This article discusses what is the best means of managing the commons. The article stresses that these are critical questions in the current wave of decentralisation and tenure reform taking place in many Sahelian states.

Redistributive land reform in Namibia is widely regarded as a precondition for sustainable rural development and poverty alleviation. This paper briefly discusses the development of thinking on land reform and the development of land reform models prior to Independence.

This case study examines eight equity dimensions in sustainable forest management through the case study of Na Ot Village, Na Ot Commune, Mai Son District, Son La province in Viet Nam.

It highlights that securing forest tenure and resource rights is a critical cornerstone and a first prerequisite for promoting community forestry through mobilising local communities to manage and benefit from forest sustainably, to participate in the democratic decision-making process, and establish their own customary practices of forest management in Viet Nam.

Foreign ownership of land has historically been a sensitive political issue,and measures to regulate or restrict the practice in one form or another have figured prominently in national land laws. The study by Hodgson, Cullinan and Campbell provides an overview of the various regulatory approaches that have been devised to deal with this issue.

Informal systems for land delivery, which have in many cases evolved from earlier customary practices, still account for over half the land supplied for housing in African cities and are a particularly important channel for the poor. This study examines how informal systems of housing land delivery operate in six African cities discussing how they are evolving and how they interact with formal land administration systems.

Land reform in Southern Africa is currently at an impasse. This paper analyses the constraints to sustainable land reform and identifies ways and means of moving things forward. In addition, appendices to the document include country by country reviews of the status of land reform in each country, and a matrix providing an overview of current land issues in the region.The document finds that whilst some progress has been achieved with tenure reform in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique, many challenges remain across the region, particularly for Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.

Sets out to examine the question of aid provision. As part of a general study on Finnish aid, the main focus is on two projects in Zanzibar: Zanzibar Forestry Project (ZFP) and Zanzibar Integrated Lands and Environment Management (ZILEM) project. This study centres on initial research carried out in Dar es Salaam (documentary) and Unguja (documentary, observational and in-depth interviews). [author]

This compendium provides an improved understanding of the complex issues concerning gender and land. It draws on research commissioned by FAO. The authors argue that hunger and poverty are, in general, consequences of inadequate and restricted access to land and other resources, such as capital, inputs and technology; women are among those with less access to land, while accounting for a large share in small-scale food production.Rights to land, especially women’s rights to land, are determined by a complex interaction between the institutions, and underlying power relations, of a society.

Tenure reform aims to secure people's land rights. In Southern Africa most so-called 'communal' land, reserved for Africans, is still held by the state. In these areas, land rights are increasingly insecure. Yet, the confirmation of the rights of those who have long occupied and used the land lags behind programmes that aim to transfer white-held land to Africans. Many colonial and apartheid land laws are still in force, particularly those relating to chiefs, who resist any reduction to their power.

This study investigates the relationship between rural poverty, property rights, and environmental resource management in a semi-arid region of Kenya using analysis of survey data. It argues that reduced environmental degradation will increase agricultural productivity, and which will then translate into lower levels of poverty as incomes and consumption expenditures rise.

Across the world, low rates of land ownership remain as one of the most persistent signs of gender inequity. While many developing countries have adopted legislation to reinforce gender equality in property ownership, the actual de facto state of women’s right to land often remains unchanged. Even when countries adopt joint-titling policies intended to shift household bargaining power in favour of women, actual rates of joint ownership are often lower than expected.