In a November newsletter, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) showcases the application of its ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security' in Guatemala.
The newsletter also highlights issues and trends on land investments, notes support for the Voluntary Guidelines, describes events and other relevant news and lists recent publications.
November 2014: In a November newsletter, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) showcases the application of its ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security’ in Guatemala. The newsletter also highlights issues and trends on land investments, notes support for the Voluntary Guidelines, describes events and other relevant news and lists recent publications.
The Government of Guatemala presented a new land policy in October 2014, which aims to promote sustainable development through access to land, security of land tenure, land conflict resolutions and other investments. The policy, which reflects the main approaches and concepts of the Voluntary Guidelines, recognizes and strengthens indigenous communal systems of land tenure and management as well as recognizes women’s rights to land. It is expected to help facilitate the rural poor’s access to land and to promote the rural economy. FAO will provide technical assistance to the Government in its implementation.
In other news, the Committee for World Food Security (CFS) endorsed the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems. These principles are linked to Principle 5 of the Voluntary Guidelines, ‘Respect tenure of land, fisheries, forests and access to water.’
Other featured events and happenings in the newsletter include: a national workshop in Mongolia that raised awareness on the Voluntary Guidelines and discussed their implementation, as part of a two-year project to support the Guidelines’ implementation in Mongolia; a workshop on spatial data infrastructure and open data in Central and Eastern Europe; and a workshop on benchmarking land administration systems in the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) region, which shared results from a study of land administration systems in the region. [Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure Governance Initiative: November Newsletter] [FAO Press Release on CFS Endorsement] [UNECE Survey on Land Administration Systems]