General methodology of a land use plan in the Dominican Republic

1. Introduction

Local governments have been evolving from their classic role of service providers to a role of assuming previous functions and being managers of local development and territorial planning.

manual-1-general-methodology-territorial-planning-of-the-upper-river-basin-yaque-del-norte-y-del-municipality-de-jarabacoa

This process should be seen as a spiral of development (virtuous circle) that is forced to face the limitations of institutional, legal and existing capacities.

In most of Latin America, the levels of institutionality are incipient and this is expressed in municipal structures that are very vulnerable to changes when there are new governments in the municipality; they are unstable and with limited capacity to mobilize local resources.

The development of tools that allow the development of a participatory process to strengthen municipal governments, should be seen as a priority action to be developed, in search of optimizing the potential of the territory.

The strategic planning and land use planning processes must be developed in a participatory manner, technical studies must be submitted and validated with civil society in order to develop objective proposals that contribute to the sustainable development of the territory.

This document contains the first approach to the "Methodological Proposal and Work Plan" to the consultancy for "Support for Strategic Planning and Territorial Organization of the Upper Yaque del Norte River Basin and the Municipality of Jarabacoa."

By presenting the following methodology, it also allows to develop the lessons learned from the process that was implemented during a period of eight (8) in the CAY and the Municipality of Jarabacoa, which allowed the development of the Territorial Ordering Plan

It is important to note that the purpose of this document is to serve as a basis for extrapolating the experience to other territories. The accumulated experience of the first pilot territory (CAY and Jarabacoa) has made it possible to increase and enrich the methodology in search of simplification and reduction in human, financial and logistical resources.

The set of methodological manuals include:

1. General methodological guide; Manual for the Study of Land Use Capacity (ECUT); Manual for the development of Diagnostic Critical Areas (DAC); Manual for the development of Rapid Socioeconomic Characterization (CSR).

This document presents in a general way the general methodology that will allow the development of the Land Management Plan at the level of Hydrographic Basins and / or Municipalities.

1. Justification for the development of Territorial Planning

Land use planning is defined as the process of planning, global and coordinated programming of a set of measures that seek a better spatial distribution of human beings, productive and recreational activities, taking into account the available natural resources (potentialities - restrictions) and taking into account to contribute to the harmonious development of each territory. Land use planning seeks to make the interests of a given territory coincide with those of a more extensive spatial group in which the farm, the community, the municipality, the region, the province and the entire country are inserted. Therefore, territorial planning seeks to remedy the excesses, imbalances and disparities caused by too free anthrogenic actions,very spontaneous and almost exclusively concentrated on the economic profitability variable.

Strengthening the process of formulating a Strategic Plan for Municipal Territorial Management of Jarabacoa, contributes to consolidating planning actions that will allow the appropriate use of the municipality's human, financial and natural resources in the medium and long term, allowing the generation of sustainable development with a strong social base. The formulation model to be developed in the context of the Municipal Territorial Planning Strategic Plan is inspired by a philosophy of participatory planning with gender equality, agreed to promote sustainable development at the regional level with a focus on sectoral programs, chains and clusters. It then assumes that local private and public actors mostly identify the best options for development and conservation of their territories.At the same time, the strengthening of local and regional capacities for environmental and financial management of the territories is oriented.

In general, the outline of the Municipal Strategic Plan formulated on the basis of land use planning represents a frame of reference destined to allow the examination of the major decisions of the public and private sectors, regarding the geographical location of their relevant investments, and is they constitute a guide for the development interventions of all the entities of the state apparatus (mapping), as well as an instrument to guide activities of the private sector.

1. ¿ What is land use planning?

Territorial planning implies and is at the same time a state wind policy (eg Law 64-00), a development planning instrument by means of which a harmonious quality of life with nature and an intergenerational commitment is obtained… It is a perspective holistic, democratic, participatory. It allows: to adapt the political-administrative organization and the spatial projection of social, economic, environmental and cultural policy.

It is an articulated, strategically planned, dynamic, iterative process whose objective is to promote the rational use of space and natural resources, it prevents, mitigates, suppresses the Disarticulated incrementalism ”, use and abuse of space and its resources, being the opposite of developmental models. It evolves towards territorial action, as it encourages changes through real interventions, coherent and organized actions. It is not a goal, much less a fixed map, it is constantly evolving.

It takes into consideration the integration and balance of demand and expectations of a growing population. It considers the capacity and characteristics of the territory and its resources, as a vital space and intergenerational sustenance. It must be based on parameters of minimal variability, easily projected and capable of adequately characterizing the areas of greatest uncertainty.

It evolves continuously after dynamic and flexible evaluations of its partial results and impact on the physical, sociocultural and biological environment. This is not done nor should a fixed territorial order be established, but a flexible one that varies constantly. It considers the socioeconomic conditions to decrease inequality and the concentration of wealth.

Its theoretical and operational foundation leads to the sustainable and comprehensive development of natural resources and the reduction of environmental vulnerability, the deterioration of the environment and natural resources. Development and conservation must find a balance that makes it possible to take advantage of Natural Resources without deteriorating or depleting them.

The Territorial Planning includes several basic areas: The physical and natural environment, the social (demography, culture, history, health, education and organization), the economy (macro and micro economic, industry, tourism, commerce, informal economy, forestry and agriculture.) and politics (administration, regionalization, legislation, planning, institutions and decision-making).

Territorial planning is a consensual and participatory process, in democratic societies, that serves as directionality for decision-making by public sector organizations, responsible for the design of environmental / territorial policies, the development of the land use plan must be generated based on:

Active participation of key civil society actors:

Participation is the dialogue that links the agents that make the decisions and the organizations of civil society to achieve common achievements, many of them defined as satisfying human needs and preserving the ecological foundation.

Participation seeks consensus among public sector agents and community leaders on the objectives and proposals for intervention actions, in order to lay the foundations on which the socio / political viability of the solutions to the fundamental problems and the enhancement of opportunities.

The role of the organized community and its participation in the territorial planning process is fundamental, because it contributes to the identification of problems, needs and aspirations of the community, generates ideas, solutions to problems and potential existing resources provide basic information and are aware of the economic and physical / natural conditions of their socio-environmental unit, propose alternative solutions to problems through the identification, design and execution of programs, projects and measures, identify areas of criticism and seek consensus for solutions and promote them opportunities that are articulated on a natural basis.

Needs and generation of commitments

A consideration that should prevail in the territorial planning process is the need to generate commitment, understood as acceptance, through consensus and participation of the various governmental and civil society actors to establish a planning and public management process, that facilitates the solution of their problems from their expectations and enhances the characteristics of the territory (Cuenca and / or municipality).

This need and commitment involves:

• Understand that the planning process and its instrument, the plan, must emerge as a social need, in which the decision-making agent, the State, must actively participate in its various fields of competence, with emphasis on its Responsibility towards the management of the territory and natural resources, because the primary interest is to provide an efficient response to the felt needs of the population Understand that to achieve the socio-political viability of the process and the land use plan, they must participate The organizations and social agents that act in the different levels and areas of planning are actively involved, since the process must be seen as a necessity of the civil society organizations, which demands strategic agreements with the agents of the State.Having the inventory of demographic and socio-productive composition, needs and environmental problems, constitutes a good basis to start an adequate process of territorial planning, which has in various methodological instruments a source of useful data to know the socio-territorial reality and its environment natural. A territory must configure a good database on the problems that affect its socio-territorial, as well as their hierarchical hierarchy, in order to design the appropriate solutions Interpret the need as a lack and aspirations felt by the population and by the social agents that represent it, to whom the local planning process must provide efficient responses.it constitutes a good base to initiate an adequate territorial planning process, which has in diverse methodological instruments a source of useful data to know the socio-territorial reality and its natural environment. A territory must configure a good database on the problems that affect its socio-territorial, as well as their hierarchical hierarchy, in order to design the appropriate solutions Interpret the need as a lack and aspirations felt by the population and by the social agents that represent it, to whom the local planning process must provide efficient responses.it constitutes a good base to initiate an adequate territorial planning process, which has in diverse methodological instruments a source of useful data to know the socio-territorial reality and its natural environment. A territory must configure a good database on the problems that affect its socio-territorial, as well as their hierarchical hierarchy, in order to design the appropriate solutions Interpret the need as a lack and aspirations felt by the population and by the social agents that represent it, to whom the local planning process must provide efficient responses.must set up a good database on the problems that affect its socio-territorial, as well as the hierarchization of them, in order to design the appropriate solutions Interpret the need as a lack and aspirations felt by the population and by the social agents that they represent it, to whom the local planning process must provide efficient responses.must set up a good database on the problems that affect its socio-territorial, as well as the hierarchization of them, in order to design the appropriate solutions Interpret the need as a lack and aspirations felt by the population and by the social agents that they represent it, to whom the local planning process must provide efficient responses.

Land Management in the Dominican Republic

Law 64-00 of August 18, 2000 or Law on Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic, in numerals 38 and 39 of Article 16 Chapter II on basic definitions, we find the following definitions related to Territorial Planning.

" 38. Land Use Planning> Planning, evaluation and control process aimed at identifying and programming human activities compatible with the conservation, use and management of Natural Resources in the National Territory, respecting the carrying capacity of the natural environment, to preserve and restoring ecological balance and protecting the environment, as well as ensuring the well-being of the population.

39. Land Management: Planning process aimed at evaluating and programming the use in the National Territory, according to its characteristics and potentialities, taking into account Natural and Environmental Resources, economic and social activities and the distribution of the population in the framework of a policy of conservation and sustainable use of Natural Resources and the environment ”.

Finally, Chapter II, of Title II (Art. 30 to 32) is dedicated to Land Use Planning, declaring of high national interest the design, formulation and execution of the national land use plan that incorporates the variables, entrusting certain authorities with its execution. within a period of years and providing for the allocation of items.

Its article 31 provides that the national, provincial or municipal Territory Planning, as the case may be, will have as its main objectives the protection of its resources, the reduction of its vulnerability, the preservation of natural resources and to achieve the maximum possible harmony in the intercalations of society with nature.

The Article 32 states that to ensure environmental management appropriate national territory will be divided into units of environmental management, having long as possible, respect the limits of watersheds, which if they are small may be unit for forming hydrological districts.

3.1 Conceptual bases of land use planning

The methods proposed for the development of the strategic planning and land use planning process are based on the experience developed in 10 years of formulation, monitoring and evaluation of various planning and land use planning models developed in Latin America, such as:

1. Formulation, monitoring and evaluation of the Comprehensive Development Plan (PDI) of the department of Peten, Guatemala; Municipal Development Agendas of Guatemala; Environmental Agendas of the Municipalities of Guatemala; Land-use plans at the regional and municipal levels of Guatemala; Planning Plan Territorial of El Salvador; Focus on the Conservation and Sustainable Development Regions (RECODES, Central America); Conservation and Development Region of the Municipality of Metapan, El Salvador; Methodological Guide for Strategic Planning of the Conservation and Development Region of the Department of Rivas / Nicaragua; Guide Methodological Zoning of the Coastal Edge (Project for Territorial Planning of the Coastal Zone of the Bio Bio Region, Chile) Simplified Guide for the Preparation of the Municipal Territorial Planning Plan for the Municipalities of Peru;Guide for the Integral Management of Watersheds, Tropical Agronomic Research and Teaching Center; Management Plans for Protected Areas of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica; Forest Management Plans for community forest concessions of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala; Comprehensive Management Plan for Agroforestry Farms.

The block of approaches, models and methods presented will be used as tools for the adaptation and adaptation of the most appropriate model to be used in the methodological proposal for the formulation of the land use plan of the municipality of Jarabacoa.

3.2 Strategic planning and ordering of territorial development

Strategic planning and land use planning is a process through which the integrated development of a territory, region or municipality is oriented.

3.2.1 Strategic planning and land use planning allow:

Study the historical result of the occupation and transformation of the territory. That is, it explains how the resources occupied by the geographic space have been used over time, to indicate how the administrative and legal, environmental, social, economic and functional should be oriented and organized towards the future (Institutional Development, Environmental Development, Social Development, Economic Development, Regional Development).

Strategic planning and territorial ordering seek that the development process is based on macro-principles

Participatory:

The groups and social actors intervene during the formulation and management of the Territorial Plans, in the agreement of the future of their own and collective interests and in the monitoring and evaluation of the same.

Competitive:

The best results, more and better goods and services, with the fewest resources.

Equitable:

Equal opportunities for young people, adults and the elderly, women and men of all social groups and sectors of the territory.

Sustainable:

Rational use of natural resources and the environment (balance between production and the environment). Satisfaction of the needs of the present without compromising resources for future generations.

3.3 Strategic planning in the territorial sphere

The processes of "Strategic Planning" have an intrinsic ambiguity, being the means by which you want to design or foresee the future of a territory, society, institution or company (that is to say order), taking for this the conditions, potentialities and current restrictions to try to predict and / or assume the most appropriate route in search of achieving the proposed objectives and goals. When designing on assumptions, the ambiguity of "Strategic Planning" is entered, if we conceive the objectivity that one wishes to have in the "Planning" processes, the approach of periods or stages in time should not be established chronologically in years, rather the conception of the "Strategic Planning" must be visualized in moments, stages and phases,which are consistent with the fulfillment of objectives and goals established in an acronological manner.

This would allow the approach of realistic "Visions" with evolutionary characteristics. The risk of opting for "Open Planning" models is presented at the time of "Design and Operation" of the "Monitoring and Evaluation System", measuring the fulfillment of our vision, objectives and goals, under this system should not be based exclusively rather, in the planning framework, opt for parallel tools that allow measuring the positive or negative evolution of the Land Management Plan (POT) process.

The "Strategic Planning" processes must also consider a short-term period for their execution, long processes gradually reduce the participation of key actors, falling into a routine of meetings whose contribution to the generation of ideas and strategic proposals that they promote. The "School of Evolutionary Planning" raises a paradigm for the majority of professionals who are dedicated to carrying out "Planning" actions whatever their training or school of knowledge. Conceiving a process, actions and products, as living entities that must seek a balance point within a systematized and organized framework, can be conceived as a mistake, if the failures of most processes are not taken as reference of traditional "Planning".The fear of facing recurring but systematic changes, not establishing chronological times and rather conceiving a process through evolutionary stages or phases (short, medium and long term), can cause confusion but in fact, it has been demonstrated from the Viability of the process, since it allows the actors involved in the process to determine in the process the time required to move from one level to another, many times the actors are forced to evolve against the current and in this process the ship capsizes.since it allows the actors involved in the process to determine in the process the time required to move from one level to another, many times the actors are forced to evolve against the current and in this process the ship capsizes.since it allows the actors involved in the process to determine in the process the time required to move from one level to another, many times the actors are forced to evolve against the current and in this process the ship capsizes.

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