Resource for Understanding Land and Tree Tenure Issues

Laura Meitzner Yoder (author of the article on land tenure issues in EDN 106) sent us a link to a document that looks helpful. “I just ran across this easy-to-read, concise, but extremely thorough and practical online manual (FAO, 1989) that covers most of what any potential tree-planters (for fruit, alley cropping, and wood production) ought to know and to consider regarding land and tree tenure issues. It even includes lists of questions and mentions which questions to start with, and which to avoid, and how to get local terms right.

“[The manual] includes very helpful short case studies from agroforestry projects around the world that illustrate most of the common mistakes that people have made in this area…it’s rare to find something on this topic that is so nearly ready-to-use by people who are not specialists in land tenure issues. This is a topic of critical importance to nearly everyone in ECHO’s network [Eds: though most likely many of our readers are not aware of its importance to them]. The manual is based on work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Land Tenure Center.” 

Here is the link: www.fao.org/docrep/006/t7540e/T7540E00.HTM