Les investissements privés dans les terres s’accélèrent avec des interrogations sur leurs impacts économiques et fonciers pour les populations. Les appels pour améliorer la gouvernance foncière se multiplient. De nombreuses institutions internationales et agences de développement appuient la mise en œuvre de politiques et de programmes de formalisation des droits fonciers, censés apporter des réponses aux défis du développement.  Mais que signifie la formalisation des droits fonciers dans des contextes de pluralité des normes ? Quelle est la gamme des options ?

Deforestation and forest degradation account for up to 20% of the total annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, current approaches to address climate change include strategies to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD). Even though REDD is still under discussion within the UNFCCC framework, many REDD pilot projects are being implemented across the tropics.

Land tenure issues are becoming increasingly important worldwide. Problems such as high population pressure, increases in resource degradation, food shortages, transformations of political systems and regional and supra-regional resource conflicts have brought the land issue to the public's attention.

This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities using nationally representative and multi-year data from multiple African countries. We document evidence on the evolving dynamics in land distribution and ownership patterns, the effect of land access on youth livelihood choices and development of rental and sales market in the region.

Community land, crucial to rural livelihood around the world, is increasingly targeted by commercial interests. Its loss can lead to environmental degradation, increased rural poverty and land disputes that last for years. Without formal legal recognition of their land rights, communities struggle to protect their land from being allocated to outside investors.

In much of Central and Eastern Europe, the land tenure structure includes many small and fragmented farms. Land consolidation can be an effective instrument to make agriculture more competitive and to improve rural conditions. This guide provides advice on what countries can do to start a land consolidation pilot project. It shows why land consolidation is important; it describes briefly what land consolidation is; and it identifies key decisions that should be made and key actions that should be undertaken before a land consolidation project can begin.

A narrative on rural youth in Africa has continued to evolve in policy circles around the world. Much of it is driven by population statistics that point to an imminent youth bulge in Africa and concerns about a poor economic outlook (stagnation) for African productivity and growth. Fears of massive unemployment, social unrest and undesirable migration due to limited economic growth drive the bulk of the discourse. This is juxtaposed with the promise of a youth dividend for the continent, which is highlighted by some quarters of the policy debate.

This Topic Guide covers: the trends in and drivers of large-scale land acquisition, and the associated costs, risks and benefits; the provision of and access to more accurate data on large-scale land acquisitions, and key international and regional initiatives to provide guidelines to enhance security of tenure and promote good quality investment; land reform issues such as land tenure regularisation and land administration systems; and land issues in the context of fragile states, and conflict and post-conflict situations.

Based on the principles of sustainable development and in recognition of land’s centrality to development, these Guidelines are intended to contribute to global and national efforts towards the eradication of hunger and poverty by promoting secure tenure rights and equitable access to land, fisheries and forests.
This technical guide on Governing land for women and men aims to assist implementation of the Guidelines’ principle of gender equality through the achievement of responsible gender-equitable governance of land tenure.

Countries of the Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia (NEN) region face a myriad of social, economic and political challenges that have stalled their structural and rural transformation processes. This has had a detrimental impacton rural youth, who, as a result, face limited economic opportunities. The NEN region has the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. Weak education systems are failing to provide youth, especially in rural areas, with the cognitive and non-cognitive skills they need to compete in a global economy.

The aim of this study is to analyse modes of access to land and agreements regulating the exchange of plots between families and between villages. It is based on a quantitative survey of 95 smallholders and over 300 plots (49 of which are cultivated by women), as well as qualitative analysis using transcriptions of interviews with groups of dignitaries, men and women. The main means of access to land identified are via inheritance and gifts, which together accounted for access to 80% to 90% of the plots surveyed.