This article discusses the extent to which the location of roads s and protected areas affects deforestation in North Thailand. The article stresses that establishing protected areas (national parks together with wildlife sanctuaries) in North Thailand did not reduce the likelihood of forest clearing, but wildlife sanctuaries may have reduced the probability of deforestation.

This fact sheet describes lessons learnt from the development of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) benefit distribution systems (BDSs) in Viet Nam. The fact sheet is a clear and concise resource for policymakers and REDD+ stakeholders.

Climate change is set to have a significant impact on climate-sensitive sectors of national economies, such as agriculture. This report, published by the World Agroforestry Centre, discusses the challenges that climate change brings to smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, and outlines adaptive measures that can be taken. It begins with a brief general discussion of climate change and moves on to describe the likely impacts for farmers. The following section highlights adaptive strategies available to small-scale farmers in the region.

This policy brief discusses the issue of food security in relation to trade and the anticipated impacts of climate change within Southeast Asia. It begins by contextualizing the debate before examining the manner in which trade, climate change and food security are interlinked within the Mekong region. The brief goes onto examine Cambodia as a case study in order to establish lessons for other countries in the region.

Although it is not possible to state with confidence how climate change may alter precipitation patterns in Rwanda, it is clear that this process will affect the management and generation capacity of its hydroelectric sector in the future. The Government of Rwanda sought to restore the degraded Rugezi-Bulera- Ruhondo watershed by halting on-going drainage activities in the Rugezi Wetlands and banning agricultural and pastoral activities within and along its shores, as well as along the shores of Lakes Bulera and Ruhondo.

This paper examines the paradoxes of land governance in Brazil by putting them in their historical context, highlighting in particular the continuing subordination of peasant farmers’ interests to those of large landholders. It traces the development of the country’s regional divisions and systems of land-holding back to colonial times, when Portuguese settlers began carving up the territory.

In 1995, corrupt officials secretly awarded all of Cambodia’s unallocated forest, 35 per cent of the country’s total land area, as concessions to logging companies. How have these rogue loggers exploited political instability and weak government institutions to plunder Cambodia’s timber? Can anything be done to check the depredations of the ‘untouchables’ before Cambodia is logged out?

Appraises political liberalization and subsequent contestation over political space in Kenya. The discussion centres on how, from the colonial period, elite politics have precluded organization and crystallization of popular democracy.The paper specifically examines the historicity of political factionalism and attendant decline of multi-partyism.

This report summarises two separate Friends of the Earth reports on, respectively, the increasing demand for palm oil in developed countries, and the social and environmental impacts of palm oil cultivation in Southeast Asia - focussing particularly on Indonesia.

Recent years have seen pastoralist communities in Tanzania becoming increasingly impoverished and vulnerable, due to  livestock diseases, drought, fluctuating market prices and unfavourable policies. This paper discusses strategies to address the last of these factors with reference to the Ereto-Ngorongoro Pastoralist Project, which was set up in response to growing concern about the unprecedented and rising levels of poverty among pastoralists in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

The valuation of resources found in the watershed area is important in assessing the impacts of changes in the watershed. While the change will have positive impacts which are short-term in nature, there are long-term environmental damages associated with economic benefits.

This paper gives a rational judgment on the soundness of such changes through cost and benefit analysis. The watershed approach is utilized to capture the effects that are relevant in the analysis.

[adapted from source]

This extensive FAO assessment of global forest resources, describes the extent, uses and value of forest resources covering 229 countries and territories between 1990 and 2005.