The Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security has been approved by the 38th Session of the Committee on World Food Security. This video explains the three year process involved in preparing the Voluntary Guidelines, the significance of this endorsement, and next steps.

On 11 May 2012 the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) officially endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. Voluntary Guidelines on the governance of tenure were prepared through intergovernmental negotiations. They set out principles and internationally accepted standards for responsible practices.

In order to ensure that modern bioenergy development is sustainable and that it safeguards food security, a number of good practices can be implemented throughout the bioenergy supply chain. Building on FAO's work on good practices in agriculture and forestry, the FAO's Bioenergy and Food Security Criteria and Indicators project has compiled a set of good environmental practices that can be implemented by bioenergy feedstock producers so as to minimize the risk of negative environmental impacts from their operations, and to ensure that modern bioenergy delivers on its climate change mitigation potential. These practices can improve both the efficiency and sustainability in the use of land, water and agricultural inputs for bioenergy production, with positive environmental and socio-economic effects, including a reduction in the potential competition with food production. These practices can also minimize the impacts of bioenergy feedstock production on biodiversity and ecosystems, which provide a range of goods and services that are key for food security.

Over the last few years, there has been growing interest in bioenergy, due in part to its potential for rural development and climate change mitigation, and as an energy alternative given the high price of oil. At the same time, concerns regarding the potential negative impacts of bioenergy have also grown and have led to the development of a range of voluntary standards aimed at ensuring the sustainability of bioenergy production. While one of the goals of voluntary standards is to enhance the sustainability of bioenergy production including from a socio-economic perspective they might also present a disincentive for incorporating smallholders in value chains, due to greater cost and complexity. FAO's Bioenergy and Food Security Criteria and Indicators project conducted three case studies to examine the opportunities and challenges for smallholders presented by: 1) bioenergy as a new type of value chain, and by 2) bioenergy certification schemes.