Land and natural disasters: guidance for practitioners

These guidelines provide a holistic approach to addressing land issues from the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster through early recovery and reconstruction phases. Disaster risk reduction is included as a sector from a humanitarian perspective in section 5, Land as a cross-cutting issue, sections: 5.2 Land and the landless; 5.4 Land use and settlement planning; 5.5 Access to land for relocation and infrastructure; among other references.

It is targeted at humanitarians and land professionals, as well as government officials. The Guidelines take an inter-disciplinary approach to land, one that also brings together humanitarian emergency relief and early recovery perspectives. Throughout the text, readers will find many short cases illustrating practical aspects of bringing land issues into the post-disaster recovery process. Tools and other useful references are also included. The information provided in these Guidelines will be of interest and use to anyone directly working to support rapid yet sustainable recovery of human settlements following a natural disaster. The Guidelines were produced through a partnership between UN-HABITAT, the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), FAO and the Early Recovery Cluster.