Voluntary guidelines for good governance in land and natural resource tenure

Land and Water Division

Voluntary guidelines for good governance in land and natural resource tenure

Civil society perspectives

Year of publication 2009

Pages 84

Author Land and Water Division

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) The lack of adequate and secure access to land and natural resources by the rural and urban poor is one of the key causes of hunger and poverty in the world. Land tenure conflicts and related violations of human rights are the result of a range of structural and contextual factors. These include unequal power structures, overly market-oriented economic development models, elitist decision making processes, weak, corrupt and inefficient land administration institutions, discrimination i n accessing justice, abuses of power by non-state actors; and persecution of organized social movements struggling for access to land and natural resources. Policy responses to address the current food crisis and climate change have also neglected to properly deal with the above mentioned pressing land and natural resources tenure issues and are often not human rights-based. The FAO initiative for the adoption of guidelines for land and natural resources tenure is therefore timely as it would fill a serious policy gap. Different constituencies like women, indigenous and tribal peoples, fisherfolks, peasants and landless, forest communities, pastoralists, urban poor and other communities have been organizing themselves in order to articulate their views and demands regarding land and natural resources tenure. Their voices should be fully taken into account throughout a future process of adopting guidelines on governance of land tenure and natural resources.

Language English

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Voluntary Guidelines for Good Governance in Land and Natural Resource Tenure
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Land Tenure Working Paper 9. Based on international authoritative documents, this paper draws 14 principles to be taken into account when developing Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources. The paper sees Voluntary Guidelines as human-rights based documents that provide a framework and a point of reference for national and international policies. Voluntary guidelines are addressed to a wide range of stakeholders and therefore they need to be d erived from international agreements and credible examples of good practice if they are to command wide support.
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Voluntary Guidelines for Good Governance in Land and Natural Resource Tenure
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Land Tenure Working Paper 8. This paper articulates the views and demands of marginalised groups regarding the tenure of land and other natural resources. It points out the importance of adopting human rights framework when developing Voluntary Guidelines. Such framework means addressing the unequal relationships of power and corruption within and behind prevailing land tenure structures. It makes the governance of tenure of land and other natural resources more accountable, transparent, democra tic and participatory.
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Voluntary guidelines for good governance in land and natural resource tenure - Issues from an international institutional perspective 2009

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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.