From Cambodia to Kosovo, and now East Timor, the United Nations has undertaken broad governmental functions in an effort to ensure that peace is maintained after the departure of the peacekeepers. On its face, these “peace-building” missions have a powerful logic.

Although gender issues are today a priority on the agendas of irrigation policy makers, interventionists, farm leaders and researchers, there is still a considerable gap between positive intentions and concrete action.

In The Gambia?s Kombo district land-grabbing for settlement is the norm. However, one community has stood against this, asserting their traditional rights to their forest, and carrying out extensive conservation work to preserve it for future generations.