The Government of South Africa has a major holding of forest land, with a total estate covering 892,000 ha of forest and associated land. Within the state's forest holding there is a wide diversity of forest and land types including: commercial plantations and other afforested land; indigenous forests; legally protected (indigenous) forest areas; and associated bare land. This land is partly owned by the state and partly held on behalf of local communities, some of whom also have existing rights to use the forest land for various purposes.

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.

A humanidade tem sido testemunha e participante nas múltiplas mudanças pelas quais a agricultura passou no decorrer dos séculos. Desde os primórdios desta antiga prática, o cultivo tem sido a espinha dorsal do desenvolvimento econômico de muitas sociedades e a principal fonte de preservação e evolução da vida. Nas civilizações pré-históricas e agrárias mais antigas, a agricultura não somente era uma fonte de alimento e de matérias-primas, mas também representava uma fonte de expressão da ordem inata da natureza.

أعد هذا الدليل لمساعدة المتخصصين في حيازة الأراضي وفي الإدارة العقارية لمن يشتركون في إعادة بناء نظم الحيازة والإدارة العقارية في بلدان خرجت من صراع عنيف. وفي هذه الظروف يكون توفير أمن الحصول على الأراضي أمرا شديد التعقيد. والمعتاد أن تؤدي الصراعات العنيفة إلى نزوح كثير من الناس. وفي نهاية الصراع قد يجد العائدون إلى ديارهم أن أرضهم في أيدي آخرين. وقد تكون هناك عدة مطالبات مشروعة تتنافس على نفس الأرض وذلك بسبب تتابع موجات النزوح - وقد لا يستطيع كثيرون استرداد أراضيهم ويضطرون إلى الاستيطان في مكان آخر.

Land Tenure Working Paper 13: Secure land rights are crucial if local populations are to engage actively as stakeholders in rural development.

Selon leur définition par les États Membres de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO), les objectifs fondamentaux de l’Organisation sont «d’améliorer les niveaux de nutrition, la productivité agricole et la qualité de vie des populations rurales et contribuer à l’essor de l’économie mondiale.» En tant qu’organisme spécialisé des Nations Unies, la FAO a un rôle essentiel à jouer pour la promotion d’une plus grande sécurité alimentaire et la réduction de la pauvreté.

Consistent with its mandate to pursue a world free from hunger and malnutrition, the following “FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples” has been formulated so as to ensure that FAO will make all due efforts to respect, include and promote indigenous issues in relevant work.

Indigenous peoples1 must be considered an undeniable stakeholder in a development agenda shaped by such a mandate. Recent estimates indicate that although indigenous peoples make up approximately 5 percent of the world’s total population, they comprise about 15 percent of the global poor.2 The adversities faced by indigenous peoples have grown in the last few decades, but so too have the recognition of and appreciation for their potential contributions to sustainable development and natural resources management.

The purpose of this document is to promote a dialogue about land issues between FAO and its member countries, indigenous peoples, the Permanent Forum and other interested organizations. It outlines a number of basic principles of a methodological approach for indigenous peoples’ territorial recognition, starting from the consideration that a simple legal recognition is often not sufficient to improve living conditions for these communities. A more open reflection on the delicate theme of ‘development’ is also promoted and sought.

Durant l’Année internationale de la montagne en 2002, la FAO et ses partenaires ont lancé une évaluation à grande échelle et un examen mondial de l’état actuel et des tendances futures de l’aménagement intégré et participatif des bassins versants. Les objectifs généraux étaient de promouvoir l’échange et la diffusion d’expériences dans la mise en œuvre de ces projets durant la décennie 1990–2000, et d’aider à identifier une vision pour une nouvelle génération de programmes et projets.