The United Nations Committee on World Food Security has put forth guidelines to protect security of land tenure and governance and will be considered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization at its October 4^th meeting in Rome. This white paper, called Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, is meant to protect the rural poor against the growing issue of international land-grabbing (http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/142587/icode/). 

Land-grabbing, as an international issue has gained traction among nongovernmental organizations and transnational advocacy networks (http://landportal.info/landmatrix/get-the-idea), especially following the 2008 financial collapse in Western Democracies (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/world/africa/22mali.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 ).  Investors sought security in tangible assets, often in developing states. This wave of international investors encouraged local governments to displace local farmers who have little recourse for action.  Investors who have an incentive to develop their land can help to bring mechanization and modern farming techniques to improve a country’s agricultural output ( http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/bbc-africa-debate-%E2%80%98land-grabbing%E2%80%99-good-africa ),  but this empirical debate neglects farmers’ rights and community rights over parcels of land.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Land, Fisheries, and Forests asks states to recognize and protect legitimate land tenure rights in formal and informal systems.  These guidelines do not provide sanctioning instruments for the United Nations. However, states that adopt these guidelines signal to other states that they take seriously the rights of their rural poor. Adopting the guidelines and neglecting its constituent parts will invite critiques from non-governmental organizations, transnational advocacy networks, land policy scholars, and (most importantly) local attorneys. States need a reason to adopt these guidelines, whether incentives come from those same transnational actors, local movements, or member states of the United Nations.  

In this debate there is set of international and domestic actors at play: developing states, international investors, the UN, local farmers, NGOs/TANs, and local advocates such as attorneys and cultural institutions.  The argument tends to boil down to economic claims (investment brings development and more food, and is thus good) and claims about rights (basic property rights and government’s authority).  Both sets of claims draw conflict: empirical claims about increased food production as a result of economic investment may be the result of international investment, but it is difficult to say that increased tenure security and access to agricultural loans would not improve local farmers’ productivity. Likewise, states debate the nature and basis of land ownership: community rights can clash with individual rights, and the rights of owners as citizens can conflict with a community’s rights to direct and determine ownership.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests makes a first step to protecting the rural poor in developing states.  Were the UN to adopt this white paper as a formal convention, NGOs/TANs, local advocates, and local farmers would receive a rhetorical tool for future debates and, perhaps, a common legal foundation to challenge future land-grabbing.