FIAN welcomes FAO Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests

After working for more than a decade to put land at the top of the international agenda, FIAN welcomes the Committee on World Food Security's (CFS) adoption of the FAO Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. This serves as a striking contrast to the situation following the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) in 2006, when powerful governments opposed implementation of their ICARRD commitments to put land and natural resources at the center of FAO's work. "We expect that these Guidelines become a turning point in the international policy framework about governance of land, fisheries and forests," said Flavio Valente, FIAN Secretary General. "Defending an equitable access to land and resources as precondition for decentralized, sustainable and autonomous food production systems is a crucial component of the right to adequate food, among other rights. Land, fisheries and forests cannot be left to the mercy of markets and speculators." FIAN engaged in the Guidelines process with the hope of consolidating and expanding the international human rights framework with respect to governance of natural resources vis-à-vis tendencies of increasing privatization and commodification of natural resources. So far, only indigenous peoples have international recognition of their rights to land and natural resources. For other rural groups like peasants, pastoralists and fishing communities, the international recognition of their right to land and natural resources is implicit and scattered in different instruments. "It was an ambitious goal to push for the incorporation of the standards developed by the UN human rights system into FAO's tenure work," said Sofia Monsalve Suárez, one of the civil society representatives involved in the negotiations and coordinator of FIAN's Programme on Access to Natural Resources. According to Monsalve Suárez, the resistance of many governments to accept binding standards and fully apply a human rights approach to tenure issues made it impossible to adopt much clearer language. "It was appalling to hear several governments saying over and over again during the negotiations that tenure is a technical matter and therefore has nothing to do with human rights," she said. "In any case, a modest first step has been made." FIAN commits to use the adopted Guidelines to support current struggles against land grabbing and to defend the rights to land and natural resources of small-scale food producers, and will interpret ambiguous sections of the Guidelines in full compliance with the highest human rights standards developed so far in relation with land and natural resources. The real and most important challenge to change things on the ground remains: Violations of the right to food and other human rights related to the destruction of existing access to land, fisheries and forests are on the increase in many countries due to a complex interplay of factors. FIAN therefore calls on the states to urgently deal with this serious problem and take all necessary measures to improving governance of tenure at national level using inter alia the Guidelines.