The desperate search for ways to combat climate change gives rise to new mitigation policies and projects, with questionable impacts on people and the environment. Among these mitigation projects is the increasing support of large-scale ‘sustainable’ forestry plantations as part of the broader Clean Development Mechanisms. This paper discusses several problems that may arise from such plantation projects, especially the missed mitigation potential through the involvement of local actors in protecting biodiverse forests.

Kenya has been implementing an active environmental management programme including education and public awareness. Most Kenyans are therefore aware of the link between environmental management and human well-being. They know that environmental degradation exacerbates poverty and undermines economic progress. Of course, there are still those who lack appreciation of the ecosystem services that are central to our wellbeing but these are a minority.

Kenya’s landscape covers a total of 583 000 sq. km12 and is grouped into geographical zones including; the Savannah Lands covering most of the arid and semi- arid areas, the Coastal Margin, the Rift Valley, the Highlands and the Lake Victoria Basin. With a growth rate of 3.1% the population stands at approximately 29 million people. The country’s GNP/Capita is close to US$330. By the year 2010 and with a slow decline, the population is expected to reach a high of 39.3 million, 37.4 million with the medium decline and 35.5 million with a fast decline.

Kenya has been integrating climate considerations into various legal and governance instruments for some time. Notably, there has been progress made in planning and implementing policies, projects and programs in key economic sectors in order to align Kenya with the international community’s approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promote climate resilience.

Kenya’s hurried pursuit of infrastructure developments in the last decade has highlighted the need for effective environmental regulation surrounding the approval, construction and operation of new projects. One such project, the Nairobi-Thika Highway Improvement Project (NTHIP), creates fertile ground for investigation into how well Kenya’s environmental safeguards work. Transforming the road from Nairobi to Thika town into a super highway is one of Kenya’s first large-scale transportation infrastructure projects.

ABSTRACTED FROM LA VIA CAMPESINA PRESS RELEASE: The UN Declaration aims to better protect the rights of all rural populations including peasants, fisherfolks, nomads, agricultural workers and indigenous peoples and to improve living conditions, as well as to strengthen food sovereignty, the fight against climate change and the conservation of biodiversity. The endorsement of the UN Declaration also constitutes an important contribution to the international community’s effort to promote family farming and peasant agriculture.

A series of submissions by the Zambia Land Alliance on these topics: land as a right; women’s rights to land; vestment and administration of land; conversion of customary land to leasehold tenure; land and the environment; land information; mode of adoption of the Constitution.

First newsletter from ZERO-Regional Environment Organisation, which has embarked on a 5 year research and advocacy programme on land in Southern Africa. Provides details of the programme and of ZERO’s regional activities.

Includes Sierra Leone: open for business, land use and land tenure in Sierra Leone, land deal in Sierra Leone: four case studies, responsible agro-investment? Found a lack of transparency and public disclosure in all aspects of the four land deals, an extremely weak regulatory framework, confusion around ‘availability’ of land, lack of environmental protection, conditions ripe for exploitation and conflict.

Includes Mali – a welcoming climate for investors, the regulatory framework – bending it to suit investors?, the Office du Niger, case studies of four investments, large land deals in Mali. Found more than 40% of land deals involve crops for agrofuels, violent and flagrant abuses of human rights in the agricultural zones of the Office du Niger, a serious lack of public disclosure and transparency from government, an alarming lack of environmental protection.

Includes methodology and research sites; land, the law and women’s rights in Uganda; women’s rights – lost in the land rush; economic policy and land as a commodity; women’s rights activists – promoting women’s land rights; recommendations. Uganda’s eco-feminist movement is one of several working at the interface of environmental degradation, corporate human rights abuses and patriarchy, urgently building women’s campaigning and resistance skills.

Contains situational analysis, policy context, tentative conclusions and options for intervention. Addresses the question of how to increase security of land rights for the urban and rural poor. Examines the existing multiple land tenure system. Argues that land reform in Sierra Leone is both necessary and possible though there are many constraints. The costs of doing nothing will likely include further civil unrest and environmental degradation.