BACKGROUND: Palestinian refugees have lived in camps and gatherings in Lebanon for more than 60 years. They are socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged as a result of discriminatory laws and decades of marginalisation, as shown by the absence of property rights and being banned from more than 30 occupations. In Palestinian refugee camps and gatherings, the provision of housing, water, electricity, refuse, and other services are inadequate and contribute to poor health.

This research examines the effect of risk and time preferences on forest management responses to forest tenure land reforms in Fujian, China that began in 2002. The different extent of the reform and its different timing across regions provide a natural experiment to test how time and risk preferences affect a households’ forest investment response to the reform.

Changes in land use and management practices to store and sequester carbon are becoming integral to global efforts that both address climate change and alleviate poverty. Knowledge and evidence gaps nevertheless abound. This paper analyses the most pressing deficiencies in understanding carbon storage in both soils and above ground biomass and the related social and economic challenges associated with carbon sequestration projects.

Semi-nomadic pastoralism was replaced by sedentary pastoralism in Inner Mongolia during the 1960's in response to changes in land use policy and increasing human population. Large increases in numbers of livestock and pastoralist households (11- and 9-fold, respectively) during the past 60 yrs have variously degraded the majority of grasslands in Inner Mongolia (78 M ha) and jeopardize the livelihoods of 24 M human inhabitants.

Populations of migratory birds can be affected by events happening at both breeding and wintering grounds. The Sahel is a vast region holding a large number of wintering trans-Saharan migratory European birds, and current land-use changes there may represent a threat for these species. We used satellite tracking data from the migratory Montagu’s harrier to evaluate habitat use of the species during the wintering season, and whether the current network of protected areas is effective to provide their habitat needs during that season.

Focusing on incentive schemes that induce participation in land-use activities to supply environmental services, this paper examines the potential impacts of REDD+ on livelihoods, in particular with respect to incomes and poverty alleviation. Two case studies, each at a different scale, are presented. First, the N’hambita Community Carbon Project in Mozambique, a REDD+ project, promoted agro-forestry and reforestation activities along with alternative livelihoods.

Climate change impacts on agriculture could arguably be most critical for developing countries in tropical regions: their populations rely importantly on agriculture and climate-dependant resources, poverty limits their capacity to anticipate and adapt to climate change, and population increase already poses a serious challenge to food security in those regions. Current projections of climate change impacts on tropical crop yields, even though on average negative, remain largely uncertain: there is need for more consistent, large-scale, quantitative assessments.

This study uses panel data from 1,142 Kenya smallholder households over four survey periods to examine the determinants of participation in land rental markets and to quantify the impact of renting land on households’ crop income and total income. We find that land rental markets in Kenya enhance productivity and are equitable. The results are consistent across different estimation methods and model specifications. Dynamic panel models were used to assess the impact of rental participation on households’ crop income and total income.

Based on a case study of two Moldovan regions, the paper challenges the favourable assessment of recently established peasant farms in a World Bank study by LERMAN et al. (1998).