In Tanzania like in other parts of the global South, in the name of 'development' and 'poverty eradication' vast tracts of land have been earmarked by the government to be developed by investors for different commercial agricultural projects, giving rise to the contested land grab phenomenon. In parallel, Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM ) has been promoted in the country and globally as the governance framework that seeks to manage water resources in an efficient, equitable and sustainable manner.

From as early as the 1960s companies have been exploring the natural resource wealth of Mozambique. However, it is only in the past decade that the potential of these resources has been realised. Indeed, Mozambique is now thought to have some of the largest deposits of gas and coal on the African continent, and beyond. The country is also one of Africa’s few post-conflict success stories and has experienced unprecedented positive economic growth since 1994, exceeding the growth of many of its peers across the continent.

This report explores how the illicit trade in cobalt and copper in Katanga (south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) is contributing to the destruction of the country’s economy, the environment as well as the livelihoods of thousands of Congolese people.As the report demonstrates, the volume of the illegal mineral trade is immense. In March 2004 the Central Bank of Congo reported the DRC produced 783 tonnes of cobalt metal.

Part of a series of development reports, this paper highlights the key challenges facing the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA). In particular, it aims to show how water is integrated into the wider economic policies of the countries of the region and for that reason, it brings water issues to non-water specialists, addressing a multi-sectoral audience. It is argued that despite its diversity of landscapes and climates - from the snowy peaks of the Atlas mountains to the empty quarter of the Arabian peninsula - most of the region’s countries cannot meet current water demand.

This publication looks at key issues associated with water and sanitation in countries that are afflicted by armed conflict and where the ICRC works. The issues are identified as health, displacement, detention, urbanisation and natural disasters. The countries where ICRC is working include Iraq, Haiti, Somalia and Yemen. The publication analyses challenges from the point of view of the operational practice that has developed. It makes the following observations:

The objectives of this study are to analyze and synthesize the experience of the World Bank and other agencies in dryland management, with special emphasis on Africa.Recommendations are provided on "good policies and practices" in drylands management, which can support actions to fulfil obligations arising from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) for member countries and for international organizations, such as the World Bank.

Research project using participatory methods to improve the effectiveness of indigenous and modern soil and water conservation practices through a process of joint experimentation involving farmers, researchers, extension and NGO staff. Countries covered are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zimbabwe.

Avoided deforestation (AD) has become a global concern with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This paper discusses financial incentive schemes to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries may be established and considers some of the issues from the perspective of host countries and the forest-dependent poor.

This paper provides an analysis of the current watershed, water resources and coastal zone management issues in Grenada pursuant to Grenada’s obligations on the Global Environment Facility approved Project entitled “Integrating Management of Watersheds and Coastal Areas in Small Island Watersheds and Coastal Areas in Small Island Developing States in the Caribbean.

This report addresses the challenges of land management in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa. In 1999 the World Agroforestry Centre launched a major effort to identify, diagnose and reverse degradation in the Lake Victoria basin, focusing primarily on the Kenyan part of the basin. Dubbed “TransVic,” this project was supported by a number of donor agencies and collaborators, with particularly strong support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

This report exposes how these last precious forests in the Indonesian archipelago, particularly in the province of Papua are being felled illegally and sold off wholesale to China, which is now the largest consumer of stolen timber in the world.It highlights the following points:there is a complex web of middlemen and financiers from across the region responsible for masterminding the theft of Indonesia’s forests, including timber barons in Jakarta, officials on their payrolls, multinational companies in Malaysia, brokers in Singapore and log dealers in Hong Kong in just a few short years,

In Vietnam, forest area under the management of local people has expanded from almost nothing in the early 1990s to nearly 3.5 million hectares (27% of the national forest area) in 2006. This study looks at the extent to which such tenure reform has worked in practice and how it has affected local people’s livelihoods and well being. The study finds that: