The contribution of natural resources to the livelihood strategies of poor people has long been appreciated as significant. How to ensure that poor people have rights and opportunities to access natural resources, as well as responsibilities for the sustainable management of natural resources, has become a central question in debates over poverty alleviation.

This paper identifies the key issues of land tenure security for the rural poor, vulnerable and marginalized in the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The report finds that most of these issues are common across the three countries, both in terms of the challenges that the communities face and imperatives that inform policy interventions and responses.

FAO Notes sur les régimes fonciers 2

This paper represents part of an area of work on land tenure in post-conflict situations. An earlier LSP paper explored post-conflict land tenure in the context of sustainable livelihoods (LSP Working Paper 18: Unruh, J. (2004). “Post-conflict land tenure: using a sustainable livelihoods approach”.) The work is complemented by the FAO Land Tenure Studies 8 “Access to rural land and land administration after violent conflicts”.

FAO has initiated a series of global and regional sector outlook studies to examine linkages between forests and societies and to indicate emerging opportunities and challenges. The Forestry Outlook Study for West and Central Asia (FOWECA) has considered these issues through an extended consultative process in 23 different national contexts in West and Central Asia.

The initial Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study (APFSOS) drew together the myriad forestry dimensions to provide a coherent description and analysis of the situation and prospects for forestry in the region. The study resulted in 50 working papers on a variety of forestry themes. The formal aspects of the study culminated in a comprehensive main report, published in November 1998. APFSOS provided an important roadmap for forestry sector development in the Asia-Pacific region to 2010, which is still being used to guide policy makers in the region today.

The effect of HIV/AIDS on Africa and the issues it creates for women in African societies, especially unmarried women, is a difficult one that will not soon go away. These two volumes [ The Land and Property Rights of Women and Orphans in the Context of HIV and AIDS : Case Studies from Zimbabwe, and Reclaiming Our Lives: HIV and AIDS, Women’s Land and Property Rights and Livelihoods in Southern and East Africa: Narratives and Responses] are important and useful additions to the literature of the problem and should be found in academic and research collections dealing with the topic

Water for agriculture draws on a range of sources - from naturally available water bodies to water supply infrastructure. In sub-Saharan Africa, only a very small percentage of arable land is irrigated. Most farmers produce food under rainfed conditions. In 1995, for instance, 89 percent of cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa was delivered from rainfed agriculture, compared to 58 percent in the West Asia and Northern Africa region (InterAcademy Council, 2004). The situation in the Sahel is very much in line with this trend.

Most of the world’s poor work in the “informal economy” – outside of recognized and enforceable rules. Thus, even though most have assets of some kind, they have no way to document their possessions because they lack formal access to legally recognized tools such as deeds, contracts and permits. The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) is the first global anti-poverty initiative focusing on the link between exclusion, poverty and law, looking for practical solutions to the challenges of poverty.

Across rural Africa, land legislation struggles to be properly implemented, and most resource users gain access to land on the basis of local land tenure systems.

This training 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 the Land Tenure and Management Unit and with the International Land Coalition. It addresses the specific issues of land tenure identified in the volume Negotiation and Mediation Techniques for Natural Resource Management published by the LSP.