Rome, 20 June 2014
Communiqué
On June 19 and 20, the International Organizing Committee of the World Forum on Access to Land and Natural Resources (WFAL 2016) held its first meeting at the FAO headquarters in Rome, with the participation of representatives of FAO, IFAD, the European Commission and the World Rural Forum.
This Forum (WFAL 2016) follows the World Forum on Agrarian Reform (Spain, 2004), the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (Brazil, 2006), the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (Rome, 2012) and the International Year of Family Farming (2014).
The WFAL 2016 aims to take stock of the recent evolution, the current situation and the perspectives, needs, possibilities and demands from different people, countries and regions of the World, with regard to access to land for small producers and family farming.
It must allow debate and express, without exclusion, the different experiences, points of view, analysis and proposals existing about these issues, so that to go forward on the way of progress.
The current situation — persistence of hunger, population growth, exclusion, massive unemployment, environmental crisis and loss of food sovereignty — as well as the persistence of acquisitions, leases and land concessions, invite us all to revisit the issue of access to land and productive resources.
We emphasize the need to gather different social actors and institutions in an open debate to further the discussion and improve poor farmers’ (women and men) access to land, water and natural resources.
This Forum (WFAL 2016) will be implemented through two phases:
— 1st phase: Regional Forums (Africa, Latin-America, North America, Asia, Europe) ;
— 2nd phase: World Forum.
The International Organizing Committee WFAL 2016 calls for all organisations that are concerned, to join the process of the Forum and to sign the call launched to organise it (landaccessforum.org).
The International Organizing Committee WFAL 2016 thanks the FAO for welcoming it.
The International Organising Committee WFAL 2016