Recent years have witnessed a significant acceleration in the revision of forest laws around the world. Forest law increasingly recognizes the multiple interests involved in or affected by forest management, with greater attention given to the environmental and social roles of forest resources and to their sustainable management and use. In addition, renewed emphasis is being placed on the involvement of a wider range of public and private actors. Issues in which forest laws have been reoriented include local forest and private management, the environmental functions of forests, forest management planning and forest utilization contracts.

Recoge : The International Year of Forests 2011 - Forestry in the world: 1. Forests - 2. The economics of forestry and wood processing - 3. Wood and wood products - 4. Woods as a source of energy - Annexes.

As the pressure on finite resources of freshwater resources increases, government-administered legislation is taking a more dominant role in water resources management and protection. This manual is intended to bridge the gap between the policy and principles of the resultant primary legislation and implementation through secondary legislation. It covers a variety of legislative approaches cvoering all aspects of water resource management from water rights & permits, pollution prevention & control; conservation; flood control; irrigation; drainage and charging. It is an update of of the earlier FAO Legislative Study No. 52 (1994). Like its predecessor, it provides conceptual material for use in the preparation of national regulations for the management, development, use and protection of freshwater resources.

The increasing globalization of food trade and the harmonization of food standards and food safety rules have led to significant changes in the international and national regulatory frameworks for food. There is an increasing recognition of the need to integrate and improve coordination of regulatory activities among national and international bodies for better protection of human, animal and plant life and health without creating unnecessary barriers to trade. In addition, catastrophic outbreaks of food-borne disease have sparked increasing attention to the regulatory frameworks for food safety and food trade in the global arena. These developments have given rise to new legislative needs. National regulatory frameworks have to be adjusted to meet international and regional obligations, while the distribution of responsibilities for the food sector requires rigorous review. The present text draws on FAO's experience in providing technical assistance to governments developing new food laws and regulations, setting out and examining the many elements of the national system which should be taken into account in a comprehensive review of national regulatory frameworks for food. Towards that end, the text offers concrete recommendations for the preparation of a basic national food law, including three variants of a new model food law.

The study provides an overview of the international intellectual property system regulating plant varieties. It identifies the essential features of this system, including the policies supporting the grant of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the societal objectives in tension with IPRs, the institutions that have shaped the international intellectual property system, and the basic components contained in the relevant international treaties. The study aims to set forth regulatory options for national governments to protect plant varieties while achieving other public policy objectives relating to plant genetic resources.

This study is a contribution of the FAO Development Law Service to the discussion on rights-based systems in fisheries management from a legal perspective. It outlines the history of the development of rights-based fisheries management, the concepts of property rights in fisheries and the terms used in property rights regimes, the governing legislation in jurisdictions which have introduced property rights in fisheries, the interpretation placed by the courts of the jurisdiction on that legislation, and the possible options for implementing property-based fisheries rights systems in national legislation. Includes a section on New Zealand (p. 24-35).

This paper seeks to answer a number of basic questions. First of all just what are land tenure rights and water rights? Second, how do the respective regimes compare? Third what linkages, if any, are there between land tenure rights and water rights and, if there are none, does this matter, either in general or as regards specific aspects of the interface? A key objective of the paper is to examine which aspects of the rights interface merit further research. In comparing the two regimes a final subsidiary objective of this paper is to try and identify which areas, if any, in one sector can shed light on areas for future research in the other.