Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP)

This FAO Working Paper is the synthesis of a workshop on Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP) and provides guidelines for facilitators of similar workshops on the PLUP theme. PLUP is defined as the systematic assessment of physical, social and economic factors in such a way as to encourage and assist land users in selecting options that increase their productivity, are sustainable, and meet the needs of society. The guidelines include best practices for conducting a workshop (how a facilitator should communicate, lead a discussion, what topics to discuss, how to organize working groups etc.). The document identifies common traps in participatory techniques, conditions for the success of participatory approaches, provides an overview of existing tools (stakeholder analysis, power analysis, principles of participation, consensus building and conflict management) and guidelines for formulating a project proposal. The outcome of PLUP should be a Social Territorial Pact, a negotiated agreement on land use among different stakeholders in a territory. Case studies from Bosnia/ Herzegovina are used to illustrate various aspects of the PLUP approach.