The Amazon forest greatly influences the global climate and may be coming under increasing threat due to climate change. This report explores the relationship between the Amazon, climate, and the changes in this relationship that are underway as a result of forest destruction and the release of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The paper seeks to interpret the best information available to determine how close we are to a point of no return for a major forest “dieback” in the Amazon, and to identify some steps that might be taken to counter this process.

This literature review assesses current and potential future changes occurring within the forestry sector. It identifies challenges posed to forests and analyses the relationship between forests and climate change. While it is relatively safe to assume that temperature increase is a threat to the survival of many ecosystems other challenges, such as extreme weather and precipitation levels, are harder to predict.

This document presents a framework for identifying and asserting tenure and human rights associated with forests and land use in the context of climate change policies and measures. It argues that clearly defined land rights can help identify which actors are necessary to address drivers of deforestation and can determine shares in benefits from reduced deforestation. Local resource management may even improve forest outcomes.

This report provides an overview of the issues, root causes, and driving forces behind the crimes related to illegal logging. The report includes a comprehensive review of existing initiatives to address the challenges of illegal logging in Southeast Asia. The results are derived mainly from a literature review of various publications, websites, and project documents, but also from personal communication through interviews with people working on the issues of illegal logging in the region.

Proposed here is a new scheme for allocating international river water that accounts for the stochastic nature of water supply and the dynamic nature of its demand. The suggested scheme is expected to improve the efficiency of river basins' water allocation and the riparians' welfare.International river and lake basins constitute about 47 percent of the world's continental land area, a proportion that increases to about 60 percent in Africa, Asia, and South America.

Collection of ten papers looking at the impacts and issues arising from fuelwood use. Also case studies from a number of countries covering forest energy strategies and the development of alternatives.The papers included are as follows:Factors affecting fuelwood use in Taita, Kenya.Fleuret, A. 1983 Fuelwood use in Zanzibar town.Masoud, R.S. 1991Woodlots, woodfuel and energy strategies for Ciskei.Bembridge, T.J. 1990 Fuelwood scarcity in rural Africa: possible remedies.McClintock, J. 1987Stoves and deforestation in developing countriesGill, J.

Reviews the current understanding of the relationship between land use (especially forestry), carbon dioxide emissions and the Kyoto Protocol agreementsTopics cover: how the global carbon cycle operates, and how this relates to forestry activitiesaccounting rulescomparison of the usefulness of models and ground-based assessments of changes in carbon stocksshort term prospects for policy implementationimplications for sustainable development

Paper is about how human society organizes its proprietary relationship to the biosphere and, in particular, the property implications of ecosystem management. Our premise is that ecosystem management is endangered by its "bigger-is-better" bias, the potential source of public backlash among landowners. We document both the expansionary nature of ecocentric management and the magnitude of inholdings (encumbered property interests) which accompany it.

This report looks at possible ways for policy-makers and decision-takers to combat and/or prevent land degradation in the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) region, both generally and specifically in the following countries: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This paper begins by exploring the history of tenure in Tanzania's forests. It states that, while the government has retained ownership of forests centrally; locally, people have used forest resources without restriction. This has led to the over exploitation of many forest resources and a lack of sense of ownership and responsibility among forest communities.The author states that the government plans to transfer management rights for forests while retaining tenure centrally, but that there is confusion over how this division of rights can occur legally.

This paper considers the degree of environmental variability in an extensive pastoral area of Altay, northern Xinjiang (China); assesses the extent to which institutional arrangements are able to accommodate environmental variability, and discusses the implications of this for rangeland policy.The article finds that:there is some inter-temporal variation in rangeland productivity (in pasture zones), suggesting some applicability of new range ecologythere is less environmntal variation in summer pasture, suggesting that the concepts and tools of conventional rangeland management might be mor

This paper examines the evidence for land degradation in Burkina Faso, and argues that local farming practices are not as unsustainable and environmentally destructive as many reports suggest.Main findings of the study include:there is little evidence of widespread degradation of crop and fallow land in Burkina Faso; the low external input practices used by West African farmers are not leading to region wide land degradation processesa major reason for the overestimation of land degradation has been the underestimation of the abilities of local farmersthere is much more to soil and water co