sefwi Wiawso, Kenyase Number One, Duayaw Nkwanta, Maabang, Tepa and Acherensua attended, whilst Ntotoroso, Atuna and Atronie were represented by independent chiefs.
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