Regional Multi-Stakeholder Consultation on Land Tenure in Asia-Pacific

11-12 June 2014, Pattaya, Thailand

Photograph from of UNESCAP/FAO/UN-Habitat

UNESCAP, FAO and UN-Habitat co-organised a Regional Multi-stakeholder Consultation on Land Tenure in Asia-Pacific at Pattaya, Thailand on 11 – 12 June 2014. The event was supported by FIG and was attended by about 60 participants that included those from 18 countries in Asia-Pacific. Participants also came from civil society organizations, a total of 14 as well as from governments and international organisations. At the two-day event, participants discussed on land policy, land governance, land-based regulatory framework and associated initiatives, identified gaps and key issues for follow up actions.

There were presentations from FAO on the application of the Voluntary Guidelines and the Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI), from GLTN on the Continuum of Land Rights, pro-poor land tools and approaches and from UNESCAP on the significance of land for progress in social, economic and climate change related initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. The participants recognised the importance of sharing knowledge, regional cooperation and platforms.

Leading up to the consultation, a scoping study on land tenure issues, challenges and opportunities in the Asia-Pacific was commissioned. The result of the study was presented at the consultation and key issues identified included –

• growing rural populations and access to land;
• urban growth and tenure insecurity;
• women’s tenure security and access to land and resources;
• tenure insecurity of indigenous peoples;
• impact of climate change and natural disasters on tenure security;
• Islamic land tenure and security; and
• land administration, land-based financing, land policy and legislation.

Challenges identified included -

• capacity limitations in government agencies;
• disconnect between development, climate change, land use planning and the land sector;
• lack of understanding of the private sector’s role; and
• large number of people outside formal land administration systems.

The result of this scoping study was presented in the Session: Gaps, Challenges and Opportunities, the session and subsequent group discussion was facilitated by FIG represented by President CheeHai Teo. Participants were divided into four groups looking into gender and tenure security (Group 1); climate change and tenure security (Group 2); rural land, indigenous people and tenure security (Group 3) and urbanization and tenure security (Group 4).

The two-day event identified some opportunities including –

• leveraging on existing networks in Asia-Pacific;
• focussing on issues on gender and indigenous people;
• deploying the World Bank’s Land Governance Assessment Framework throughout Asia-Pacific; and
• improving land administration system including incorporating Islamic principles in Islamic jurisdictions
  

CheeHai Teo
June 2014

18 November 2014