FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure. By setting out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practices, the Voluntary Guidelines will provide a framework and point of reference that stakeholders can use when developing their own policies and actions.

Given the recent trend of granting vast areas of African land to foreign investors, the urgency of placing real ownership in the hands of the people living and making their livelihood upon lands held according to custom cannot be overstated. This study provides guidance on how best to recognize and protect the land rights of the rural poor. Protecting and enforcing the land rights of rural Africans may be best done by passing laws that elevate existing customary land rights up into nations' formal legal frameworks thereby making customary land rights equal to documented land claims.

This manual complements FAO Land Tenure Studies 6: The design of land consolidation pilot projects in Central and Eastern Europe. The manual concentrates on the practical aspects of defining and implementing the first pilot projects. It identifies the main conditions that should be in place before the project starts, and it defines potentials and constraints. It draws attention to issues that should be addressed and it discusses methods, tools and techniques. The manual identifies the main activities in a pilot project and their sequence.

Este nmero especial de Unasylva tiene dos objetivos principales. Pone a disposicin de nuestros lectores una seleccin de algunos de los trabajos presentados en el importante Cuarto perodo de sesiones del Comit de Desarrollo Forestal en los Trpicos, de la FAO y, de esta manera, pone de relieve la principal preocupacin de la Organizacin en materia forestal: cul es la mejor manera y la ms adecuada para el hombre de utilizar la formacin ecolgica menos conocida, es decir, los bosques tropicales hmedos.

Readers are invited to submit manuscripts in English, French or Spanish on research and analysis of issues related to land reform, land settlement or cooperatives. Submitted manuscripts are read by members of the Editorial Board and also by outside reviewers. Authors are requested to provide an alphabetical reference list at the end of the article.

Throughout its history, Mozambique has had to deal with cyclones and floods, and when these are severe they have a devastating impact. Apart from the immediate threat to human life, such natural disasters seriously impede economic growth. There is no doubt that the Limpopo valley floods in 2000 were one of the worst flood disasters in Mozambique’s history. At least 700 people died, and some 500,000 to 650,000 were displaced and temporarily sheltered in over 100 camps set up by the government.

Los tcnicos forestales y los administradores de recursos naturales entendieron muy poco y mal los mltiples usos que los campesinos hicieron de las formaciones forestales en el curso de los milenios, ampliamente documentados en un artculo sobre las tcnicas de ordenacin de tierras arboladas aparecido en el nmero 160 de Unasylva.

This special issue of Unasylva has two main objectives. It brings to our readers an edited selection of some of the position papers of the important 4th Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry Development in the Tropics and, in doing, this, it emphasizes FAO's principal concern in the field of forestry: how to make the best and wisest use of man's least understood ecological formation, the moist tropical forest.