This publication is a revised and updated version of World Soil Resources Reports No. 84 and 103 and presents the international soil classification system. Every soil in the world can be allocated to one of the 32 Reference Soil Groups as defined in this document, and can further be characterized by a set of qualifiers. The resulting soil name provides information on soil genesis, soil ecological function and soil properties relevant for land use and management.

Las acciones para reducir las emisiones y eliminar GEI en el sector de la agricultura, la silvicultura y otros usos de la tierra (AFOLU) ofrecen valiosas oportunidades sobre las que fundamentar y aumentar las sinergias con actividades relacionadas con la intensificación sostenible, la mejora de la eficiencia, la adaptación al cambio climático, la seguridad alimentaria y el desarrollo rural (Módulo 1).

La publicación de este número de Unasylva coincide con dos importantes acontecimientos para el sector forestal. Las 196 Partes en la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático acaban de reunirse en París en la Conferencia sobre el Cambio Climático para negociar un importante acuerdo sobre el clima. También, en París, el Foro Mundial de Paisajes 2015 es sede de debates de alto nivel sobre investigación y políticas relativas al uso de la tierra. La restauración de bosques y paisajes es una pieza clave de este rompecabezas.

Forest and landscape restoration is a key issue in the ongoing discussions at the Paris Climate Change Conference, convened to broker a game-changing agreement on climate change. On a planet where the mark of human activity is almost ubiquitous, restoration is by necessity a concept that has to take into account human well-being and ongoing change. In addition, in order to succeed in the long term, forest and landscape restoration initiatives will need to successfully engage a range of stakeholders, from policy-makers to local communities and from governments to private actors.

This thematic issue on land tenure and disaster risk management (DRM) stems from the recent work done at FAO on normative aspects of land tenure governance that address natural disasters through the DRM framework. The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security provide, among other issues, guidance on improving tenure governance and strengthening tenure security of vulnerable people in line with the DRM framework.

La publication de ce numéro d’Unasylva coïncide avec deux événements marquants pour les forêts. Les 196 Parties à la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques viennent de se réunir à la Conférence Paris climat 2015 en vue de négocier un accord qui soit en mesure de changer la donne en matière de changement climatique. Toujours à Paris, le Global Landscapes Forum 2015, Forum mondial sur les paysages, a été le théâtre de discussions de haut niveau portant sur la recherche et les politiques qui sous-tendent les questions d’utilisation des terres.

These guidelines provide a basis for engagement between the County Governments as planning authorities responsible for preparing, approving and implementing County Spatial Plans and the National Land Commission as a monitoring and oversight agency over land use planning. The County Government Act 2012 at section 110(1)(a) stipulates that the County Spatial Plans shall give effect to the principles and objects of county planning and development contained in section 102 and 103 of the same Act.

This Country Profile on Uzbekistan is the eighteenth in the series. The country profile programme continues to focus on specific challenges or achievements in the housing and land management sectors that are particularly relevant to the country under review. In the case of Uzbekistan, these issues include housing policies and government support measures for the construction of housing in rural areas; the increased demand for housing of the fast-growing population; and the depleted urban infrastructure inherited from Soviet times.

The protection of fertile soils is a precondition for sustainable development. In the final document of the conference of the United Nations on sustainable development in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20 Conference), the international community thus agreed to strive for a “land degradation neutral world”. The legal study by Ecologic Institute, Berlin, firstly scrutinizes some national legislation (Germany/EU, USA and Brazil) in order to identify legal instruments which are suitable for the implementation of the goal of a “land degradation neutral world”.

The 2012 Census of Agriculture (CA) reported 5.56 million farms/holdings1 covering 7.19 million hectares, which translated to an average area of 1.29 hectares per farm/holding. The number of farms/holdings increased from 1980 to 2012 by 62.6 percent as the average area of farms/holdings decreased from 2.84 hectares per farm/holding in 1980 to 1.29 hectare per farm/holding in 2012. This could be accounted to the partitioning of farms/holdings from one generation of agricultural holders/operators to their succeeding generation. 

In urban areas, infrastructure projects to improve the living environment, such as construction of roads and parks, have been carried out by modifying and abolishing agricultural land. The majority of these projects are land readjustment projects, under which agricultural land is appropriated and replaced with reduced substitute land. The author took up the case of a land readjustment project and the cultivation of pears in Enokido, Yanokuchi, Inagi in order to investigate the effect of such projects, which aim to secure land for public use, on urban agriculture.

The PIRANDELLO model, currently under development by Cofiroute, is among the first significant French attempts to develop an operational land-use transport interaction (LUTI) model. It provides an easily understandable but theoretically sturdy framework to analyze and communicate on transportation and land-use policies. Based on the linkage of a transportation with an urban model, the project benefits from Cofiroute's experience as regards the transportation model, to focus on the development of an efficient and innovative urban model.