The expanse of Peten attracts Guatemalans (and once upon a time the English) in search of land ownership  PHOTO: Clare Rowland

In January, BBC father and son broadcasters, Peter and Dan Snow, in a television programme called Whose Britain Is It Anyway?, informed us that 90% of the UK's population lives in 10% of the UK's land. The programme which was largely based on a book by journalist Kevin Cahill called Who Owns Britain?, highlighted the anomaly of the many millions of acres of land in the UK owned by undisclosed people. It's a situation that persists to this day in the UK, because land that has never been sold or a mortgage raised against it, need never be legally registered.

In Guatemala, the land question and who owns it, remains a prominent issue in the political landscape, despite the best efforts of the country's elite (doubtless envious of the British aristocracy's uncanny ability to avoid the issue for literally centuries!).

However, who owns Guatemala will remain fundamental to the political reform agenda of the country, so long as one person's 'lawful' ownership can threaten so many other people's very survival, whether through denying access to work or access to essential food security. As has been seen recently in many fincas across Guatemala in Suchitepéquez, in and around Guatemala City, Escuintla, Izabal and Alta Verapaz.

Here in the UK, while the question of who owns the land has obvious and massive political consequences (heck, it may even hold our attention on the small screen for a moment), who owns the land has ceased to hold the key to our everyday survival as a society. Does this explain why we are so relaxed about not knowing who owns great swathes of our country?

In Guatemala though, land and who owns it, is the key to many people's everyday survival. That 2% of the population owns 65% of the productive land (according to a census in 1979), is more than simply a premise for an eye catching documentary. It is about life and death.

Prensa Libre (19-02-2006) today published a debate of the current crisis in land conflicts arising from this deeper land question. The piece features Daniel Pascual, coordinator of the Comité de Unidad Campesina and Carlos Zúñiga Fumagalli, president of the Cámara del Agro.

It is well worth a read as an illustration of the two sides' positions in this age old political struggle. A struggle between those who see land ownership in a narrow sense, as a way of ensuring the legal right of one group of people over another to create wealth, and those who see land ownership in a wider sense, as a means to resolve many of the basic problems of Guatemalan society in general.

Put that way, knowing who owns the land in Guatemala is incredibly important. But then for all the instability Guatemala might be currently exeriencing, I guess one thing is certain: they won't be looking to us for any answers.