Throughout Vietnam's long histoty, the central elite and peripheraI farming communities have been legaIly and culturally divided. This dichotomy was never as complete as the famous injunction that "the emperor's writ stops at the village gate" infers. InitiaIly, during the period of French colonisation and more recently since the introduction of doi moi (renovation) economic reforrns, central authorities have attempted to unify land management with universaI normative law.

Contending Views and Conflicts over Land in the Red River Delta since Decollectivization is an anthropological study in which I offer a new approach exploring the viewpoints of various parties to analyze their attitudes, relations and conflicts over land in Vietnam's dynamic Red River delta after decollectivization. I also evaluate how and in what ways industrialization and modernization, as well as the effects of urbanization, marketization, and to a lesser extent globalization, have affected Red River Delta villagers' views and relations towards agricultural land.

Land conflicts occur in Lao PDR in both the urban and rural environment. Recent research work points to an increase of land conflicts in a range of areas however it has been difficult to monitor how conflict resolution activities are actually working because detailed information on the types and nature of land conflicts, their occurrence rates and resolution mechanisms applied was not available.

Land is the repository of memory and keeps traces of the past in the absence of a strong written tradition. It is perceived as an open book from which anyone can read and learn about local history: place names, old roads, legends and stories attached to places. For local people, bulldozing the landscape is seen as erasing their history, and disturbing social organisations and traditions. In Cambodia--as in many other countries--land is an extremely important economic resource and asset. Land is livelihood.

This is a mixed methods study on the Cambodian Cadastral Commission (CC), a body set up in June 2002 to resolve disputes involving unregistered land. It was conducted by the Center for Advanced Study in collaboration with the World Bank Justice for the Poor Program, National Cadastral Commission Secretariat and the German Development Cooperation (GTZ). The study undertakes a review of the functioning of the CC and evaluates a new case management/incentive scheme which was being piloted with the support of GTZ.

In Cambodia, an increasing demand for land has accompanied rapid economic expansion over the past decade, leading to land tenure insecurity for many of the country's poor. Despite the adoption of a new land law in 2001 and the establishment of the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) in 2002, tenure problems have continued. The difficulties with land reform policy relate partly to LMAP's design problems and partly to poor execution.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: The present study is a result of a three-month research stay and internship with the Lutheran World Federation Cambodia (LWF), in Kampong Chhnang Province. It deals with a land dispute that was closely monitored by LWF and that serves as an example for ways in which land disputes are dealt with in the rural Cambodia of today.

Since the 1980s, while trying to maintain political stability and territorial integrity, the Vietnamese state has strongly moved towards the transformation of a centrally-planned economy to a more market-oriented model, in which private, foreign and joint-venture businesses are increasingly becoming the key pillars of the national economy.

ABSTRACTED FROM SUMMARY: A bitter land struggle is unfolding in northern Burma’s remote Hugawng Valley. Farmers that have been living for generations in the valley are defying one of the country’s most powerful tycoons as his company establishes massive mono-crop plantations in what happens to be the world’s largest tiger reserve. The Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in Kachin State was declared by the Myanmar Government in 2001 with the support of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

1.

This study attempts to understand the impact of economic land concessions for agro-industrial production promoted by the government. This promotion heavily impacts on the locals’ livelihoods and obstructs decentralized natural resource management, especially in natural forest resources. They also examined locals’ response to such a development scheme. The study found that in regard to “economic growth”, the state has very strong control over natural resources and people.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: There is little evidence... that ordinary Cambodians are benefiting from the mass confiscation of their land. On the contrary, those who are displaced are explicitly excluded from any benefits, and instead find themselves facing loss of income, poor health, lack of education and other dire consequences that are directly opposed to the government’s public commitment to development, expressed through targets such as the “Millennium Development Goals” (MDG).