Localization—the growing economic and political power of cities, provinces, and other sub-national entities—will be one of the most important new trends in the 21st century. Together with accelerating globalization of the world economy, localization could revolutionize prospects for human development or it could lead to chaos and increased human suffering.Improved communications, transportation and falling trade barriers are not only making the world smaller they are also fueling the desire and providing the means for local communities to shape their own future.

Understanding land accumulation dynamics is relevant for policymakers interested in the economic effects of land inequality in developing country agriculture. This Working Paper explores and simultaneously tests the leading theories of microlevel land accumulation dynamics using unique panel data from Paraguay. The results suggest that farm growth varies systematically with farm size – a formal rejection of stochastic growth theories (that is, Gibrat's Law) – and that titled land area may have considerable infuence on land accumulation.

The main argument of this paper is that insecurity of land tenure is a socio-political condition that can be made and unmade. This discussion paper focuses on customary land rights, particularly in the African context. The paper reveals that:

This CMI working paper provides an overview of rural-urban linkages in sub-Saharan Africa outlining the major strands of contemporary academic debates on this issue. There author identifies two interrelated debates for discussion. The first is about the historiography of migrancy, predominantly in Southern and Eastern Africa; the other one is about the relationship between research on labour migration and the policy prescriptions that ostensibly follow.The author goes on to draw some tentative conclusions about what might be the implications of these debates for urban workers in Kenya.

Soil erosion has conventionally been perceived as the chief cause of land degradation, yet the limited effectiveness and poor uptake of widely promoted physical and biological anti-erosion methods challenges this logic. An alternative perception focusing on prior land damage - notably to soil cover, architecture and fertility - permits an holistic, farmer-centred approach which has generated positive response to date.

This paper assesses the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation and the forces behind unsustainable agriculture. It demonstrates the far-reaching consequences of globalisation, in terms of land tenure policies and inequalities. It examines consumption and production patterns and the global problem with many actors.

This study explores the relationship between HIV/AIDS and land rights in Kenya, with a particular focus on women as a socially vulnerable group. It examines: the ways that HIV/AIDS-affected households are coping in terms of land access, use and management; the consequences of these coping strategies on security of access and rights to land; and how changes in land tenure, access and rights to land among different categories of people are affecting agricultural productivity, food security and poverty.

Assesses the process of rural land registration in Mozambique and the outcomes for poor and marginalised groups. The research finds that community land registration, under the 1997 land law, can strengthen community rights to use and benefit from their land in relation to outsider interests in land. However, intra-community and intra-household land rights are not addressed, since it is only community land boundaries which are registered.

Will intensifying the road network around market areas produce greater economic returns and less environmental damage than extending the road network into new areas?Rural roads promote economic development but also facilitate deforestation. To explore the trade-offs between development and environmental damage posed by road building, Chomitz and Gray develop and estimate a spatially explicit model of land use.

This research in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe looks at the practice of rights claiming on the ground, in the context of 'legal pluralism' and complex, politicised institutional settings. In the southern African context rights are formulated and claimed in a very unlevel playing field and are highly contested. In practice rights are realised through complex negotiations about access to resources at a local level.