FAO Journal on UN Guidelines on Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Land Tenure Journal’s latest edition examines the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. The Guidelines, which were recently endorsed by the Committee on World Food Security, are still widely unknown and the four articles in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal seek to explain their contents, their development and the strategies for implementing them. 

The journal articles can be downloaded here. Find other related news via the Traditional Knowledge Bulletin here.

First Ever Global Soil Week

Let's Talk About Soil - English from IASS Vimeo Channel on Vimeo.

While soils are the fundamental pillars of sustainable development, they are facing increasing threats. To draw attention to this challenge and to upscale actions towards sustainable soil management, the first ever Global Soil Week was hosted by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Berlin from 18-22 November, 2012. The week sought to provide a platform to initiate follow-up actions on land and soil-related decisions made at the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference to offer a forum of interactive exchange and dialogue. At the week, stakeholders from science, government, business and civil society came together to share their land and soil-related experience and expertise, and to develop future plans of action for sustainable land/soil management and governance.

Several panels, platform sessions, and dialogue sessions were held on various relevant themes. One of particular interest was a dialogue session on securing the commons co-hosted by Maliasili Initiatives, the Rights and Resources Initiative, and the International Land Coalition. The session “reviewed the state of current knowledge around sustainable use and governance of communal natural resources, and examine threats to communal tenure of lands and resources in a range of different geographic contexts, and from points of reference as varied as gender dimensions, indigenous rights, biodiversity conservation, pastoralist land use, and forest governance.”

Find out more about Global Soil Week here. The International Institute for Sustainable Development's coverage from the week can be accessed here. Find out more about the week’s sessions here. 

Applications Open for PLAAS Post-Graduate Diploma

The Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), a leading research institute of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Cape Town, South Africa, is now accepting applications for a Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies. Applicants must have an undergraduate degree with a 60% average in relevant subjects and at least three years of relevant professional experience, with more professional experience required for those without undergraduate degrees. 

Courses will consider structural poverty and marginalised livelihoods in southern African agro-food systems, the political economy of land and agrarian reform in southern Africa, the economics of farming and food systems, and the social and ecological dimensions of ecosystems management. 

Applications are due on 31 October, 2012. Find out more about the programme and how to apply here.

Oxfam Briefing Note on Land Purchases in 'Developing' Nations

Via www.oxfamblogs.org

As vast swathes of land in ‘developing’ nations are purchased by foreign investors, Oxfam has prepared a carefully researched briefing note on the impact of these purchases. The briefing note highlights the fact that almost two-thirds of the land purchased from 2000-2010 was purchased in nations with serious hunger challenges while two-thirds of foreign purchasers intend to export everything produced on the land. 

The note emphasises that Oxfam does not oppose investments in agriculture, especially when they target smallholder producers, but notes that “the unprecedented rush for land has not been adequately regulated or policed to prevent land grabs. This means that poor people continue to be evicted, often violently, without consultation or compensation.” The note concludes by urging the World Bank to temporarily freeze investments involving large-scale land deals until it can review “advice to developing countries, help set standards for investors, and introduce more robust policies to stop land grabs.” 

An Oxfam blog post on the briefing note can be found here, and the full note can be found here.

TCF Panel on Linking Agriculture and Conservation

Via www.christensenfund.org

Natural Justice partner and funder, The Christensen Fund (TCF), organised a panel discussion at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC) entitled “from competition to collaboration between agriculture and conservation: moving toward convergence between agro-ecology and conservation biology.” The session included representatives from organisations working on issues such as biodiversity conservation, agriculture and Indigenous people. 

TCF described the session as coming in a “new phase of reflection and innovation around an agro-ecosystem approach as farmers, scientists and policy makers explore how to work with nature to reduce fossil energy subsidies, tighten nutrient cycles, better manage water use, contain the use of biocides, and take advantage of more complex and diverse systems to deliver more resilient and sustainable flows of food and fiber.” 

According to a report by the Earth Journalism Network, participants agreed on the need "to mainstream the idea that conservation of biodiversity need not only exist in places like national parks – which total less than 13 percent of the earth’s land area – but on the farms that cover much of the rest of the world.”  

Read the article by the Earth Journalism Network here. Find out more about The Christensen Fund here.