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.

Major Report on Ocean-Grabbing

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, has warned of the threat of ‘ocean-grabbing’ to food security in a special report to the 67th session of the UN General Assembly. In the report he urges world governments and international bodies to halt the depletion of fish stocks and take urgent steps to protect, sustain, and share the benefits of fisheries and marine environments. 

‘Ocean-grabbing’, which sees access agreements between major corporations and governments that are often unregulated, ultimately harms small-scale fishers and often allows for incursions into protected waters. According to Mr De Schutter, it can be as serious a threat as land-grabbing. “Without rapid action to claw back waters from unsustainable practices, fisheries will no longer be able to play a critical role in securing the right to food of millions,” he said at the release of the report, “with agricultural systems under increasing pressure, many people are now looking to rivers, lakes and oceans to provide an increasing share of our dietary protein.” 

The report's executive summary can be downloaded here. The report can be downloaded in all of the UN’s official languages here.

World Food Day

Today (October 16) is World Food Day, celebrated every year to mark the founding of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in 1945 and to highlight challenges in providing food security. The official theme of this year's World Food Day, announced by FAO, is "Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to Feeding the World." The theme was chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger.

In honour of World Food Day, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Alliance's daily ECO briefing on the CBD's 11th Conference of Parties (COP-11) has focused on the role of agricultural biodiversity and food sovereignty in attaining food security. The briefing includes several insightful articles on the close relationship between rights-based biodiversity conservation and food security. The Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCA) Consortium prepared a contribution for the briefing on "The Interdependence of Food Sovereignty and ICCAs." Other articles consider in situ conservation, the threats to biodiversity posed by genetically modified organisms and synthetic biology, small-scale fisheries, and violations of human rights in India's forests. 

Learn more about World Food Day and how to get involved from FAO here. Find the CBD Alliance's ECO briefing marking World Food Day here.