The continuing and rapid degradation of rural watersheds has been a major concern for governments and civil society in Asia and the Pacific region. A root cause is the segmented management of land and water resources. This has been exacerbated by the cumulative and linked effects of an increase in demand for food, fuel and water due to population growth, competition for scarce land resources from biofuel production and a shift in preference for protein-rich diets. The expected adverse impact of climate change in the coming decades will most likely worsen the situation.

This policy brief suggests that creating an enabling policy environment as well as prioritizing land assessment and strategic directions for land management are important steps for more productive use of agricultural land resources and improved livelihoods of the poor in Cambodia.

This paper explores a 15-country household data base to evaluate the impact of three key assets (land, education and infrastructure) on rural poverty. Using both a descriptive analysis and a quadratic probit model, with the probability of being poor as a function of these three assets, the paper concludes that household access to education and infrastructure are positively associated with higher incomes, while the impact of land holdings varies across countries. Also, this paper shows the importance of the complementarities among assets in their poverty alleviating potential.