PreviousContribution of law to the sustainable development of natural resources
1. Juridical assistance: an approach with sustainability in mind
In accordance with its mandate, FAO deals with the various juridical aspects of rural development, one of the major components being the control of natural resource degradation. In this connection, it focuses specifically on the control of desertification and the legal provisions for land rehabilitation, the management of forest and water resources, the development of arid zones, watersheds and protected areas, the conservation of biodiversity, the control of pollution from agriculture and, more broadly, safeguarding the equilibrium of natural habitats for the promotion of sustainable development.
The juridical aspects of rural development are mainly dealt with the Development Law Service, in FAO's Legal Office, which provides the Member States with extensive juridical expertise in agricultural development and the management of renewable natural resources. The Service also conducts research, undertakes juridical studies and helps to formulate international juridical instruments for the natural environment and biodiversity.
The Service's activities usually relate to legal aspects of environment, land, water, fisheries, forestry, wildlife and national parks, animals, plants and [god. The Service focuses particularly on environmental aspects, so that it can provide the developing countries with the means to manage their natural resources in a sustainable manner.
The Service's advisory activities generally comprise the formulation of legislative and regulatory texts and the revision of national legislation in a particular field of natural resource management, including the definition of institutional structures. It also deals with specific juridical instruments such as fishing permits, logging concessions, regulations for foreign investment or terms for the establishment of joint ventures.
Individual country needs can rarely be satisfied by theoretical studies or model legislation. The most appropriate approach is to examine the general conditions and the juridical and institutional context, on the basis of government priorities. This approach, which is objective and based on independent analysis, provides juridical instruments that are tailored to each country's natural resource situation and therefore conducive to sound management. Field missions are also mounted for a better understanding of each national situation.
On the methodological level, the technical assistance provided for the drafting of legislative and regulatory texts comprises several stages. The Service and the technical divisions concerned first examine the available information and prepare the background documents. The drafting of the texts, which is generally entrusted to a subject-specialist jurist, requires an examination of the juridical and institutional framework. As wide a range of sources as possible is consulted, including the relevant authorities, the private sector and academic circles, to provide the data base needed to assess the adequacy of existing law in relation to national priorities and to formulate appropriate recommendations. One or several reports identifying the inadequacies of existing legislation and proposing amendments are then drafted and submitted to the national counterpart for examination. The draft texts are then modified, if necessary, and transmitted to the appropriate authorities in finalized form.
2. Lessons learnt and the stakes of agrarian reform
During the last 30 years. agricultural land tenure has held a central place in national policies for social and economic development. It has also been a primary FAO concern. particularly since the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development held in Rome in 1979. More recently, land tenure has been back in the limelight, particularly in Africa and countries with economies in transition, under the combined impact of economic factors (structural adjustment programmes, decline of collective agriculture, privatization of means of production) and ecological factors (increasing awareness of environmental implications).
One manifestation of this increased attention to agricultural land tenure was the FAO-sponsored meeting held in 1988 in Brazzaville on agrarian policies in Central Africa. This meeting recommended, among other measures, the systematic and gradual adjustment of national agrarian legislation to the national situation.