Resource information
Creating food security, dealing with climate change and promoting economic growth are the challenges facing rural regions of developing countries. Raising agricultural production and making it sustainable are keys to success in coping with these challenges. Land is a pivotal factor of strategies to develop rural areas.
Fertile land in rural areas is becoming scarcer due to population growth, pollution, erosion and desertification, urbanisation etc. The purchase and lease of land in developing countries by national and international investors that has drastically increased up to the present day highlight that land is embedded in a competing environment of multiple uses. Land planning is a process based on dialogue with the aim of achieving sustainable land use.
The publication explains land-use planning methods and strategies and includes illustrations of different applications, for example relating to food security, territorial development and biodiversity.
The publication was drawn up by the sector Project Land Policy and Land Management of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). More than 50 experts contributed to the publication.