This report represents a snapshot of the issue of tenure and sustainable use by a number of leading practitioners and academics in the field. The book is in two parts: Influence of Tenure and Access Rights on the Sustainability of Natural Resource Uses and Tenure and Sustainable Use. Volume I is a collection of papers from a workshop held at the World Conservation Congress organized by the Sustainable Use Initiative, 17-20 October 1996, Montreal, Canada. Vol. II is a collection of papers from the workshop "Tenure and Sustainable Use" Organized by the Center for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Norway, (11-14 October, 1998) in collaboration with the Sustainable Use Initiative.

This open access book presents a nuanced and accessible synthesis of the relationship between land tenure security and sustainable development. Contributing authors have collectively worked for decades on land tenure as connected with conservation and development across all major regions of the globe. The first section of this volume is intended as a standalone primer on land tenure security and its connections with sustainable development. The book then explores key thematic challenges that interact directly with land tenure security, followed by a section on strategies for addressing tenure insecurity. The book concludes with a section on new frontiers in research, policy, and action. An invaluable reference for researchers in the field and for practitioners looking for a comprehensive overview of this important topic. This is an open access book.

Increasing understanding of the role that secure water resources tenure plays in ensuring sustainable livelihoods, just resource governance, environmental protection, and sustainable economic development has led FAO to re-kindle the debate that had begun in 2012, when the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) were adopted by FAO, and that had culminated in 2016 with the publication of the FAO seminal study “Exploring the concept of water tenure”. Picking up from where that FAO publication had left off, an Expert Roundtable on Water Tenure was convened by FAO in Rome, in December 2019, to begin the process of developing a common conceptualization of water tenure and its scope within the broader context of water resources and tenure governance. Strengthening the position of individuals and communities within the political economy of water resources governance, particularly for the rural poor whose livelihoods and food security depend on secure and equitable access to - water and land - was central to the debates. This report includes the Policy Brief and the Expert Roundtable Summary that explored the bundle of water-related rights approach to un-packing the concept and the practical ramifications of water tenure. This report is based on recent research and analysis that have helped to identify the core elements of water tenure based on data demonstrating how water tenure systems are legally recognized at the national level and how they function across diverse countries.

This technical paper emphasizes the opportunity that REDD+ and the global climate agenda represents for countries to engage more actively in securing land and resource rights for indigenous peoples and local communities. At the same time, it stresses how collective tenure rights represent a key element to achieve long-lasting and successful results for REDD+, contributing to addressing global climate change.

Small-scale fishers and their communities highly depend on secure access to fisheries resources and to the beaches that allow fishers to access the fishing grounds, to land their catches, and store and maintain their boats, gear and equipment. Landing sites are also often a place that women use for fish processing and marketing activities. These tenure rights for fishing grounds and landing sites are of crucial importance for the livelihoods of small-scale fishers and for food and nutrition security for fishing communities, and for the coastal population in most countries. Most of the landing sites for small-scale fisheries in Ghana are under increasing demand to use the beaches for other purposes, such as tourism, urban and commercial activities. Small-scale fishers also have major challenges pertaining to their exclusive use of the Inshore Exclusive Zone (IEZ), reserved for the small-scale fishing for small pelagic fish. In recent years there are major conflicts with industrial fleet that are trans-shipping (by)-catches of small pelagic fish to canoes at sea, which are subsequently landed unrecorded in Ghana. In addition, the industrial trawlers are regularly fishing illegally within the IEZ for small pelagic fish. Through the European Union Land Governance Programme support has been provided to develop the capacities of small-scale coastal fishing communities to secure their tenure rights, secure the fish landing and processing sites and reduce the incidence of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Capacities of clam fishery producers was also developed. The aim was to secure and sustain the livelihoods of the small-scale fishers.

Marine and inland fisheries provide millions of people around the globe with food security and livelihood opportunities. Advancing knowledge on how the world’s marine and inland capture fisheries are accessed, used, and managed using various types of rights-based approaches (RBAs) is a crucial step towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and attaining food and nutrition security and livelihood benefits. The Global Conference on Tenure and User Rights in Fisheries 2018 created a neutral platform for a wide variety of participants, including government officials; fishers from industrial, small-scale and indigenous/traditional communities; fisheries-related stakeholders; nongovernment organizations (NGOs); civil society organizations (CSOs); intergovernmental organizations (IGOs); and academics from around the world. Sharing perceptions and experiences, participants exchanged information and concrete examples through case studies on how tenure and RBAs can harmonize the concepts of responsible fisheries, social and economic development as well as ideas and concerns about the fair and equitable application of user rights in capture fisheries. UserRights 2018 was a unique event that brought together both technical expertise and practical case studies, with the objective of using this diverse knowledge to advance the SDGs.