Rurality in Colombia's Land-Use Planning

Abstract

Written by a forestry engineer with a PhD in Territorial Planning from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín campus, this article critically analyzes how Law 388 of 1997 has incorporated rurality into Colombian Land-Use Plans during its first nine years of implementation. The author identifies three structural misalignments in the law, including its origin as an adaptation of Spanish land law ill-suited to the Colombian context. The text examines the four rural-planning domains defined by the law, with particular critical emphasis on the Family Agricultural Unit as a criterion for land-parcel subdivision, documenting with data on Colombia's rural property structure the practical limitations of this instrument.