During the next four years IOM and the Colombian government will
work together in support of peasant farmers who, because of the
activities of illegal armed groups, were forced to abandon their
lands, were victims of land dispossession and those who occupy
lands but who do not have legal title.

A cooperation agreement, to be signed today in Bogota between
IOM and the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture, includes technical
assistance for drafting a plan for the restitution of lands through
a newly created National Land Restitution System, a programme to
legalize rural land tenancies, support for the implementation of
the Land Reform Bill currently being debated in Congress, and for
the creation of a rural development programme for victims of
violence.

An estimated two million hectares of farm land have been
abandoned by people fleeing the violence.

IOM, with funding from the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), which is also part of the new
agreement, has supported three land restitution pilot projects
which have documented more than 1,000 cases of land dispossession
and informal land tenancy, as well as the formal recognition of 377
land tenancies.

The first point of action under the new agreement is a strategy
to formalize land tenancies in the south of the country, with USD
128,000 set aside for this purpose.

A land restitution seminar will be held in October with input
from IOM experts amongst others, on land tenancy and restitution
issues. They will provide advice and support to the government and
Congress to discuss and implement the proposed land law.

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Gallo

IOM Bogota

Tel: +57 1 639 7777

E-mail: "mailto:jgallo@iom.int">jgallo@iom.int