In recent years, local people and rural communities have assumed increasing prominence in strategies for natural resource management.This paper briefly reviews some of the central legal issues that are associated with this shift. In doing so, its goals are limited. It does not ad dress fundamental questions about when, where and what kind of management works, nor attempt to identify the political, social, economic and environmental ingredient s for success – subjects on which there is a huge, if still inconclusive, literature.

This publication is a result of a close collaboration between FAO and RECOFTC - the Centre for People and Forests. Many colleagues from both the FAO and RECOFTC as well as other training and tenure experts have provided useful comments and suggestions over the course of developing the materials. This module is designed for training involving a mix of participants interested in contributing to more effective forest tenure policy and programmes.

Programmes to reduce emissions from deforestation and ecosystem degradation, such as REDD+ and other forestry incentive programmes, including Payment for Environmental Services (PES), could represent an opportunity to strengthen processes of conservation, sustainable usage and poverty reduction in the Mesoamerican region, particularly in indigenous territories and communities.

Land Tenure Working Paper 9. Based on international authoritative documents, this paper draws 14 principles to be taken into account when developing Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources. The paper sees Voluntary Guidelines as human-rights based documents that provide a framework and a point of reference for national and international policies.

Desde sus orígenes, el desarrollo de la agricultura ha estado estrechamente ligado al trabajo de la mujer. Su contribución a la agricultura se remonta a más de 6 000 años, cuando se inició la domesticación de animales y plantas en los primeros asentamientos humanos. Con el paso del tiempo, con la división del trabajo y de responsabilidades tanto en el seno de la unidad familiar como en la comunidad, se asignaron a las mujeres las tareas y responsabilidades vinculadas a las actividades agrícolas y nutricionales.

This guide is designed for indigenous fishing communities and for people in the development field working with indigenous fishing communities. Its objective is to provide guidance on impacts and benefits of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (hereinafter the ‘Code’) from an indigenous peoples’ perspective.

This Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Manual is designed as a tool for project practitioners of a broad range of projects and programmes of any development organization, by providing information about the right to FPIC and how it can be implemented in six steps.

Los pueblos indígenas1 deben ser considerados como una parte interesada imprescindible en un programa de desarrollo configurado por un mandato de este tipo. Estimaciones recientes indican que, aunque los pueblos indígenas constituyen aproximadamente el 5 % de la población total del mundo, comprenden alrededor del 15 % de la población pobre mundial2. Las adversidades afrontadas por los pueblos indígenas han aumentado en las últimas décadas, aunque también lo ha hecho el reconocimiento de su capacidad para contribuir al desarrollo sostenible y la ordenación de los recursos naturales.

El manual es una herramienta dirigida a los responsables de proyectos y programas y contiene un procedimiento en seis pasos para facilitar el proceso de CLPI, al tiempo que muestra sus beneficios y provee el marco regulatorio que debe ser usado cuando se integren los derechos de los pueblos indígenas en las políticas y normas de las organizaciones.

Does forest tenure matter? In what way does it matter? What are the links among tenure, sustainable forest management (SFM) and poverty alleviation (PA)? This paper presents the main findings of research that was conducted by FAO and partners from the Asia Forest Partnership with the aim of analysing and understanding the role of tenure arrangements, their enabling impacts and their limitations. The paper presents a summary of different tenure instruments’ performance in supporting SFM and PA, and provides recommendations for more effective forest tenure systems.

Land Tenure Working Paper 18. Presents the main themes that characterize the governance in land tenure and analyses the aspects related to the evolution of agricultural policy issues in various Central American countries. It also offers some examples and lessons learned from new models of land administration and land access mechanisms that Central American governments and International Cooperation have fostered over the past fifteen years in the Region. Available in Spanish

Desde las décadas de 1970 y 1980, la forestería comunitaria ha ido adquiriendo cada vez más popularidad, a partir del concepto de que las comunidades locales, cuando se les conceden suficientes derechos de propiedad sobre los bosques colectivos locales, pueden organizarse de forma autónoma y crear instituciones locales a fin de reglamentar el uso de los recursos naturales y manejarlos de forma sostenible.