Improving Tenure Security of Smallholder Farmers in Select Areas in the Philippines
A joint initiative of UN Habitat-GLTN, XSF, and ANGOC
Concerns over food insecurity in developing countries are reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Given that land plays an important role in the livelihoods of most people in developing countries, food security, and poverty reduction cannot be achieved unless issues of access to land, security of tenure, and the capacity to use land productively and in a sustainable manner are addressed.
Thus, the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) is implementing “Secure Access to Land and Resources (SALaR)” through the support of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with the overall goal of improving land and natural resources tenure security of rural smallholder farmers in Uganda, the Philippines, and Laos.
In the Philippines, while a number of land laws are being implemented, several gaps need to be addressed to improve the situation of their intended beneficiaries. In 2018 to 2019, a project on “Improving Tenure Security of Smallholder Farmers in Select Areas in the Philippines” was implemented aimed at enhancing the tenurial security of about 2,500 households of indigenous peoples in two municipalities in Bukidnon, Northern Mindanao.
Contributing as well to the goal of SALar, the said project has (i) increased the uptake of land tools, approaches, frameworks, and policy guidelines that are pro-poor, fit-for-purpose, and gender-responsive; (ii) strengthened the capacities of change agents and partners – i.e. rural poor women, men, and vulnerable groups – to implement pro-poor, fit-for-purpose, and gender-responsive land tools and approaches; and, (iii) improved awareness of stakeholders on issues and measures for improving land and natural resource tenure security for poor women, men, and vulnerable groups.
Sustaining the efforts from the previous phase, the current project on “Enhancing Tenurial Security of Smallholder Farmers in Northern Mindanao, Philippines” is being implemented. Specifically, this project aims to issue a document that certifies a person or a family holding occupancy or tenure rights over a piece of land including the house structure, garden, and farm area through the certificates of customary land occupancy.
While not a legal document, it may be used to recognize the individuals or families occupying parcels of land that are respected by the community and its leaders.
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