BISHKEK (TCA) — Secure tenure of land, fisheries and forests is widely acknowledged as being directly related to agricultural productivity, sustainable management of natural resources, and food security. This is the premise of a new project for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) kicked off with a workshop in Bishkek on September 21.
The project will assist the two countries with implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security.
Adopted in 2012 by the Committee on World Food Security – of which Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are members – the Guidelines promote secure tenure rights and equitable access to land, fisheries and forests as a means of eradicating hunger and poverty, supporting sustainable development and enhancing the environment.
“Tenure is how people gain access to land, fisheries, forests and other natural resources,” said FAO land tenure expert Morten Hartvigsen, in opening the workshop in Bishkek. “Having secure and equitable access to natural resources can allow people to produce food for their own consumption and to increase income.”
In Kyrgyzstan, FAO will work with a nongovernmental organization – the Union of the Water Users Associations of the Kyrgyz Republic.
The workshop gathered representatives of the Kyrgyz Government, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and national and international experts to discuss how people and communities can acquire rights, and associated duties, to use and control land, fisheries and forests.
The FAO project, financed by FAO’s Multi-donor Fund, will run through December 2017. In addition to the awareness-raising workshops, a screening methodology will be developed, data collected, consultations held, and a roadmap for implementing the Guidelines prepared for each of the two countries.
