Big plans often get stuck on small details. A road that needs widening, a new school, a sports field – it all sounds simple, until the land turns out to be part of an undivided estate.

No one steps forward as heir. Families are spread across the islands, the US or further afield, and few have the time or patience to fight their way through paperwork and stamps. Without a clear owner, government projects grind to a halt.

The result is complete paralysis of economic development. Expropriation – a normal tool elsewhere when public interest is at stake – is simply not applied here. So roads remain unfinished, plans stay on paper, and pieces of land lie unused for decades.

Some families claim ownership through inheritance, but nothing is ever registered in a deed or land certificate. And with families often so large and scattered across the globe, it’s almost impossible to sort it out.
By the time everyone is found and agrees, the plan is usually long forgotten — while the goats keep grazing happily as if nothing ever happened.