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Durante mucho tiempo, miles de personas de bajos ingresos en Am├⌐rica Latina y el Caribe han ocupado terrenos urbanos y rurales, o han utilizado sus recursos naturales, incluidos cuerpos de agua, bosques, praderas y campos cultivables, sin tener el derecho oficial de hacerlo o sin que sus Gobiernos respeten los derechos registrados. Viven en hogares que posiblemente fueron construidos, rehabilitados y ocupados por sus familias durante varias generaciones, pero estos est├ín situados en solares de los que podr├¡an desalojarlos alg├║n d├¡a. Dependen de cuencas hidrogr├íficas, bosques o tierras agr├¡colas para su sustento, pero es posible que alg├║n d├¡a pierdan el acceso a los recursos que utilizan. En muchos de los casos, su tenencia es informal e insegura. El desplazamiento es una amenaza siempre presente.Para atender el problema de inseguridad de la tenencia de la tierra, una cantidad cada vez mayor de defensores y activistas a trav├⌐s de la regi├│n han adoptado una estrategia pr├ícticamente desconocida en Am├⌐rica Latina y el Caribe, pero que resulta muy prometedora: el fideicomiso comunitario de tierras.  Esta estrategia tiene muchas variaciones. No obstante, un aspecto com├║n en todos los fideicomisos comunitarios de tierras es el mejoramiento de la seguridad de la tenencia de la tierra y la prevenci├│n del desplazamiento a trav├⌐s del control comunitario de la tierra. Es decir, una organizaci├│n adquiere y administra los terrenos en nombre de la comunidad all├¡ establecida, la cual, a su vez, dirige y gobierna dicha organizaci├│n. Hemos seleccionado el contenido de esta monograf├¡a de un volumen mucho m├ís largo titulado "En terreno com├║n: perspectivas internacionales sobre los fideicomisos comunitarios de tierras". Escogimos estos cinco ensayos porque abordan un tema similar: la incidencia y las repercusiones de la inseguridad de la tenencia de la tierra en Am├⌐rica Latina y el Caribe. Con el fin de resolver este problema, tambi├⌐n discuten una estrategia similar que muchas personas en la regi├│n han adoptado para asegurar su futuro: el control comunitario de la tierra. 

The community land trust (CLT) is a transformative strategy of community-led development on community-owned land that is taking root across the Global North and is now spreading to the Global South. CLTs produce and preserve affordably priced homes, retail spaces, urban (and rural) aglands, and a variety of neighborhood facilities – all developed under the auspices of people who live nearby; all managed to remain permanently affordable for people of modest means. Because of the way these assets are owned and because of the way these organizations are governed, CLTs offer new answers to fundamental questions of “who decides?” and “who benefits?” that should be asked whenever governments, charities, or NGOs invest scarce resources in improving the places where people live. CLTs are not all alike. Among the hundreds that exist in a dozen different countries, there are numerous variations in how these organizations are structured, how their lands are utilized, how development is done, and how assets are stewarded for future generations. What is called a "community land trust" can vary greatly from one locality to another. Despite this lack of uniformity, advocates and practitioners have advanced a consistent set of arguments in favor of this strategy. Their multi-faceted case for the CLT says, in essence: When land is owned for the common good of a place-based community, present and future; when development is done by an organization that is a creature of that community, rooted in it, accountable to it, and guided by it; when stewardship is deliberate, diligent, and durable . . . development is more likely to be both equitable and sustainable, especially in places populated by classes and races who have long been disadvantaged and disempowered.The six essays contained in this monograph are drawn from a lengthier volume entitled On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust. Most of that volume’s twenty-six chapters were focused on describing conditions, organizations, and polices that precipitated the appearance of CLTs in a range of urban and rural settings. But a number of chapters also looked closely at the philosophy behind this unconventional approach to real property, exploring various ethical, political, and practical justifications for the CLT. These essays were selected for the present monograph. Together, they provide a coherent and compelling rationale for why community land trusts are worthy of consideration, implementation, and support.   

As community land trusts (CLTs) have grown in number and spread around the world, the model itself has changed. There are now many variations of what is sometimes known as the "classic" CLT. What has not changed, however, is the dynamic tension between impactful development and community empowerment that was baked into the structure and purpose of the CLT from the very beginning. Every community land trust attempts to gain control over enough land, housing, and other land-based assets to make a difference in the lives of low-income and moderate-income people. At the same time as it is expanding its portfolio of real estate, a CLT is also dedicated to expanding and engaging its social base--continuously organizing, informing, and involving members of its chosen community in guiding and governing the CLT itself. Ownership and empowerment go hand-in-hand.These dual goals are often seen as incompatible within the larger field of community development. Even within the smaller world of CLTs, there is an ongoing debate as to whether there exists an inevitable tradeoff between going to scale versus ceding control to the community served by a CLT. That debate is the focus of the present monograph. Although several contributors take one side or the other, most portray the CLT as occupying a rhetorical and practical middle ground between impact and empowerment. They provide examples of successful CLTs in which involving residents in guiding and governing the organization has been the basis for increasing a CLT's holdings of land and housing, rather than being a barrier to growth. In these organizations, the dual goals of a CLT are reconciled and brought skillfully, sustainably into balance. All of the chapters in the present monograph, except for the opening essay by Emily Thaden and Tony Pickett, were selected from On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust. This earlier collection of twenty-six original essays was published by Terra Nostra Press in June 2020.