Why Land Still Matters: Three Years of the Voluntary Guidelines - Where We Are and Where We Are Going Moderator: Heath Cosgrove, USAID's Land Tenure and Resource Management Office Panelists: Paul Munro-Faure, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; Annalisa Mauro, International Land Coalition (ILC); and Dr. Joan Cuka Kagwanja, Land Policy Initiative, UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security is the first global exhaustive tool on the tenure of land and natural resources developed through an open inter-governmental process with the full and effective participation of a vast array of relevant actors. In such document, internationally accepted principles and norms were established to define responsible practices for the use and control of land, fisheries and forests.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security represent an inclusive, transparent international agreement on the governance of tenure to promote food security and sustainable development by protecting the legitimate tenure rights of millions of people and improving secure access to land, fisheri (Read more at

An introductory video to the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.

The Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security discuss the importance of recognizing "legitimate land rights." But what does that mean and who determines which rights are "legitimate?"

The daily food and incomes of billions of people, particularly the rural poor, are determined by their access to land, fisheries and forests. Societies decide and regulate access to these resources through systems of tenure. Paul Munro-Faure, Deputy Director and Francesco Romano, Land Tenure Officer of the FAO Partnership, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division explain how supporting responsible governance of tenure is critical to achieving food security and allowing families to invest in sustainable production. They describe the FAO policy work, including key policy messages.

The webinar on the Forest Rights and Governance in India took place on 30 January, 2018. The webinar discussed why has there been variation in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act and identified institutional bottlenecks to upscaling its implementation, as well as lessons learned from existing best practices.
The webinar addressed implementation of the Forest Rights Act, its inclusion of traditional forest dwellers - men and women, innovations that have proven successful, and questions of governance and its impact on the forest rights discourse and policies.

Climate change is increasingly being recognised as a global crisis, but responses to it have so far been overly focused on scientific and economic solutions. How then do we move towards more people-centred, gender-aware climate change policies and processes? How do we both respond to the different needs and concerns of women and men and challenge the gender inequalities that mean women are more likely to lose out than men in the face of climate change? This report sets out why it is vital to address the gender dimensions of climate change.

Details of numerous Sustainable Rural Livelihoods websites.

This section is divided into Key Documents, and References and Bibliographies for each of the following areas: General; Biodiversity and Environment; Land Tenure and Property Rights; Crops; Livestock; Fisheries; Forestry; and Water.