LMB CONDUCTS ORIENTATION PLANNING WORKSHOP ON VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON GOVERNANCE OF TENURE

Although the Philippines has a strong policy framework on tenure rights consistent with the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Lands, Forests and Fisheries (VGGT), government efforts in the national level need to be further strengthened.

This is what International Affairs Undersecretary Atty. Jonas Leones emphasized in the first day of the Orientation Planning Workshop on Mainstreaming VGGT on August 30, 2016 at B Hotel, Quezon City.

“As a country, the Philippines must initiate action-oriented efforts to solve problems that severely constrain the impetus of national development, since denying legitimate tenure rights has always been the cancer for small-time farmers and fisherfolk who feed the world.” he said.

The Workshop was conducted by the Land Management Bureau (LMB) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It imparted the highlights on mainstreaming the Guidelines in improving Philippine policies related to security of tenure and resource governance. Three implementing agencies – LMB, the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) and the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) – presented their varying outputs on their respective components.

The Workshop was participated by some of the implementing agencies, FAO, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Project Advisory Committee (PAC) members Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), and the Land Registration Authority (LRA). In the course of two days, it provided a roadmap in mainstreaming the VGGT in various thematic areas, including Updating of the 20-year Land Sector Development Framework (LSDF), Updating the Philippine Valuation Standards (PVS) and Mainstreaming the VGGT on Fisheries in Relation to Climate Change and Disasters.

The Guidelines provide the necessary framework for responsible tenure governance that supports food security, poverty alleviation, sustainable resource use and environmental protection. Its main objective is to improve the overall capacity of the government in providing responsible tenure governance.

The Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) entitled, “Mainstreaming Voluntary Guidelines on Governance of Tenure” was approved by former Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje, along with FAO Representative Fakhruddin Azizi, on June 9, 2016 and March 31, 2016 respectively. Implementation will progress in two years.

The LMB is the implementing arm of the TCP.