What are the impacts of the increasing spread of biofuels on access to land in producer countries, particularly for poorer rural people? Biofuels could revitalise rural agriculture and livelihoods or, where there are competing claims on land exclude poorer land and resource users. This study documents current knowledge on current and potential impacts of commercial biofuel production for access to land in Africa, Latin America and Asia, charting both negative experiences and promising approaches.

FAO has a long interest in addressing the management of conflict to reduce uncertainty and improve wellbeing, particularly for the most vulnerable in society. This manual focuses on how to manage and resolve conflicts over land tenure rights, security of tenure and land access in the field of rural development. It results from complementary activities undertaken within FAO’s Livelihood Support Programme (LSP) and Land Tenure Service.

This guide explains what compulsory acquisition and

The 70s saw the emergence of worldwide concerns for the capacity of the planet to feed its growing population while ensuring the conservation of its natural resources and the protection of the environment. As a global inventory of soil resources was being conducted under the auspices of FAO and UNESCO, an internationally accepted methodology was elaborated concurrently to assess the potentialities as well as the limits of the world’s land resources for development. The Land Evaluation Framework, which

Many countries of the Asia-Pacific region share long land borders across which many consignments of plants, plant products and other regulated articles pass through land border entry points. While long-distance trade in large consignments exists and uses the established regulatory systems, a large proportion of cross border trade concerns the local trade of large numbers of small consignments which require specific border region import regulatory systems. Dealing with the trade of small amounts of plant material is a major problem at many land border entry points.

In September 2008, the FAO-Dimitra project organised its third workshop with all its partners in Brussels, on the theme:“Information and communication strategies to fight gender inequality as regards land access and its consequences for rural populations in Africa”.

This document presents a synthesis of the workshop’s

activities as well as the different articles which were prepared for the workshop by the participants – the partners of the network and FAO colleagues.

The effect of prime-age adult death and its consequences on access to land for the survivors has not been fully explored nor incorporated into policy regardless the fact that high adult mortality is now

the lived reality in countries affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. This paper explores the

gendered relationships between adult death due to HIV/AIDS and changes in land rights for the

survivors particularly widows. In many African societies, women have traditionally accessed land

The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic effects of land reform policies in

Tajikistan on the country’s agricultural sector and rural households. There is a conspicuous

lack of evidence-based policy dialogue with the government on the effectiveness of land and

agricultural policies in Tajikistan. Though the majority of rural inhabitants live in poverty and

many are food insecure, a scientifically proper evaluation of the effects of land and farm

policy reforms has yet to be done. The present study is an attempt to fill this void by offering

Drainage of agricultural land is one of the most critical water management tools for

the sustainability of productive cropping systems, as frequently this sustainability

is extremely dependent on the control of waterlogging and soil salinization in the

rootzone of most crops. On some agricultural lands, the natural drainage is sufficient

to maintain high productivity. However, many others require improvements in surface

and subsurface drainage in order to optimize land productivity, while maintaining the

This paper discusses the role of FAO support to the Government of Mozambiques Land Commission since 1995, through three consecutive projects. While each has had a relatively short duration, all have been planned and implemented within a single conceptual framework with a much longer time horizon. This has allowed a difficult and complex issue to be progressively developed and nurtured within a realistic time scale, while building up a strong sense of national ownership of the process.

The Integrated Global Observing Strategy (IGOS) is a strategic planning process initiated by a partnership of international organizations that are concerned with the observational component of global environmental change issues. It links research, long-term monitoring and operational programmes, bringing together the producers of global observations and the users that require them to identify products needed, gaps in observations, and mechanisms to respond to the needs of the science and policy communities.

The report summarises the papers, presentations and discussions of a workshop on failures and achievements at securing women’s land rights. In particular, it addresses the following issues: Land rights and legal reforms,legal aid and land administration practice, women's land rights in an HIV/AIDS context,women's land rights from a food security and livelihoods context. Organised by the FAO and Oxfam, the workshop seeks to establish global and multi-sectoral alliances and multiple strategies as a means of breaking out of the present impasse in this matter.