The study aims to clarify the various issues regarding land security of poor and other marginalized groups in Malian rural areas. It looks into questions relating to how poor and vulnerable groups obtain access to land and natural resources, and what factors cause their exclusion. It analyzes existing methods for formalizing land rights and land transactions and their impacts on the poor. Specific attention is given to the practical organization of the procedures for formalization and recording land rights.

HIV and AIDS has exacerbated the vulnerability of orphaned children who are suffering in a vicious cycle of poverty, food insecurity, lack of access to education, and insecure livelihoods. Moreover, orphaned children are exposed to various forms of abuse by close family members, many of whom are their guardians. Movable and immovable properties that are left by their deceased parents are often confiscated by such guardians.

This report is the outcome of a study undertaken on men and women’s access to and control over land in seven districts of the Volta Region in Ghana. The study evolved out of a need for increased insight into gender differences in access to and control over land and the implications of insecure access to land for households within the Volta Region of Ghana. The objective of the study was to obtain an improved understanding of gender-specific constraints that exist in the Volta Region with regard to land tenure.

In this issue, we will be looking at work underway on the Voluntary Guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources. We will also look at work done in Thailand and lessons learned by the German-financed Bioenergy and Food Security project.

Les achats de terres agricoles par des étrangers, en Afrique et ailleurs, sont devenus un motif d’inquiétude. De nombreux observateurs considèrent qu’ils équivalent à une forme moderne de colonialisme et qu’ils menacent la sécurité alimentaire des populations pauvres. Cependant, les investissements pourraient avoir des conséquences positives si les objectifs des acheteurs de terres et les besoins en matière d’investissements des pays en développement étaient réconciliés.

L'égalité hommes-femmes constitue l’un des dix principes fondamentaux d’application des Directives volontaires pour une gouvernance responsable des régimes fonciers applicables aux terres, aux pêches et aux forêts dans le contexte de la sécurité alimentaire nationale. Ce guide vise à accompagner sa mise en oeuvre par la réalisation d’une gouvernance foncière responsable et équitable en matière de genre. Il est centré sur la façon de gouverner les régimes fonciers pour qu’ils apportent des réponses équitables aux besoins et priorités des femmes et des hommes.

The forestry and forest industries sectors have been borne on the tide of this wider reform. This issue of Unasylva offers an analysis of experiences with regard to forestry in transitional economies, with the aim of facilitating an understanding of the important issues involved in the process.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Germany, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), Finland, GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit), UN-Habitat, World Bank and UNDP, and IPC (International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty), Food First International Action Network (FIAN), ILC (International Land Coalition), FIG (International Federation of Surveyors) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private se

Issues relating to land and land reform have been moving up the agenda of rural poverty and food security in recent years with the increasing acceptance that the prerequisites for broad-based and equitable development include the essential need for people to have access to land and other natural resources. Access needs to be on an equitable basis allowing the poor and the disadvantaged, including women, to secure the assets needed for them and their families to generate sustainable livelihoods.

The articles in this issue supplement the recent publication "Good governance in land tenure and administration" (Land Tenure Studies No. 9), which provides practical advice for land professionals on improving governance in a land administration system or other land tenure arrangement.