Loggers, miners and rural communities all exploit forests in unsustainable ways in search of profits and means of subsistence. They are the primary actors in forest decline and their immediate motivations are the direct causes of deforestation and degradation. However, these motivations are determined, through complex causation chains, by deeper and much more fundamental forces: the underlying causes of deforestation. Effective action against forest decline requires an understanding of these underlying causes and their distant impacts on forests.

The methods used to value tropical forests have the potential to influence how policy makers and others perceive forest landsforestlands. A small number of valuation studies achieve real impact. These are generally succinct accounts supporting a specific perception. However, such reports risk being used to justify inappropriate actions. The end users of such results are rarely those who produced them and misunderstanding of key details is a concern. One defence is to ensure that the ultimate users appreciate shortcomings and common pitfalls.

In Colombia coffee production is facing risks due to an increase in the variability and amount of rainfall, which may alter hydrological cycles and negatively influence yield quality and quantity. Shade trees in coffee plantations, however, are known to produce ecological benefits, such as intercepting rainfall and lowering its velocity, resulting in a reduced net-rainfall and higher water infiltration.

The presentation looks at the current status of river systems of India from a basin perspective, and review how indicators of urbanization, such as demographics and migration, infrastructure development, growth of cities and towns, development of urban agglomerations, provision of utility services and land-use changes, have impacted the life of rivers.

Land use practices contribute to both the emission and sequestration of greenhouse gases. Land is where the struggle to adapt to climate change will be won or lost by the poorest of the poor. Land science is a priority area of collaboration between UNCCD and UNFCCC, if land-climate insights and actions are to be optimized. It can also foster the synergies continually called for by Parties to the three sister Rio Conventions.

This Issue Paper No.2 is part of the series Making Rangelands Secure, a learning initiative supported by ILC, IFAD, RECONCILE, IUCN-WISP and Procasur. The Making Rangelands Secure Initiative has been established by a group of organisations seeking to improve security of rights to rangelands. The initiative seeks to identify, communicate and build good practice on making rangelands secure for local rangeland users.

These guidelines introduce and promote the essential elements of participatory rangeland management (PRM). Based upon the successful experiences of participatory forest management, the guidelines provide a process following three stages of investigation, negotiation and implementation. The sequential steps of this process lead to the development of a rangeland management plan and a legally binding rangeland management agreement between a local rangeland management institution and the appropriate local government office.

Ill advised, uncoordinated, and badly planned interventions have been blamed for continuing poverty and food insecurity in rangelands. Water interventions in particular have had negative impacts. Not only have these interventions failed to improve the livelihoods of people living there, but in many cases they have served to undermine them and the environment on which they depend. Rangeland development interventions have been sectoral in their approach.

In Senegal, concern about large-scale land acquisitions has been growing since 2000. Senegalese agriculture has long relied on small-scale family holdings and extensive agriculture. But the current population growth rate, combined with rapid urban development and natural resources degradation, have inevitably changed the game.