As global consumption and development rates continue to grow, there will be persistent stress placed on public goods, namely environmental amenities. Urban sprawl and development places pressure on forested areas, as they are often displaced or degraded in the name of economic development. This is problematic because environmental amenities are valued by the public, but traditional market analysis typically obscures the value of these goods and services that are not explicitly traded in a market setting.

The ejido system, based on communal land in Mexico, was transformed to private ownership due to neoliberal trends in the 1990s. Based on the theory of stakeholders being agents of change, this study aimed to describe the land policies that changed the ejido system into private development to show how land tenure change is shaping urban growth. To demonstrate this, municipalities of San Andrés Cholula and Santa Clara Ocoyucan were selected as case studies.

The major topic of this article is the evaluation of the regional differentiation of the long-term changes in land use in Czechia. This study searches the spatial and temporal differentiation of the changes and their driving forces since the 19th century. The comprehensive land use land cover change database (LUCC Czechia Database) which comprises cadastral data on the land use in the years 1845, 1896, 1948, 1990, 2000, and 2010 for more than 8000 units, was the main data source.

With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, land exploitation in China has caused a decrease of cultivated land, posing a threat to national food security. To achieve the goals of both economic development and cultivated land protection, China launched an urban–rural land replacement measure supported by a new land use policy of “increasing vs. decreasing balance” of construction land between urban and rural areas in 2008.

The large-scale Grain for Green project on the Loess Plateau of China significantly changes the regional landscape pattern, which has a profound impact on runoff and sediment process. The relationship between landscape pattern and runoff and sediment in the Dali River watershed is established. Cropland and grassland areas in the watershed show a downward trend, whereas the woodland and building land increases continuously. The Number of Patches (NP), Patch Density (PD) and Landscape Diversity (SHDI), Landscape Division Index (DIVISION) increase significantly.

The Civil Society commends the Ministry of Lands for spearheading the important process of developing the Draft National Policy, and affirms that land is central to the livelihoods of most Kenyans and as such its access, use, ownership, administration and distribution are of key national concern. Thus, having critically examined the Draft Policy we do hereby make our position on the way forward on the salient policy proposals of the Draft National Land Policy document.

The Kilimanjaro Initiative is a rural women’s mobilisation from across Africa towards an iconic moment at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro in October 2016. The Kilimanjaro Initiative was conceived by the Rural Women during a meeting of rural women and civil society organisations in 2012, held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. This initiative aims to create space for us as rural women to be able to participate in decision making processes about land and natural resources.

The National Land Policy in Kenya: Critical Public Land Issues and Policy Statements is a guide to steer the debate and eventual formulation of a National Land Policy and legislative framework that will address issues of management and administration of public land in Kenya.

Through this Land Update, KLA appreciates that for the first time in the history of Kenya a comprehensive Draft National Land Policy has been formulated.We therefore urge all Kenyans and the general public to read, debate and contribute to the finalization of the National Land Policy. This is because the final National Land Policy will provide the basis for the review and harmonization of the existing laws and enacting of new ones to facilitate the achievement of the objectives set out in the overall national development policy framework, Kenya Vision 2030

The Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) is a focal point for information sharing and networking among those pressing for land reform in Kenya. It was formed in 1999 by members of civil society to propose reforms both to the Commission on the Review of Land Laws, appointed by the President, and the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission, appointed by Parliament. Over the last two years, the KLA has coordinated a programme of research on land issues in Kenya by member organisations

A majority of the Kenyan population live in rural areas accessing land and natural resources through customary systems and institutions that operate largely outside the mainstream legal framework of land administration. Although there are clear provisions in the Constitution and the Trust Land Act on management of trust land there appears to be an unwritten policy on the part of government that sees community land as land that is not owned but rather is available for County Councils and government to appropriate through the setting apart procedure

For a long time the issue of land and related problems has been debated mostly by academicians, politicians and professionals. Although the problem has remained more or less one of the most talked of in Kenya, the public has very often been left out of the debate. Again mostly the debate has been dominated more by complaining about either the lack of policy or the bad land policies and laws and the failure by successive governments to correct those problems.