The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and several development partners are working together with countries to prepare Voluntary Guidelines that will provide practical guidance to states, civil society, the private sector, academic and research institutions, donors and development specialists on the responsible governance of tenure.

Access to arable productive land in African has been in decline due to the pressure of growing population trends and worsening land degradation as a result of climate change. Recent high profile land purchases covering thousand of hectares of prime agricultural land have raised concerns over equitable land access.

The AQUASTAT Programme was initiated with a view to presenting a comprehensive picture of water resources and irrigation in the countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and providing systematic, up-to-date and reliable information on water for agriculture and rural development.

A thematic study on “Urban and peri-urban forestry” focuses on the potentials and constraints for urban forestry development at regional and sub-regional levels considering the current experience and future prospects of urbanization in the region that is expected to take place in the next 15 years.

FAO has initiated a series of global and regional sector outlook studies to examine linkages between forests and societies and to indicate emerging opportunities and challenges. The Forestry Outlook Study for West and Central Asia (FOWECA) has considered these issues through an extended consultative process in 23 different national contexts in West and Central Asia.

The contribution of natural resources to the livelihood strategies of poor people has long been appreciated as significant. How to ensure that poor people have rights and opportunities to access natural resources, as well as responsibilities for the sustainable management of natural resources, has become a central question in debates over poverty alleviation.

This is the 19th of a series of Working Papers prepared for the Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative (PPLPI). The purpose of these papers is to explore issues related to livestock development in the context of poverty alleviation. Livestock is vital to the economies of many developing countries.

The IPTRID programme is a multi-donor trust fund managed by the IPTRID Secretariat as a Special Programme of FAO. The Secretariat is located in the Land and Water Development Division of FAO and draws on a worldwide network of leading centres of excellence in the field of irrigation, drainage and water resources management.

The current volume presents the Proceedings of an important meeting entitled "Regional Expert Consultation on Land Degradation, Plant, Animal and Human Nutrition: Inter-relation and Impact". This scientific gathering managed to have a group of soil scientists/plant nutrition specialists, animal nutrition and medical doctors/human nutrition specialists to discuss these inter-related issues.