1. Executive summary
RNE activities to support mainstreaming and implementation of the Voluntary
Guidelines for Responsible Governance of Land, Forests and Fisheries, in the Near East
Daniel Danano
Background
Land users face different kinds of environmental, economic, social and institutional
challenges, which are increasingly contributing to land degradation and reduction in
agricultural production. Land degradation, subdivision and fragmentation of land holdings,
lack of clarity and harmonization among varying tenure policies and property rights have been
and are greatly contributing to this. Land quality is decreasing as result of exploitation of the
resources without proper and equal improvement measures taken to replenish its nutrients
removed from the soils through agricultural activities.
Over-exploitation of land coupled with deficiencies in policies stating the roles and
responsibilities of land users in the management of common lands is a serious problem
aggravating land degradation. Land fragmentation and absence of land use planning have led
to situation where land is exploited to the extent that agricultural lands get degraded. On the
other hand, substantial large areas of fertile agricultural lands are being used for urban and
industrial development posing pressure on agricultural lands.
As a result, agricultural production is not keeping pace with the increasing population growth
in the region. Improper land and water uses coupled with lack of suitable land tenure
governance systems are major causes affecting land productivity and its sustainable
management across the Region. Moreover. land and water scarcity are the two serious threats
for food security in the region as more land is being converted to other land uses such us
urban development, infrastructural development and industrial villages with additional
productive lands being lost to salinity and various forms of land degradation caused by
unsustainable land and irrigation water management. The major land degradation form
affecting all forms of agricultural activities in rain fed, irrigated agriculture and the rangelands
is soil and water salinity.
Activities supporting the implementation of VGGT
The RNE land tenure, use planning and management initiative (LTM)
The Near East Regional Office of FAO (FAORNE) has launched land management and
tenure initiative, to support countries in the region to scale up the adoption of sustainable
management practices and responsible tenure governance that tackle the aforementioned
problems.
Country assessments on “The Status of Land Tenure, Use Planning and management have
been carried out during the past 2 years in seven countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq,
Iran, Syria and Yemen) with financial and technical support of the FAO. The studies provided
an overview of land resources, degradation and management and assessed the current
situation in tenure management. These will be potentially used as source of data and
information for land use policy formulation and designing of projects and program in land
use, management and tenure governance. The studies will further be of paramount importance

2. for streamlining the VGGT in land policies of different countries where the assessments have
been conducted
The WOCAT tools for SLM and the RNECAT Network.
As an integral part of the LTM initiative, the World Overview of Conservation Approaches
and Technologies (WOCAT), and Land Degradation Assessment for Dry lands (LADA) tools
for documenting land management practices have been adopted, to be used for evaluating and
keep a record of best practices under use at local level in the countries where technical people
have been trained. About 112 technical staff from the various governmental and non-
government institutions in the last 2 years (2012 and 2013) in the use of the tools for
documenting best practices for managing land in a sustainable manner.
A regional network for coordinating and managing the documentation activities has been
established at the sub regional workshop and was known as SNOCAT (network for Oriental
Near East at that time at the workshop conducted in Beirut Lebanon in 2012. Workshop
participants agreed to be members of the network and promised to contribute for its
strengthening. A year after a Regional level workshop was organized in Cairo where
representatives from various institutions of many countries participated, where a region-wide
Network of RNECAT was established. RNECAT is the Near East Region
Conservation Approach and Technologies Network.
Documentation activities have been started in some countries where the technologies and
approaches are being documented which include among others: local practices for soil and
water conservation research based n, salt-affected land management and water harvesting
practices. Practices that have demonstrated to be cost effective, environment friendly and
largely accepted by land users are taken as best practices to be scaled up.
Awareness workshop on VGGT
Awareness raising workshops on the use of the Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Tenure
Governance (VGGT) of land, forests and fisheries (developed by FAO in collaboration with
partners and stakeholder institutions) have been conducted in Amman, Jordan, Morocco, UAE
and Yemen. About 125 people from all countries in the region representing government and
non-government institutions, civil society organizations, research and academia have
participated. The VGGT is prepared in the Context of National Food Security to set out
principles and internationally accepted practices to guide the preparation and implementation
of policies, laws and actions related to tenure governance.
It is planned to cascade awareness workshops on VGGT in many countries during the next
biennium to have more technical and decision / policy making bodies get better awareness on
the guidelines and use it in mainstreaming it in their national development programs and
projects including policies on the use of land, forests and fisheries resources.