This report contains the results of a study of gender and access to forest and tree resources, women and men’s use of common lands and botanical resources, and the importance of these resources for the livelihoods of people in highland Ethiopia.

This case study looks at the land tenure in Namibia, where for a century of colonial rule indigenous Namibians were dispossessed from rights to both land and resources – by German and then white South African settlers establishing commercial farms and related businesses. Access to freehold tenure was reserved for white settlers and tenure security for indigenous Namibians largely disappeared. In non-white areas, rights were provided under indigenous tenure systems whose legal status was somewhat murky. Urban tenure was denied as blacks were not allowed ownership of residential land.

En 1999, la FAO publiait la première version française du Thésaurus multilingue du foncier. Cette version avait surtout pour vocation d'être mise à l'épreuve du terrain, c'est-à-dire soumise aux critiques constructives tant des usagers à la recherche d'informations et d'éclairages nouveaux que des experts du foncier. En effet, sur le fond comme sur la forme, sont apparus un certain nombre de points forts mais aussi des lacunes, relevés depuis 1999 par l'équipe des rédacteurs et par de nombreux autres spécialistes du foncier.

La temática relativa a la tenencia y explotación de tierras está de nuevo a la orden del día. Así, son muchos los países que manifiestan un renovado interés por los diferentes modos de acceso a los recursos naturales en un marco de posibles reformas territoriales, ya sea en el contexto de la seguridad alimentaria, de la lucha contra la pobreza en el mundo, de la preservación del ambiente o de la calidad de la vida.

The paper looks at land tenure in Mozambique, where ever since independence in 1975, property in land has been vested in the state, and despite the political and economic shift to a multiparty system and market economy, this underlying principle has remained in place: no land may be sold, mortgaged, or otherwise encumbered or alienated. Local traditional land management systems meanwhile have retained a robust role as the de facto land management system of Mozambique.

Le présent guide sur Les baux agricoles vise à informer les organisations locales qui travaillent avec les petits agriculteurs et d’autres membres des collectivités rurales sur les éléments essentiels à inclure dans les baux agricoles. Des baux équitables et sûrs servant à la fois les intérêts du fermier et du propriétaire peuvent faciliter l’accès à la terre, améliorer la production agricole et assurer l’accès à l’alimentation.

La presente Nota de Políticas sobre el acceso a la tierra en Nicaragua ha servido de insumo a la preparación de la nueva Estrategia de Asistencia al País (CAS, en sus siglas en ingles) que el Banco Mundial presentó a su Junta en 2007. El nuevo CAS tiene por objetivo orientar la labor del Banco Mundial en Nicaragua en los próximos cinco años.

The study aims to clarify the various issues regarding land security of poor and other marginalized groups in Malian rural areas. It looks into questions relating to how poor and vulnerable groups obtain access to land and natural resources, and what factors cause their exclusion. It analyzes existing methods for formalizing land rights and land transactions and their impacts on the poor. Specific attention is given to the practical organization of the procedures for formalization and recording land rights.

The impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis have been increasing steadily since the 1950’s, particularly for developing countries. According to a World Bank external evaluation report “natural disasters destroyed US$652 billion in property worldwide in the 1990s alone – an amount 15 times higher in real terms compared to the 1950s. Approximately 2.6 billion people were affected by natural disasters over the past ten years, compared to 1.6 billion in the previous decade.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Germany, IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), Finland, GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit), UN-Habitat, World Bank and UNDP, and IPC (International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty), Food First International Action Network (FIAN), ILC (International Land Coalition), FIG (International Federation of Surveyors) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private se

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 3. This document reflects the policies, status and trends of governance in Eastern Europe and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The study assesses the state of governance and evaluates the ability of countries to contribute to the elaboration of FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources.