Transition from subsistence to market economy is not easy. In Papua New Guinea most land is still held under traditional systems of common property resource ownership and a growing cash economy can spark conflict concerning management or ownership issues. Research presented at the annual meeting of the UK Development Studies Association (DSA) examines the institutional limitations, during transition, of traditional ownership systems.

This paper begins by discussing Tanzania's increasing recognition of the need to bring individuals, local groups, and communities into the policy, planning, and management process if woodlands are to remain productive in the coming decades.The article finds that:central control of forests takes management responsibility away from the communities most dependent on them, inevitably resulting in tensionsTanzania has enthusiastically established community-owned and -managed forest reservesthe most successful initiatives involving communities and individuals have been those that moved away from

Conflicting interests in land and resource use emerged in postwar Mozambique, giving rise to multiple layers of dispute. This article explores the disputes occurring between 1992 and 1995 in two districts which are notable for the severity of competition over land by virtue of their proximity to Maputo, namely, Matutuíne and Namaacha. Although private sector claims were beginning to be staked with the potential for displacing people occupying the same land, other conflicts still predominated.

Analyses two examples of changing institution-resource access relationships in Africa and Latin America. The Africa case (Kakamega, Western Kenya) highlights the resource endowments and problems associated with the participation of individuals in multiple institutions, whereas the Latin America case (Oaxaca, Mexico) focuses on the changes in a single institution in response to population growth. Suggests that even in situations of complexity, there are some clear entry points and directions for policy advice.

The paper is a desk study prepared as a basis for discussion and further field research into land tenure and conflict in the region.The first section provides an overview of land tenure and land utilization issues. This section includes an analysis of gender and other demographic issues as they relate to land tenure and access to natural resources.

In the literature about macroeconomics and deforestation, it is often supposed that strong foreign exchange outflows (e.g. debt service) increase deforestation, as higher poverty augments frontier migration and natural resources are squeezed to generate export revenues. This paper analyses the opposite phenomenon, i.e. the deforestation impact of substantial foreign exchange inflows, which is analysed in the "Dutch Disease" macroeconomics literature.

Examines the relationship of people’s rights in land to the manner in which they may be involved in the management of forests in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and to a lesser degree Botswana and Swaziland.Includes examination of property relations, state power, land reform, recognition of customary rights, the changing nature of tenure, and the impact of new land law on community forest rights.

Evaluation of LAMP in different contexts:broader change processesdevelopment thinkingcomparative analysis of different conditions of LAMP in the four districts it has been implemented inFindings include: recommending that the programme shifts focus from considering its core as natural resources management to one of support to the empowerment, mobilisation and capacity building of village communities with emphasis on natural resource managementconcentration should be on production, environment and rightstechnical assitance should shift towards capacity building and empowermentstakeholder par

This book, prepared by the Philippine Environmental Governance Project, serves as a reference guide for field personnel in guiding communities, investors, local government units, private persons and other organisations desiring to apply for tenure instruments on forest lands.The book covers all existing tenure and allocation agreements for the management and use of forest resources in forest lands. Agreements generally refer to long-term tenure instruments in forest lands with right of occupation.

This document takes a historical view of the relations between individual and collective actors in local water management in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

This paper initially highlights the general characteristics of rangelands and pastoral production systems of the Tibetan Plateau.The article finds that:given the realities of life in a heterogeneous and marginal environment, the issue of secure resource tenure, both customary and legal, is fundamental for effective rangeland managementa simple shift in tenure from the communal (traditional and subsistence) to individual household level (ranching and commercial) will not be enough to facilitate a change in behaviour toward "rational" livestock operationsmany institutional mechanisms must be

This paper presents a meta-analysis of what drives deforestation and what stops it. The researchers find that forests are more likely to be cleared where economic returns to agriculture and pasture are higher, either due to more favorable climatological and topographic conditions, or due to lower costs of clearing forest and transporting products to market. It is argued that timber activity, land tenure security, and community demographics do not show a consistent association with either higher or lower deforestation.