Voluntary Guideliens for Responsible governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources

Newsletter December 2009

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Dear Friends,

We would like to share with you the latest developments of the Voluntary Guidelines initiative.

Aregional consultation meeting targeting South East Asia, South Asia and East Asia was organised in collaboration with UN-HABITAT and FIG in Vietnam 19-21 October. The participants identified the following key issues and related actions as being important for the governance of tenure in the region:

§      Implementing responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources will require commitment and political will at high level, adequate resources and the capacity to address challenging issues

§      The governance of tenure of natural resources, although different in some respects from that of land, should share similar actions in response to the challenges

§      Gender, indigenous people and vulnerable groups including landless peasants, bonded labour, pastoralists, fishing folks, informal sector workers and internally displaced persons and refugees, should be supported in the Asia region in the context of responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources

§      Land use and urban planning should be transformed through responsible governance to achieve sustainable cities and communities

§      Goodgovernance of tenure should be an essential feature of sustainable cities and their management

§      Land is a complex (production, housing, religious etc.) resource whose nature presents challenges in the face of developing fair and socially, politically, culturally and environmentally considerate land markets

§      Government, academics, private sector, civil society and multilaterals and others should all have important roles in the context of developing land markets

For more information, please refer to the Asia Regional Assessment that is now available at the Voluntary Guidelines Internet site: http://www.fao.org/nr/tenure/voluntary-guidelines/events/en/.

The nextconsultation meeting will be organised in London 25-26 January 2010 together with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The meeting targetsprivate sector actors from around the world.

We warmly welcome your suggestions for participants for theEuropean consultation meeting. The meeting will take place in Bucharest, Romania 22-24 March 2010 and it will be organised in collaboration with GTZ and The National Agency for Cadastre and Land Registration.