The brief illustrates two communities’ efforts through collective action to secure property rights over their land. As conflict over natural resources and the need for sufficient farm land continue to increase, both men’s and women’s groups tried to negotiate their rights to manage natural resources to maintain their livelihoods. The groups also tried various governmental schemes and other approaches to secure their rights over land.

This case study report examines relevant factors influencing village life and household well-being since decentralization has been practiced in local government of Kutai in Indonesia. The principal aim is to understand the impacts of these processes and to compare local government’s policies on Kutai and Dayak Benuaq villages. This report looks on changes that had taken place in Jambuq and Jerang Melayu villages since the new district of Kutai Barat was established in 1999.

Rapid growth of emerging economies, emerging interest in biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and recent volatility in commodity prices have led to a marked increase in the pace and scale of foreign and domestic investment in landbased enterprises in the global South. Emerging evidence of the negative social and environmental effects of these large-scale land transfers and growing concern from civil society have placed ‘global land grabs’ firmly on the map of global land use change and public discourse. Yet what are the processes involved in these large-scale land transfers?

This paper provides a global review of the link from forests to poverty alleviation. Definitions are clarified and the key concepts and indicators related to livelihoods and policy reduction and prevention are explored--distinguishing between the analysis and the measurements of poverty. Reviewing the macro-level literature on the relationship between economic growth, inequality and poverty, the authors found that economic growth usually does trickle down to the poor and that poverty reduction without growth is in practice very difficult to achieve.

In recent years, the term ‘gender’ has become a hot discussion topic in various forums and media. Many development sectors require gender analysis as a component of a program’s implementation. However, even today, many people still equate gender with sex or even, as a narrower definition, with women. This is particularly true in regions, where gender has not yet commonly been discussed, such as Bungo and Tanjung Jabung Barat (Tanjabbar) districts, Jambi.

Governments in many countries are decentralising to give more control over decision making and budgets to local administrations. One expectation of this change is that local governments will more effectively and efficiently respond to the poorest citizens in their jurisdictions. Decentralisation is especially significant to forest communities, which have historically benefited little from government services and poverty reduction programmes because of their physical isolation and social marginalisation.

The overall aim of this study was to explore what the development community can do, or facilitate, to significantly improve livelihoods in semi-arid systems.The authors based their analysis on two case-study sites in the communal lands of southern Zimbabwe. The main tool was a detailed livelihood questionnaire, supplemented by participatory appraisal and observation, action research, biophysical analysis and systems modelling.

This document is a report on the implementation of an initial project of Bulungan Research Forest in East Kalimantan, Indonesia 1997-2001 with financial support from International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). It contains an executive summary, the main text of the project objectives and outputs, brief report on technical and scientific aspects, lessons learned and recommendations for future projects.