E/C.12/GC/26 women and young people, in decisions regarding the distribution of user rights. Ensuring access to natural resources cannot be limited to the protections granted to the lands and territories of Indigenous Peoples. Other groups depend on the commons, in other words, global public goods. Fisherfolk need access to fishing grounds, yet strengthening individual property rights might entail fencing off the land that gives them access to the sea or to rivers. Pastoralists also form a particularly important group in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost half of the world’s 120 million pastoralists or agropastoralists reside. In addition, throughout the developing world, many peasants and rural households still depend on gathering firewood for cooking and heating, and on commonly owned wells or water sources for their access to water. The formalization of property rights and the establishment of land registries should not worsen the situation of any of those groups, as cutting them off from the resources on which they depend would threaten their livelihoods. 36. Agrarian reform is an important measure to fulfil rights enshrined in the Covenant relating to land.46 More equitable distribution of land through agrarian reform can have a significant impact on poverty reduction47 and can contribute to social inclusion and economic empowerment. 48 It improves food security, since it makes food more available and affordable, providing a buffer against external shocks.49 Land distribution schemes should also support small, family-owned farms, which often use the land in a more sustainable way and contribute to rural development owing to their labour intensity. However, land redistribution schemes should ensure that the beneficiaries receive proper support to enhance their capacity to use land productively and to engage in sustainable agricultural practices in order to maintain the productivity of the land. Policy options to support the economic success of family farmers should include education on access to credits, help in using marketing opportunities and the pooling of machines. Policies should be formulated in a way that enables beneficiaries to benefit from the land they acquire and avoids incentives to sell the land to support their minimum needs. Redistribution of land and agrarian reforms should focus particularly on the access to land of young people, women, communities facing racial and descent-based discrimination and others belonging to marginalized groups, and should respect and protect the collective and customary tenure of land. 37. States shall use the maximum available resources to progressively realize the rights under the Covenant relating to accessing productive resources, particularly to assist individuals and groups to access an adequate standard of living. Article 11 (2) (a) of the Covenant imposes on States parties the obligation to improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources. That implies that States have a duty to support agrarian reform schemes that ensure adequate access to land, particularly for small-scale peasants who depend on access to land for their livelihoods. 50 Policies and laws should be accompanied by adequate, gender-sensitive support measures, developed through participatory processes, and should aim to make agrarian reforms sustainable. Such policies and laws should include adequate safeguards 46 47 48 49 50 GE.23-00043 On the importance of agrarian reform, see the Final Declaration adopted at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development of FAO, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2006 (ICARRD 2006/3), in which member States agreed on the principle of the “establishment of appropriate agrarian reform mainly in areas with strong social disparities, poverty and food insecurity, as a means to broaden sustainable access to and control over land and related resources”. M.R. El-Ghonemy, “Land reform development challenges of 1963–2003 continue into the twentyfirst century”, Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives, vol. 2 (2003); and Veronika Penciakova, “Market-led agrarian reform: a beneficiary perspective of Cédula da Terra”, Working Paper Series No. 10–100 (London, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2010). Julian Quan, “Land access in the 21st century: issues, trends, linkages and policy options”, Livelihood Support Programme Working Paper No. 24 (Rome, FAO, 2006). M.R. Carter, “Designing land and property rights reform for poverty alleviation and food security’, Land Reform, Land Settlement and Cooperatives, vol. 2 (2003). Research has highlighted an inverse relationship between the size of production units and productivity per hectare. See, for example, Robert Eastwood, Michael Lipton and Andrew Newell, “Farm size”, in Handbook of Agricultural Economics, vol. 4, Prabhu L. Pingali and Robert E. Evenson, eds. (Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2010). 11