News in 2024

FIG Regional Conference 2024 will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal

14-16 November, 2024, Kathmandu, Nepal

On 14-16 November 2024 FIG Regional Conference will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal with the overall theme:
Climate Responsive Land Governance and Disaster Resilience: Safeguarding Land Rights
and with a special focus on the region.

The local host is Nepal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (NICS)

The main objective of the event is to build knowledge and capacity in the Asian region to address climate change and disaster-induced challenges in safeguarding land rights of vulnerable communities, emphasizing the critical role of land governance and disaster resilience.

The second objective is to foster collaborative partnerships among national and regional institutions, academics, and professionals from various organisations, including non-state actors, Non-Government Organisation (NGOs) and private sector, to facilitate multistakeholder dialogues, knowledge sharing and technology transfer at the regional level.

VISION FOR THE CONFERENCE

The climate crisis represents the single greatest challenge humankind faces to ensure our planet remains sustainable and our people remain resilient. The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is universal, transformative, and rights-based. It is an ambitious plan of action that inspires global society to think creatively and critically rethink the way we approach the development challenges of today.This theme underpins the FIG Council’s vision of sustainability over the term 2023- 2026. additionally, FIG provides a platform to raise awareness,  inform and inspire the FIG community on the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

Because of the importance of climate change to the global community and the 2030 Agenda, FIG wishes to examine and actively promote the engagement and role that surveyors and land practitioners can play in contributing to the climate change agenda and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. FIG wishes to lead its members so that they can fully understand, articulate and use their expertise and knowledge to tackle the important challenges in climate action. 

This Regional Conference for Asia is intended to be a major milestone in achieving the FIG vision. The NICS, as an FIG Member Association, will support the achievement of this milestone with reference to the Asia region. The Regional Conference is intended to help meet a range of climate challenges in the region such as greenhouse gas emissions/carbon, biodiversity loss, deforestation and large-scale land use change, urban sprawl into agricultural land, water scarcity, and more, considering the safeguarding of the land rights of vulnerable communities. The event also contributes to the responsibility of FIG towards achieving the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. The expertise of FIG Members in the Asian region means they are well positioned to make a major contribution to addressing a wide range of land and water related climate change challenges. 

Surveyors and land practitioners are in the critical path of the sustainability of the planet because of their work on security of tenure, land governance, geospatial information management, land administration and land management, spatial planning and valuation, BIM and so on. Future generations in the Asia region face an uncertain outlook characterized by an increasingly hostile climate and poorly managed natural disasters. Surveyors and land practitioners in the Asia region, with their critically important skills and knowledge, need to contribute to addressing the climate crisis challenges. The primary aim of this Regional Conference for Asia is to address the pressing challenges posed by climate challenges and disasters and their impacts in the region, with a focus on the vital role of effective land governance and resilience. There is an imperative need to share international and regional knowledge and best practices. The Regional Conference is an opportunity for learning, sharing knowledge, providing practical knowledge and actionable recommendations about how surveyors and land practitioners can address climate and disaster in the region, also for vulnerable communities. This will be done through a focus on 4 thematic areas 1) Climate responsive land governance 2) Natural disaster resilience for communities, professionals and organizations 3) Cooperation and partnerships to safeguard land rights 4) Capacity development for communities, professionals and organizations (see below for more details and the program below).

THEME

Climate Responsive Land Governance and Disaster Resilience: Safeguarding Land Rights
TOPICS
  1. Climate Responsive Land Governance
    • Framework for Effective Land Administration (FELA), Innovative land administration approaches, Global land and environmental frameworks
    • Safeguarding land rights of women, youth, vulnerable communities, indigenous people and informal settlers
    • Climate responsive fit-for-purpose land administration (FFPLA), including land use/spatial planning, including through consultative, inclusive, gender responsive and participatory approaches
    • Land and property valuation for risk management, and non-market and ecological purposes (registered and unregistered land and natural accounting)
    • State/public land and buildings management to achieve environmental goals and support vulnerable groups (cities, urban and rural)
  2. Natural disaster resilience for communities, professionals and organizations
    • Disaster resilience to protect security of tenure of women, youth, vulnerable communities, indigenous people and informal settlers
    • Adapting land use planning, land administration systems and SDI/LIS for disaster, including through consultative, inclusive, gender responsive and participatory approaches
    • Using spatial data and technology for climate action planning and assessing disaster vulnerability, risk and tenure insecurity before and after disaster
    • Disaster recovery and reconstruction, including affordable housing and tenure security, participatory slum upgrading, resettlement, food security, infrastructure, risk insurance
  3.  Cooperation and partnerships to safeguard land rights
    • 2030 Agenda and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals together 
    • Regional Cooperation in addressing land-climate nexus issues and disaster management
    • Partnerships across the region, governments, academia, and civil society
  4.  Capacity Development for communities, professionals and organisations
    • Empowering climate and disaster resilient communities 
    • Building professionals capacity for climate action
    • Regional Collaboration and capacity development
    • Strengthening the technical capacity of professionals for climate action and disaster risk reduction

If you would like to be part of the technical programme of the conference your can submit an abstract for the conference. Please bear in mind the above four main topic and indicate which of these topics your abstract belongs to.

Submit your abstract here

Overall Programme

The two conference days are Thursday 14 and Friday 15 November 2024.

On Wednesday 13 November a Young Surveyors’ Meeting (for registered young surveyors) from 10:30-16:30 (at Land Management Training Center, Dhulikhel; 30 kilometers away from the main event venue)

A technical/social tour will be organised on Saturday 16 November 2024

See the programme at a glance

Sponsorship and exhibition possibilities

There will be an exhibition during the two conference days. Further to this various sponsorship options will be available. This will be a unique opportunity to be visible in Nepal and the near region around Nepal, hereunder India, Pakistan Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, etc.

Stay updated through the regional conference web site: www.fig.net/nepal2024  

Partners and organsers

Local host and organiser:

  • Nepal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (NICS)

Main partners for the event are:

  • World Bank
  • UN-Habitat GLTN
  • Kadaster, Netherlands

Local supporters:

  • Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation
  • Survey Department
  • Land Management Training Center
  • Department of Geomatics Engineering, Kathmandu University
  • Paschimanchal Campus, Tribhuvan University, Pokhara
  • Himalayan College of Geomatic Engineering and Land Resources Management, Purvanchal University
  • Nepal Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society

From FIG:

  • FIG Task Force on Climate Compass
  • Task Force on FIG and the SDG's
  • FIG Commission 2 - Professional Education
  • FIG Commission 5 - Positioning and Measurement
  • FIG Commission 8 - Spatial Planning and Development
  • FIG Commission 9 - Valuation and the Management of Real Estate

Conference web site: www.fig.net/nepal2024

 

Louise Friis-Hansen
April 2024