FAO releases new guidelines for integrated land use planning at the biodiversity conference

International Report Agriculture & Rural Environment & Climate International Relations

FAO releases new guidelines for integrated land use planning at the biodiversity conference

29 October 2026

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released its Guidelines for Integrated Land Use Planning on 29 October 2026, bringing them out at COP17, the biodiversity conference held under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Its land use planning guidance had not been overhauled since 1993, so this is the first major update in more than three decades. A nine-step framework sits at the centre of the guidelines, and a Practitioners' Guide turning those steps into practice is to follow. Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General, said demands on land, soil and water compete with one another and must be weighed together instead of sector by sector. The organisation's land and water programme prepared the guidance, which was also discussed at the thirtieth session of the FAO Committee on Agriculture. Land use decisions are tied in it to the Rio Conventions and to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Guidelines: Guidelines for Integrated Land Use Planning Previous version: 1993 Framework: Nine steps

Why it matters for exams: The Convention on Biological Diversity and its Conference of the Parties, the FAO Committee on Agriculture and the FAO itself are named international bodies that recur in question papers.

UPSC

29 October 2026 Source: Food and Agriculture Organization

In plain words

CBD Convention on Biological Diversity — A multilateral treaty on conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity; its member states meet at the Conference of the Parties.