21 June 2016, Rome. A network of Civil Society Organizations around the world, with the technical support of FAO, has just issued the The People’s Manual on the Guidelines on Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests in an effort to further the implementation at grassroot levels of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT).

People’s Manual

This manual is a pedagogical and didactic guide to ease people’s understanding of the Guidelines and to provide a practical approach on how to use them. The People’s Manual is based on the precepts of popular education and was elaborated through a collective and participatory effort by and for a variety of civil society organizations and social movements, led by the Land and Territory Working Group of the IPC (International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty).

The main aim is to provide practical guidance to communities on how the VGGT can be used in their territories to improve the governance of tenure by upholding their principles.

“It represents a tangible and valuable effort to disseminate and raise awareness on the contents of the VGGT,” says Marcela Villarreal, Director, Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division of FAO.

The People’s Manual translates the VGGT principles into concrete action at field level. It al also helps understanding the critical relevance of the Guidelines for the livelihoods of local communities by providing rich examples based on real case scenarios from all around the world.

The People’s Manual has been also designed as a training tool for civil society and grassroots organizations and communities on the content and relevance of the VGGT, adopting a popular education approach to make contents that are highly technical in nature accessible and understandable for rural communities.

“We hope that the experiences embodied in the Guidelines and discussed in this Manual can inspire civil society organizations, local communities and any interested reader to take full ownership of the Guidelines”, writes Villarreal in the foreword of this publication.

The manual represents a valuable tool for peasants, fishing and pastoralist organisations, indigenous peoples, the landless, women and youth, and civil society as a whole, to assert their legitimate tenure rights.

Download here the People’s Manual on the Guidelines on Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests and the User’s Guide, which are available in English, French and Spanish.