Latinamerican Workshop in Colombia: Land and Sustainable Development

A Latinamerican workshop on land and Sustainable Development was organized in Cali, Colombia tackling issues such as land management and the possibilities of strengthening colaboration among the different actors that contribute in the development of this area.

The workshop, held from 17-20 June, 2003 was organized by FAO's Land and Tenure Service, the International Land Coalition, Development Research Institute (IRD) of France and the National Center of Tropical Agriculture (NCTA) in Colombia. Representatives from the academic and institutional world (governmental and international) as well as members of non-gubernmental and civil society associations participated in the workshop.

The workshop's main goal is to analyze a negotiated land approach that can boast a dialogue among the different actors and trust in local authorities, and foster thus sustainable land development processes.

The main themes discussed during the seminar were as follow:

• Territory and negotiation: the process involving analysis of land dynamics and the design of a collective territory project.
• Institutions and social actors: organization of participation and participation in the organization of strategies of sustainable rural development;
• Problems and levels of integration: need of cooperation among territories.

The different points of analysis and critical postures resulting from plenary sessions and round table sessions stimulated the interactions and discussiones, from a practical and theoretical perspective, among the different participants involved in the development process. All discussions revolved around two main questions:

Are there processes and instruments of territorial organization that allow a comprehension of the complex dynamics in act, and that stress the possibilities of direct participation and open dialogue of all actors involved in order to stimulate local development opportunities?

How should the discussions, integrate the variety of concepts, methods and instruments already existing in diagnosis, territorial expectations and participatory approaches to guide the debate towards the investigation of action guidelines on a regional level to search ways of political implementation?

The proposals and the results of the meeting will be published in a book along with method guidelines for a negotiated territorial organization according to each region.

To read the objectives and program of the workshop, please clik here.