This volume is part of a series of Land Tenure Studies produced by FAO’s Land Tenure and Management Unit of the Land and Water Division. Land tenure arrangements are a key factor in achieving food security and sustainable rural development. Equitable and secure access to land, especially for the rural poor, is a crucial factor for reducing poverty and hunger, for increasing agricultural productivity, and for improving rural conditions. Effective land tenure institutions are needed to administer who has rights to which natural resources for which purposes, for how long, and under what conditions.

 

Countries retain powers of compulsory acquisition in order to enable governments to acquire land for specific purposes. The nature of these powers and the ways in which they are used are invariably sensitive and have wide implications, including from the perspective of international agreements on human rights and their national expressions. Compulsory acquisition is disruptive for those who are affected and whose land is taken and, if done poorly, will have serious negative impacts on people and their livelihood.