Resource information
This issue of Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives offers the reader a series of articles and information related to the discussions that will take place in March 2006 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (7–10 March). Needs have changed and there are new dimensions to previous concerns. Gender issues have been integrated into FAO activities, and Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives has published articles on how the rights of rural women have or have not been taken into account in agrarian reform programmes. Likewise, there is now an ecological dimension to concerns about socio-economic viability, and the results of experiments carried out in many parts of the world have been widely published. It is therefore necessary to seek out new, more open and flexible ways to tackle the problem of equitable access to natural resources and, in particular, to land. The latter remains a priority issue today mainly because of the persistence of poverty in rural ar eas, where 75 percent of the world’s poor live.
This bulletin is issued by FAO as a medium for the dissemination of information and views on land reform and related subjects to the United Nations, FAO Member Governments and national and international experts and institutions. Articles are published in the original language (English, French or Spanish).
Readers requiring more detailed information concerning this bulletin or articles therein should write to the Editor, Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives, Rural Development Division, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. The opinions expressed in this document are the personal views of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of FAO.
