Western Kenya is one of the most densely populated areas in Africa. Farming there is characterized by low inputs and low crop productivity. Poverty is rampant in the region. Yet the potential for agriculture is considered good.

Western Kenya is one of the most densely populated areas in Africa. Farming there is characterized by low inputs and low crop productivity. Poverty is rampant in the region. Yet the potential for agriculture is considered good. In the study described here, researchers looked specifially at soil fertility replenishment (SFR) systems...Focused on two specific systems -- the tree-based "improved fallow" system and the biomass transfer system -- the study compared rates of adoption in poor and nonpoor communities and evaluated the extent to which their adoption reduced poverty.

Since the 1970s, federal policies promoting migration and encouraging agricultural development of large farms, logging, and ranching have led to the deforestation of vast areas of the Amazon rainforest.Though these policies have largely been replaced, deforestation continues. What effects do current macroeconomic and regional policies and events have on deforestation and on the well-being of settlers on the agricultural frontier?

"As part of its 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Initiative, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has articulated a vision of what the world should look like in 2020: it should be a world free from poverty, hunger, malnutrition, and unsustainable natural resource management.

This research report examines three questions that are central to IFPRI research: How do property-rights institutions affect efficiency and equity? How are resources allocated within households? Why does this matter from a policy perspective? As part of a larger multicountry study on property rights to land and trees, this study focuses on the evolution from customary land tenure with communal ownership toward individualized rights, and how this shift affects women and men differently.This study’s key contribution is its multilevel econometric analysis of efficiency and equity issues.

This study explores the impact of changes in environmental conditions on intrahousehold labor allocation to the collection of environmental goods such as fuelwood and leaf fodder for a sample of rural Nepali households. Using household-level panel data collected in 1982 and 1997, the study finds that household collection time significantly increases with measures of environmental resource scarcity, and that the increase appears to come almost equally from men and women.

El agua potable es un recurso vital para el ser humano y el derecho al agua potable y al saneamiento forma parte integrante de los derechos humanos oficialmente reconocidos en los diferentes eventos internacionales. Nunca se ha considerado el agua como lo que realmente es: un bien común universal, patrimonio vital de la humanidad. El acceso al agua debe ser considerado como un derecho básico, individual y colectivamente inalienable.

We analyzed the following characteristics of water self-depuration capacity along a polluted river (Suquía River) in Argentina: a) abundance of microbial metabolic groups, b) cover and type of vegetation, and c) type and concentration of soil and sediment humic substances. The objective was to establish the modifications of water self-depuration characteristics of the polluted sites in comparison to a reference site, in order to provide basic data for ecological restoration programs.

El presente trabajo intenta describir brevemente la situación del derecho al agua en nuestro subcontinente.

La valoración ambiental de las riberas es una tarea necesaria para conocer el estado ecológico de los cursos de agua, lo cual permite evaluar los méritos de eventuales experiencias de manejo, impactos antropogénicos o bien detectar problemas ambientales de forma temprana. En tal sentido, el objetivo de este estudio fue desarrollar una metodología para evaluar la calidad del hábitat de la Franja Costera Sur del Río de la Plata.