Global conservation discourses and practices increasingly rely on market-based solutions to fulfill the dual objective of forest conservation and economic development. Although varied, these interventions are premised on the assumption that natural resources are most effectively managed and preserved while benefiting livelihoods if the market-incentives of a liberalised economy are correctly in place.

Shifting cultivation, which long provided the subsistence requirements of a large number of people in the mountains of South and Southeast Asia under a situation of low population, has been shown to be an environmentally and economically unsuitable practice. Efforts have been made throughout the region to replace it with more productive and sustainable land-use systems. Experiences have been mixed.

The issue of incentives has been studied for the adoption of soil and water conservation in the ravines ofGujarat in the context of holistic development of small and marginal farms and their profitability. It ishypothesized that poor economic condition of farmers impedes their ability to make large-scale investmentin conservation agriculture, in general and improvement of land, in particular. The study is based on twogroups of farms- with and without conservation history.

Kangayam grassland in the tropical region of south India has been sustainably managed for over one hundred and fifty years. In a region with meagre rainfall, growing grass is the farmers' main vocation. Between 1855 and 1881, the majority of government 'wastelands' were given on lease to farmers who organized the land into grazing paddocks and fenced with hedges of Balasmodendron berryi. Numerous wells were dug in the grazing lands to provide water for drinking to animals and to some extent for irrigation.

Poverty and deforestation are critical issues in a number of developing countries where the policy framework is in many cases insufficient to provide rural people an incentive to afforest. This paper analyzes both the impact of land privatization on afforestation efforts of rural farm households in the Northern Uplands of Vietnam and the economic incentive of farm households on afforestation efforts. The determinants of afforestation by farm households were analyzed.

This article examines how property rights expectations affect resource management incentives. It utilizes expected property rights over different timespans and of different strengths, corresponding to (a) investments of different intensities and (b) farmers' sense of security regarding their often de facto property rights. The results suggest that property rights and their alienability in ten-year time matter to intensive infrastructural investments, although not to lighter investments.

Rangeland rehabilitation has multiple, sometimes conflicting goals, such as the reestablishment of the predisturbance vegetation, soil protection, and forage production. The rehabilitation techniques should be also cost‐effective and practicable. Given the difficulties and high costs of restoring Succulent Karoo rangelands and the continuously high grazing pressure in the communal lands, tradeoffs should be accepted in the achievement of these goals.

The creation of local institutions with a mandate over land access and control is seen as a prerequisite for successful decentralisation of land tenure and effective local resource management in sub-Saharan Africa. However, with land tenure reform in South Africa currently at a state of legislative impasse, real uncertainty now exists over land rights and governance of rangeland in many communal areas.