Documents and Tools

Multilingual Land Tenure Thesaurus

This thesaurus is expected to contribute to the ongoing analysis in the field of land tenure. It is available online in English and Spanish.

FAO’s Land Tenure Series are concise presentations on the complicated and controversial subject of land tenure, especially as they relate to food security and rural development. These guidelines do not seek to be exhaustive but rather reflect what FAO and its many international collaborators have discovered are “good practices” for a particular aspect of land tenure and its administration.

FAO Land Tenure Studies Number 2: Good practice guidelines for agricultural leasing arrangements

This publication is intended to provide support to those who are assessing and designing appropriate responses to food insecurity and rural development situations. This guide aims to show where and why land tenure is an important issue in food security and sustainable rural livelihoods.

FAO Land Tenure Studies number 3: Land tenure and rural development

This publication is intended to provide support to those who are assessing and designing appropriate responses to food insecurity and rural development situations. This guide aims to show where and why land tenure is an important issue in food security and sustainable rural livelihoods.

Participatory and Negotiated Territorial Development (PNTD)

FAO stresses the importance of the role of institutions in ensuring food security, fighting poverty and promoting the development of human and natural resources. This note presents an update on the work done on participatory and negotiated territorial development (PNTD) and modes of intervention in areas with competitive and multiple uses of land and natural resources,, drawning on the experiences of the Rural Development Division in different geographical settings and on various subjects.

Gender and access to land: FAO Land tenure series number 4

The guidelines contained in this publication are expected to inform land administrators and other land professionals about the need to consider gender issues when undertaking land projects.

Decentralization and rural property taxation. FAO Land Tenure Studies 7

This guide is intended to assist countries that wish to introduce new property tax systems or to expand or reform existing systems. It is aimed primarily at supporting land administrators who have been assigned the responsibility for the technical design and implementation of rural property taxation systems.

Land Reform/Land Settlement and Cooperatives

Several publications are presented in this Website covering themes related to Land Reform: Land tenure and land reform, Management of conflict over land and natural resources, Access to land and resources, Managing change, Land reform in the new millennium, Land conflicts and agrarian reform, Land tenure policies, Land access and markets, Urban and peri-urban agriculture, Rural development and food security, Natural resources management, etc.

Land Tenure and Resource Access Publications

IIED is an independent, non-profit organization promoting sustainable patterns of world development through collaborative research, policy studies, networking and knowledge dissemination. On its website, several publications regarding Land Tenure and resource Access are presented. A synthesis is available for each publication that you could directly download from the website.

FAO Focus Article : Women and Land Tenure

One of the most serious obstacles to increasing the agricultural productivity and income of rural women is their lack of security of tenure. In order for women farmers to use land more efficiently and thereby make a greater contribution to food security, they need access to land, management control of land-based resources and economic incentives that security of tenure provides.

Agricultural cooperative development: A manual for trainers

This manual is intended for cooperative trainers who will either work directly with cooperative organisations and their members, or will train other trainers. It is not intended to be a theoretical textbook, but a source of ideas and suggestions for facilitators or resource persons, in making the work of cooperatives more efficient and effective.

Emerging trends in land tenure reform: Progress towards a unified theory

The present paper focuses on FAO Member Nation experience in the formation of social capital. In the analysis, the author presents a case for a positive relationship between land tenure regularisation and social capital formation in those cases involving shared and common rural resource tenure systems.

Lessons learnt in the field of decentralization and local government development in rural areas of Latin America

A reinvigorated municipal structure is emerging in Latin America, setting the scene for an important transformation of the rules of the game towards greater control over local institutional structures by local constituencies, management of natural resources that is increasingly sustainable, and the reduction of poverty.

Gender and access to land: FAO Land tenure series number 4

The guidelines contained in this publication are expected to inform land administrators and other land professionals about the need to consider gender issues when undertaking land projects.

Agricultural land leases and the development of effective land registration

The focus of this paper is on the countries in Eastern and Central Europe that are the most likely to be admitted early into the European Union. It was presented at the Second EU Accession Workshop Proceedings.

Land and livelihoods: Making land rights real for India's rural poor

The paper identifies issues that are central to consideration of land access in rural India and provides suggestions for opportunities for positively impacting the livelihoods of the rural poor.

Global Initiatives

International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development

The FAO Council during its 128th session approved the realization of an International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development to be held in Porto Alegre Brazil from 7 to 10 March 2006. The International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development should also be an occasion to review the impacts and lessons learned from recent conferences, processes and mechanisms and take stock of the progress and failures in these areas.

International Land Coalition

IFAD hosts the International Land Coalition, a global consortium of civil society, intergovernmental and governmental organisations working to empower the rural poor through improved access to land and other productive resources.

Land Reporting Initiative - LRI

The Land Reporting Initiative (LRI) is a global effort to develop and implement a system of agreed standards and related indicators for monitoring legal frameworks, policies and practices on access to land. LRI aims to systematically engage all stakeholders, in particular governments, along with country-level representatives of civil-society, academia/researchers plus multilateral and bilateral organizations operating within countries.

Land Alliances for National Development

Alliances for National Development, or ‘LAND Partnerships’ at WSSD. WSSD provided renewed impetus for forging partnerships for action. LAND Partnerships provide a practical way to implement the WSSD outcomes and to contribute to realizing the Millennium Development Goals.

Private Sector Tenancy Arrangements

The purpose of the project is to draw together details of current leasing practice throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, in order to examine the landlord/tenant relationship in the agricultural sector and to extract examples of good practice which are likely to be of value to other countries

Regional seminar: Land and sustainable development in Latin America Colombia 17-20 June 2003

Focussing on methods for building local capacity and encouraging the participatory sustainable development of land resources, the seminar is expected to promote the exchange of information and experiences between civil society organizations, scientists, international organizations and institutions working in the region.

Technical consultation on the evolving role of Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources in sub-Saharan Africa

The purpose of the technical consultation was be to analyze the experiences of Sub-Saharan African countries in institutional restructuring, and to draw lessons from these experiences in order to adapt the role and improve the efficiency of Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources and related institutions in promoting rural development in collaboration with local governments and rural people's organizations.

Related Websites

About 500 resources available, organized in 30 categories (data to news, events, projects, books, statistics, discussions and more), plus a member’s directory, a bulletin board, key issues, weekly highlights, an event calendar and so on. It is also possible to browse through the AIDA project database of almost 8000 food security development projects.

Agriculture 21

FAO’s gateway to resources -- documents, software, databases, e-mail bulletins and conferences and networks -- concerned with various aspects of agriculture, from animal production and health to land and water issues, plant production science, plant genetic resources and agricultural support systems.

Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture

Since 1975, the FAO Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture has been providing regular bulletins on food crop production and markets at the global level and situation reports on a regional and country-by-country basis and also provides reports of joint WFP and FAO crop assessment missions in Africa and Asia.

Biotechnology in food and agriculture

Biotechnology is a collection of diverse tools that are increasingly being used in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and nutrition. This recently launched website highlights the role of biotechnology in food and agriculture and contains an e-mail forum on biotechnology in food and agriculture, a biotechnology glossary and links to other relevant sites.

Organic Agriculture

A website featuring country data, information on projects, a discussion forum and bibliography on organic agriculture - an increasingly important part of the agriculture sector with undoubted environmental and economic benefits for farmers and businesses around the world.

Ethics in Food and Agriculture

A wide range of ethical questions related to food security and sustainable development have come to the fore in recent years due to increasing technological development, changes in the resource base, and economic and market developments. This site aims to promote discussion and debate on these emerging ethical issues.

International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)

IFAP gathers together nationally representative general farmers organizations from around the world and works to improve the economic and social status of all who live by and on the land.

Rural Advancement Foundation International - Canada (RAFI)

RAFI is an international organization that promotes the conservation and sustainable improvement of agricultural biodiversity, and socially responsible development of technologies useful to rural societies. Its main area of concern is the loss of genetic diversity -- especially in agriculture -- and about the impact of intellectual property on agriculture and world food security.

MSU Global Access

MSU Global Access is an Internet portal to information selected by experts of the Michigan State University Office of International Studies and Programs. It contains a database of links to Websites, features country specific pages, maps, and international news.

International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences (IAAS)

The IAAS is one of the leading agricultural student associations gathering students studying, majoring or researching in agriculture and related areas like environmental sciences, forestry, food sciences, landscape architecture etc. It's main objective is to promote the exchange of knowledge, information and ideas among students, and to improve the mutual understanding between countries and cultures in the 40 countries where it is present.