This publication deals with key issues in land tenure, especially as they relate to food insecurity and rural development situations. Land tenure issues are frequently ignored in rural development interventions, with often long-lasting, negative results. This guide is designed to assist technical officers in governments and civil society in understanding why and how land tenure issues should be considered in rural development projects. It analyses important contexts such as environmental degradation, gender discrimination, and conflicts, where land tenure is currently of critical concern.

This paper has been produced as a follow-up to the FAO guidelines "Advancing Agroforestry on the Policy Agenda - a guide for decision makers". The purpose of this document is to provide a review of the main tenure-related challenges that can affect agroforestry adoption to inform policies and project implementation. Drawing on practical cases, the document also presents measures and approaches which could potentially fuel the adoption of agroforestry, concluding with a number of specific recommendations for formulation and implementation of tenure policies promoting agroforestry.

This research report for a regional study on the impacts of climate change on the spread of pests contributes to FAO’s normative work, as a milestone for 2020–2021 under the Regular Programme. The year 2020 was designated by the United Nations as the as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), with the aim of reducing crop loss from pests, which is estimated at 40 percent. In the current report, agricultural pests as any organism harmful to plants, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, insects, etc are defined by the authors. We include those that cause direct damage as well as disease-causing organisms. Climate change is projected to worsen crop losses by another 10–25 percent, which in some regions would emanate from associated pests. Central Asia, the Caucasus and Southeastern Europe are under the research area.

Publisher Description

The guidelines are the first comprehensive, global instrument on tenure and its administration to be prepared through intergovernmental negotiations.The guidelines set out principles and internationally accepted standards of responsible practices for the use and control of land, fisheries and forests. They provide guidance for improving the policy, legal and organizational frameworks that regulate tenure rights; for enhancing the transparency and administration of tenure systems; and for strengthening the capacities and operations of public bodies, private sector enterprises, civil society organizations and people concerned with tenure and its governance.The guidelines place the governance of tenure within the context of national food security, and are intended to contribute to the progressive realization of the right to adequate food, poverty eradication, environmental protection and sustainable social and economic development.

The book offers a rich toolkit of relevant, adoptable ecosystem-based practices that can help the world's 500 million smallholder farm families achieve higher productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency while enhancing natural capital.

This guide has been prepared to support non-governmental organizations that are working to promote more equitable access to land for women and men in rural communities. In most societies, access to land has favoured certain individuals and groups at the expense of others. Women are one of the groups that often have fewer and weaker rights to land. The guide addresses gender relations and how their structure affects access to land. It presents strategies to improve gender equity by evaluating the current situation to identify what gender issues exist, by informing people of their rights to land, and by working to empower the marginalized.

This illustrated volume identifies the challenges and opportunities facing food and agriculture in the context of the 2030 Agenda, presents solutions for a more sustainable world and shows how FAO has been working in recent years to support its Member Nations in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

This paper seeks to answer a number of basic questions. First of all just what are land tenure rights and water rights? Second, how do the respective regimes compare? Third what linkages, if any, are there between land tenure rights and water rights and, if there are none, does this matter, either in general or as regards specific aspects of the interface? A key objective of the paper is to examine which aspects of the rights interface merit further research. In comparing the two regimes a final subsidiary objective of this paper is to try and identify which areas, if any, in one sector can shed light on areas for future research in the other.

In recent years, FAO has carried out extensive assessments of the forest tenure situation in the four regions of Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Central Asia, including its impact on sustainable forest management and poverty reduction. The experiences and lessons learned from these assessments, complemented by numerous studies carried out by other organizations, provide a rich information base on different tenure systems and on the successes and challenges of tenure reform processes.