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The National Rural Land Use Policy NRLUP 2015 – 2020 supports the implementation of the National Agriculture and Livestock Sector Policy and the National Action Plan to address Land Degradation. NRLUP is intended to deliver on the Government's policies targeting the land users from rural to national level. NRLUP shall be guided by the following principles: Alignment with and guidance from the national constitution. Gender equity and involvement of youth, children, people with special needs and church leaders. Land Use Planning and decision makings will determine activities in the future generations. Respect for culture and rights of indigenous people. Land use will impact on land resources utilization and people's livelihoods. The culture and rights of indigenous communities shall be respected throughout the planning and implementation of the NRLUP programmes and activities. Alignment with and guidance from recommendations from relevant and original resources on natural resources. Land use planning that promotes friendly environment, risk reductions, economic development and sustainability. Identification and extension of sustainable agricultural systems adapted to new climate regimes is necessary to ensure food security. Subsistence agriculture in the Solomon Islands is generally strong, and many communities currently have an adequate level of food security.Land use planning may occur at multiple scales: at the national, provincial, constituency, ward and community and household levels. National and provincial governments may undertake land use planning to ensure systematic and planned development, reduce land use conflicts, and to generate national and provincial wealth and income. However, governments must accept that the primary purpose of land use planning is to achieve appropriate development, sustainable livelihoods and food security of households and communities in the Solomon Islands. Land use planning will involve the development of strong and effective institutional partnerships between stakeholders for collaboration, coordination, integration, and resource sharing between relevant scales of national, provincial and local community land use planning. Partnering Institutions will include government, non-government, and private sector Land use planning will be a multisectoral process, and will be mainstreamed and coordinated throughout all agencies responsible for development, natural resource and environmental management, and infrastructure planning and construction.To accomplish the objectives and strategy of the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2011–2020, NRLUP has developed the following goals: 1. To enhance, facilitate and support commercial development for Productive Sectors within government Ministries, ensure Natural Resources are used sustainably to empower economic activities. 2. To establish a National Land Use Secretariat with representative from relevant Government agencies and interested stakeholders organizations. 3. To ensure that natural resources are used sustainably, and that environmental assets and ecosystem services are maintained and enhanced. 4. To ensure that critical forces of change, such as climate change impacts, disaster risk reduction, population increases, and sustainable development opportunities are addressed in land use planning. 5. To implement participatory community-based land use planning, and communitycapacity development, so that Solomon Islanders can make informed choices about how they will use their land in order to sustain and improve their future livelihoods and maintain food security.The Solomon Islands NDS. In particular addresses the objective: “Promote sustainable use of natural resources to increase production, productivity, value adding and rural incomes”, and strategy to; “Develop agriculture and livestock through agricultural marketing and land planning to improve food security, livelihoods and community sufficiency in the rural areas through targeted multidisciplinary interventions to diversify agriculture and promote agribusiness and alternative livelihoods”. The impacts of climate change pose considerable challenges for land use and land use planning in the Solomon Islands. Temperature rises, changes in rainfall patterns (timing, intensity and amount), sea level rise, salinisation of water tables and of soils, and changes in flooding patterns among other impacts, will have serious and far-reaching implications for agriculture and food security, fisheries, urban settlements and tourism. Climate change impacts will require responses from National and Provincial governments, and from communities and individual family households.
