As decentralisation and tenure reform sweeps through the Sahel, doubts remain whether communities can look after commonly owned land. Is privatisation or state control the best means of preventing the degradation of resources? Can local communities forge institutional mechanisms to regulate competing claims on common resources?

Is land reform compatible with wildlife management? Zimbabwe is seeking to combine the redistribution of large, 'under-utilised' landholdings to smallholders, with wildlife management, which needs extensive land holdings to be viable. Whilst one stresses direct redistribution, equity and land for crops, the other emphasises maximising foreign exchange earnings, encouraging public-private partnerships and relies on trickle down.

This report shows that the process of preparation for REDD in Mesoamerica is characterized for being relatively widespread, although there are enormous challenges regarding information, participation and consultation. In spite of the formal arguments, the preparation processes face serious challenges in terms of a more genuine and commitment with the consultation processes with various stakeholders related to forestry, especially in the case of indigenous peoples and forest communities.

The objective of the ‘Water Management Adaptation’ Project is to build capacity for good governance and adaptation to climate change through applied research, awareness, public participation and demonstrative experiences, for effective water management based on an ecosystems integrated management approach.

This paper analyses the effect of ethnic conflict on economic growth. It presents an econometric approach which develops a simple growth’s model with four ethnic variables and institutional regressors (a democratic and a rule of law index) along with two production factors (capital and labour).The report argues that these events shed light on how multi-ethnic societies are subject to “the tragedy of the commons” as each ethnic group seeks to benefit alone from common resources.

Literature review, focusing on recent and contemporary tenancy structures in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Tenancy for purposes of this review is broadly defined to include different leasing arrangements such sharecropping, labor tenancy, fixed cash rentals, and reverse leasing. Authors have limited our discussion to private leasing of agricultural land, thereby ignoring issues pertaining to leasing of public, forest, and other noncrop lands.

Briefing document on Cambodian forest reforms.Document available in Word and Text formats and available in Khmer at: http://www.fatbeehive.com/globalwitness/text/campaigns/forests/cambodia/...

Biofuels are attracting increased attention and investment as an alternative to fossil-based fuels and a means of combating climate change, yet there are many critics. This one-page briefing explores some of the concerns surrounding biofuels and the limitations posed by large-scale biofuel production.
Key points highlighted include the following:

This bi-annual addition of id21 Natural Resources Highlights looks specifically at rural livelihoods. It contains the following three articles:

New thinking needed to tackle the rural employment crisis

A further 106 million people will have joined the rural labour force in the developing world by 2015. This article asks whether enough jobs can be created in rural areas to meet this demand, or whether further urban migration is the only answer.

How can small-scale producers compete globally?

This booklet provides information to forestry and land-use audiences, principally in developing countries, who want to find out more about the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and how it affects their activities.

Surplus woody plants in areas where there is bush thickening present an opportunity to harvest the wood as bio-fuel. The health of the ecosystem and rangeland restoration must, however, always be prioritised during any tree harvesting for bio-fuel. In South Africa, indigenous woody plants are a prominent feature of the savannah, the largest of the vegetation biomes in South Africa and the Southern African sub-continent.

Land and forestry-based activities could in principle play important roles as climate change mitigation strategies. In practice, however, several questions have been raised about their feasibility. Therefore, understanding the processes and determinants of land use changes is critical. This paper aims to contribute to such understanding in the larger part of a larger project on sustainable development and economic growth. It begins with a dynamic model of land use.