This joint FAO-World Bank publication aims to draw attention to the negative impacts of weak governance in land administration and to point out the manifold benefits of good governance in the protection of property rights and the development of efficient land and property markets. It provides positive examples of good practices from around the world, as well as an overview of principles and key questions to be applied in any country for the evaluation of governance in land administration.

Land Tenure Working Paper 13: Secure land rights are crucial if local populations are to engage actively as stakeholders in rural development.

This guide is written for people who work in land administration and all those with an interest in land, land tenure and their governance. Although much has been written about the importance of good governance in achieving development goals, there is comparatively little material on good governance in land tenure and administration. Failings in governance have adverse consequences for society as a whole. By contrast, good governance can help achieve economic development and the reduction of poverty. Good governance matters.

Voluntary guidelines are human-rights based documents that provide a framework

and reference point for national and international policies. They need to be derived

from international agreements and credible examples of good practice if they are to

command wide support. This paper is based on 56 authoritative international

documents from which 14 principles about land and natural resources tenure have

been derived.

Land consolidation can be an important tool for increasing agricultural competitiveness and improving rural conditions. Farmers can become more competitive when they decrease fragmentation and increase the size of their farms, and rural communities can benefit when consolidation projects include components to improve local infrastructure and the environment.

Extensive grazing is the predominant form of land use on at least a quarter of the world’s land surface, in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from rangelands. Extensive grazing differs from crop or forestry production, in which the produce remains in situ whilst growing. Evaluation for extensive grazing, unlike that for cropping or forestry, must take into account the production of both grazing forage, termed primary production, and the livestock that feed on this forage, termed secondary production.

At the request of its member countries, FAO has been carrying out global forest resources assessments (FRA) since 1947, in collaboration with countries and other partners, notably the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). The global FRA reports on the worldwide status and trends of forest resources, their management and uses. It is based on nationally validated data from national forest inventories and assessments.

Issues relating to land and land reform have been moving up the agenda of rural poverty and food security in recent years with the increasing acceptance that the prerequisites for broad-based and equitable development include the essential need for people to have access to land and other natural resources. Access needs to be on an equitable basis allowing the poor and the disadvantaged, including women, to secure the assets needed for them and their families to generate sustainable livelihoods.

From the outset, the development of agriculture has been strongly associated

with women’s endeavour. In fact, women’s contribution to agriculture goes

back to the origins of farming and the domestication of animals when the first

human settlements were established more than 6 000 years ago. Over the

years, the division of responsibilities and labour within households and

communities tended to place farming and nutrition-related tasks under

women’s domain. Nowadays, in many societies women continue to be mainly

This background paper intends to highlight key issues surrounding the impact of HIV/AIDS on land, particularly at the rural household level in Southern and Eastern Africa. It also serves as an introduction to three country reports commissioned by the Sub-Regional Office for Southern and Eastern Africa of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the impact of the epidemic on land issues. These studies are focused on Kenya, Lesotho and South Africa.

This bulletin gives an overview of the ninth session of the working party on Soil Classification and Survey of the European Commission on Agriculture that took place in Ghent, Belgium, in september 1973. It presents the papers, discussions and recommendations developed during the meeting. A methodology of land evaluation is being developed in FAO and will be used for the interpretation of the FAO/UNESCO Soil Map of the World with a view to making a global evaluation of the land resources available for agricultural development.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),

ratified by 175 countries, is the only human rights treaty that deals specifically with rural

women. This study, undertaken jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the

International Land Coalition (ILC), analyses information on the status of rural women as provided

in selected reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against