This guide is written for people who work in land administration and all those with an interest in land, land tenure and their governance. Although much has been written about the importance of good governance in achieving development goals, there is comparatively little material on good governance in land tenure and administration. Failings in governance have adverse consequences for society as a whole. By contrast, good governance can help achieve economic development and the reduction of poverty. Good governance matters. Land is the single greatest resource in most countries.

Countries retain powers of compulsory acquisition in order to enable governments to acquire land for specific purposes. The nature of these powers and the ways in which they are used are invariably sensitive and have wide implications, including from the perspective of international agreements on human rights and their national expressions. Compulsory acquisition is disruptive for those who are affected and whose land is taken and, if done poorly, will have serious negative impacts on people and their livelihoods.

The present volume is part of a series of Land Tenure Studies produced by FAO’s Land Tenure Service of the Rural Development Division. Land tenure plays a vital role in achieving sustainable rural development. Increasing technological change and economic integration are requiring policy makers, planners, development experts and rural producers to re-examine the institutional arrangements used to administer who has rights to what resources for which purposes and for how long.

Gender issues are often ignored in projects that aim to improve land tenure and land administration. To support land administrators in governments and their counterparts in civil society, this guide shows where and why gender inclusion is important in projects. In order to help inform policy and implementation decisions, it identifies indicators for measuring the quality and quantity of access to land before, during and after an intervention and outlines recommended principles for gender inclusion in land administration projects.

Rural property taxes can play a significant role in promoting sustainable rural livelihoods in transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The guide identifies issues that should be considered by those who are responsible for the technical design and implementation of rural property tax systems. It identifies the benefits and problems associated with the introduction of rural property taxes, the relationship to other taxes and organizational constraints, and provides a checklist for introducing reforms.

Increasingly land tenure institutions are required to support the decentralization of services to local governments. One expectation of decentralization is improved delivery of services by the level of government that is closest to the beneficiaries of those services. While the scope of services being allocated to local governments has expanded, many rural local governments lack the revenues needed for them to fulfil their new responsibilities. This guide provides advice to countries that wish to increase revenues by introducing rural property taxes.

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).

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).

This issue of Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives offers the reader a series of articles and information and examones the importance of land tenure data and databases and their roles in their host societies. The volume represents rich set of articles specific for many regions and countries. The data presented is crucial for decison and policy making inthe fields of economic development, food security and environmental sustainability,

Although ancestral rights to land are a cornerstone of the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, few countries have been ready to undertake their recognition. Lack of political will together with obstacles such as lack of legal recognition of indigenous rights in national legal frameworks and tenure regimes, different forms of discrimination and inappropriate policies towards indigenous peoples are at the root of some of the limitations that are found with regard to the recognition of indigenous peoples’ land rights.

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).

The papers contained in this issue have been selected from those presented at a series of workshops, held in 2002 in Hungary, Uganda, Mexico and Cambodia, that were organized by the World Bank jointly with the Department for International Development (DFID), the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and with FAO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the African development Bank (AfDB), the European Union (EU), the International Land Coalition, Oxfam, and other bilateral an