This document reports on the regional consultation for Southern America (including Mexico), held in Brasilia on 20 and 21 of May 2010 with the support of the Government of Brazil and preceded by a civil society meeting composed of organizations integrating the International NGO/CSO Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), whose recommendations have been annexed at this document.

This publication is a revised and updated version of World Soil Resources Reports No. 84 and 103 and presents the international soil classification system. Every soil in the world can be allocated to one of the 32 Reference Soil Groups as defined in this document, and can further be characterized by a set of qualifiers. The resulting soil name provides information on soil genesis, soil ecological function and soil properties relevant for land use and management.

La FAO junto con varios asociados está desarrollando las Directrices voluntarias sobre la gobernanza responsable de la tenencia de la tierra y de otros recursos naturales. Las directrices voluntarias intentan proporcionar a los Estados, a la sociedad civil y al sector privado la orientación práctica sobre la gobernanza responsable de la tenencia como medios para aliviar el hambre y la pobreza, mejorar el medio ambiente, apoyar el desarrollo económico nacional y local, y reformar la administración pública.

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), GTZ (Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) and other development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure.

Document de travail sur les régimes fonciers 19. Ce rapport a été écrit faisant partie du processus global de consultation et d’élaboration des Directives Volontaires et vise à contribuer à la préparation subséquente du Guide Technique pour le Genre. Le rapport contextualise et définit le genre dans le cadre des Directives Volontaires, explique ce que signifie gouvernance foncière d’une prospective genre et identifie et analyse les principaux thèmes et questions.

The Eastern and Anglophone Western Africa Regional Assessment meeting was organized by a task force consisting of FAO, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Land Policy Initiative, the United Nations World Food Programme, United Nations Development Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme officials in Ethiopia.

Land Tenure Working Paper 19. The present paper is written as part of the overall Voluntary Guidelines consultation and development process and is a contribution to the subsequent preparation of the Gender Technical Guide. It contextualises and defines gender for the Voluntary Guidelines, discusses what governance of tenure means from a gender perspective and identifies and analyses key issues and themes. It then summarises recommendations relevant to gender before drawing some conclusions for the development process of the Voluntary Guidelines.

Extensive grazing is the predominant form of land use on at least a quarter of the world’s land surface, in which livestock are raised on food that comes mainly from rangelands. Extensive grazing differs from crop or forestry production, in which the produce remains in situ whilst growing. Evaluation for extensive grazing, unlike that for cropping or forestry, must take into account the production of both grazing forage, termed primary production, and the livestock that feed on this forage, termed secondary production.

Second issue of the Journal, which is now published in both hardcopy and in electronic formats and provides an open, impartial and practice-oriented global forum for promoting the latest knowledge in land tenure. This issue features five continents and subcontinents exploring common challenges including tenure governance, the legal recognition of customary tenures, land scarcity and redistributive reforms, and the increasing role of information technology in tenure systems.