This paper examines 30 years of experience in zones, reviewing development patterns and economic impacts of zones worldwide. The experience shows that while zones have been effective in addressing economic growth and development objectives, they have not been uniformly successful; successes in East Asia and Latin America have been difficult to replicate, particularly in Africa, and many zones have failed.

The study conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh aims to evaluate the effects of creation of assets on lands of Small and Marginal Farmers, Scheduled Cast /Scheduled Tribe  and Indira Awas Yojana Beneficiaries. 

The report, prepared by the Indian Environment Law Offices, offers insights on mainstreaming Shifting Cultivation or Jhum through innovative interventions, such as Participatory Land Use Planning into policy, legal and institutional framework in Nagaland and help the state realize its full development potential.

The study assessed the biodiversity impact of the project supported by UNDP and the Government of Madhya Pradesh to support local communities in rehabilitating degraded forest, generating sustainable livelihoods and protecting the areas rich ecosystem. The project was supported by the Global Environment Facility.

Background:

The wild relatives of crops represent a major source of valuable traits for crop improvement. These resources are threatened by habitat destruction, land use changes, and other factors, requiring their urgent collection and long-term availability for research and breeding from ex situ collections. We propose a method to identify gaps in ex situ collections (i.e. gap analysis) of crop wild relatives as a means to guide efficient and effective collecting activities.

Methodology/Principal Findings:

This guide presents a step-by-step approach in using a participatory mapping method with community members to identify and map ecosystem services and changes in their supply across multiuse agricultural landscapes. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies and researchers can use this approach to learn from communities about how they use and access natural resources.

Over the last 12 years a data base of climate, soils and crop distribution has been assembled for Latin America. Recently, socio-economic variables such as access and populations density and environmental variables such as the location of national parks, biological reserves and indian reserves have been added. Formerly this information was used primarily to make decisions on commodity research.

Reviews procedures for obtaining reliable information on animal populations, other ecological features and land use generally from low-flying aircraft by direct observation or conventional photography, with reference to types of sampling unit, and the relative merits of unstratified systematic and stratified random sampling.