Members of the House of Assembly on Wednesday night approved the reappointment of a select committee to review matters pertaining to commonage and generation land in the country.
Commonage land refers to a tract of land that was granted by the Crown to more than 20 persons prior to the 1900s. Those persons and their descendants were able to do with the land as they see fit.
But they cannot sell the property, meaning it is not "bankable".
Generation land is land that would have been owned by people who would have left it for their children, who then pass the land on to their children. As a result, experts say the title to the land gets very cloudy, which creates similar concerns about the land not being bankable.
Committee Chairman Philip "Brave" Davis said the members will take into account current developing economics and prevailing social conditions, and the laws and rules affecting such land.
"It would be irresponsible of us as leaders to allow the state of commonage and generation lands to continue as they are," said Mr. Davis, who spoke in the lower chamber.
"Many Bahamians are in possession of these lands and some are indeed living on them, but these people are not the owners of these lands in the truest sense of the word. No one could have foreseen that this would be the end result of this hybrid type of land ownership. I am sure the original owners intended their inheritors to have maximum benefit from the lands they left for them."
The committee was actually appointed during the last session of parliament, but died when parliament was prorogued earlier this year. Mr. Davis said the committee had several meetings that were "very successful and much progress was made."
He said the members want to come up with a formula whereby people who are entitled can have clear title to their land.
"This would enable them to use their lands in the same way as every other land owner in this country," added Mr. Davis, who is the member of parliament for Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador.
"With clear title they would be in a better position to develop them. The banks are not prepared to allow them to borrow monies against these lands and so the land remains dormant; dormant, not for the lack of interest but rather for the lack of the means to develop it."
He noted the importance of the committeeﾒs work given that the cost of land continues to increase in the Bahamas, which, according to government officials who continue to woo big-spending investors, is a hot commodity right now.
"If we can give clear title to these Bahamians it would benefit them a great deal and it would cost us nothing," Mr. Davis said. "We owe this much to the Bahamian people."
He said during the last session of parliament, the committee had just commenced calling witnesses when it died as the result of the prorogation.
The committee reportedly collected a "considerable amount of information" and documents from the Department of Lands and Survey, and the Department of Legal Affairs.
Mr. Davis said the committee wants to begin its work immediately and hopes to make a final report to the House by the end of the year.
He also pointed out that the government has embarked on a project known as the Land Use Policy And Administration Project (LUPAP) to address key land issues.
"Long-term strategy to begin addressing these issues has been developed bearing in mind the political, institutional and social sensitivities related to land in the country, considering the technical capacity of the agencies involved and ensuring that the results of this operation provide the foundations necessary to continue implementation of the strategy in the future," Mr. Davis said.
He indicated that the government and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have entered into an agreement to execute the project.
The project was approved by the Bankﾒs board of directors on November 17, 2004 in the total amount of $5 million with $3.5 million in financing from the Bank and the remaining $1.5 million in counterpart financing from the Bahamas government.
Prime Minister Perry Christie has repeatedly pointed to the significance of this project, noting that it would help in proper planning in the country, which he said has been overlooked for many decades.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
