Chaque jour, toujours plus de femmes et hommes utilisateurs familiaux et communautaires des terres et ressources naturelles sont précarisés, dépossédés de leur ressources et évincés de leurs territoires : paysannes et paysans, pasteurs nomades, éleveurs, pêcheurs, habitants des forêts… (ateliers 1, 2, 3, 5). Cette évolution est dramatique pour l’ensemble de l’humanité : ses conséquences humaines directes concernent l’immense majorité des ruraux, qui assurent l’essentiel de la production des aliments et contribuent au maintien des équilibres écologiques.

Cada día, más mujeres y hombres, usuarios familiares y comunitarios de tierras y recursos naturales, son precarizados, despojados de sus recursos y expulsados de sus territorios: campesinas y campesinos, pastores nómadas, ganaderos, pescadores, habitantes de los bosques… (Talleres 1, 2, 3, 5). Esta evolución es dramática para el conjunto de la humanidad: sus consecuencias directas afectan a la inmensa mayoría de campesinos, que representan el grueso de la producción de alimentos y contribuyen al mantenimiento del equilibrio ecológico.

PUBLISHER'S ABSTRACT: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. Since then, the importance of the role that indigenous peoples play in economic, social and environmental conservation through traditional sustainable agricultural practices has been gradually recognized.

Com a edição da Medida Provisória 759, o Governo Federal propõe ao Congresso Nacional um modelo de reforma agrária mais transparente, eficaz e ágil para corrigir irregularidades do passado e garantir ao trabalhador rural assentado o direito de acesso às políticas públicas do setor. 

A MP 759 também prevê mudanças na titulação urbana, além dos ajustes ao Programa de Reforma Agrária. No que se refere ao meio rural, a medida corrige contradições que, em última instância, inviabilizam a promoção do bem-estar de agricultores familiares e o desenvolvimento sustentável do campo

Access to land is key to achieving food security, poverty alleviation, social equity and environmental protection. A brief insight in land governance-related principles and policies of the German development assistance.

Fishery plays a crucial role in poverty and hunger alleviation. It is therefore all the more important to secure the long-term conservation of fish stocks as a natural resource and to ensure fair access to them.

Secure tenure of farming and forest land is increasingly recognised as an important factor of household food security and nutritional status. This is borne out by a study by the Laotian Land Issues Working Group. It demonstrates mutual impacts, how government land-related policies affect the factors involved, and who the winners and losers are.

Aquaculture holds a big potential to satisfy the growing demand for aquatic food. Setting out from lessons learnt in past development projects, our author describes what fish farming systems must look like to fit the needs of smallholders and the environment.

Sierra Leone is one of the least developed countries in the world and is still recovering from a civil war that ended in 2002. Increasingly, the Sierra Leonean government seeks to attract foreign investors through providing opportunities for large-scale land leases for the development of agribusiness. This has triggered a rapid transformation process that poses a considerable threat to food security and social stability. Despite being a pilot country for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, there is no real change on the ground as yet.

Like in other areas of livestock keeping, the growing demand for fish raises the question of how the feeding of animals can be maintained without competing with the provision of food for humans. The use of insect proteins could help save natural resources while simultaneously making use of organic waste.

On the 11th May 2012, the Committee on World Food Security of the United Nations adopted the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT). Rural 21 asked Roman Herre of the human rights organisation FIAN about his views on the implementation of the Guidelines so far.

Experts agree that the rising demand for fish for human consumption cannot be met without a major expansion and sustainable intensification of aquaculture. Our WorldFish authors describe the areas in which research plays a particularly important role in this context.