This summary document provides a synthesis of the key issues and discussion points emerging from a four week online conference on the subject of land tenure in drylands.The broad areas of discussion were as follows:Drylands Tenure Policy. What are the contents and essential elements of Drylands Tenure Policies?Strategies for implementing land tenure reform in drylands. What can we learn from drylands experiences?Land policy dialogue and participation.

This document reports on a workshop held in South Africa in June 2003 to address continuing insecurity of women's land rights. It brought together a broad group of participants covering NGO, grassroots, government, UN agency staff, researchers, activists, lawyers, and women living with HIV/AIDS.

This paper focuses on extracts from a recent comparative analysis of livestock and land use surveys across a range of agro-climatic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, based on information from systematic low level aerial reconnaissance and complementary ground studies in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Tchad, between 1980 and 1993.

Since 1994, the South African government has embarked on an ambitious land reform programme to redistribute and return land to previously disenfranchised communities. However, many black people lack the knowledge, skills and experience needed to manage their land.

While there is a consensus in Nicaragua that the security of property rights is a fundamental constraint to the long run development of the agricultural sector, there has been little empirical analysis to date of the relationship between land rights and rural economic activity.Using household level data collected between December, 1997– April, 1998 within the regions of Leon and Chinandega (known administratively as Region II), this paper investigates the relationship between rural land rights and agricultural credit, investment, and rural incomes (on farm and off farm).Results indicate tot

This report looks at possible ways for policy-makers and decision-takers to combat and/or prevent land degradation in the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) region, both generally and specifically in the following countries: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This report recounts the experiences of 130 women from various regions, ethnic groups, religions, and social classes in Kenya who have had their property rights flouted because they are women.The report presents evidence that women are excluded from inheriting, evicted from their lands and homes by in-laws, stripped of their possessions, and forced to engage in risky sexual practices in order to keep their property. When they divorce or separate from their husbands, they are often expelled from their homes with only their clothing.

This paper examines the challenges of institutional, organisational and policy reform around land in Southern Africa. It analyses the land situation in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and identifies key issues for further research in each of these countries.
Findings include:

FAC Policy Brief 55by Blessings Chinsinga and Michael Chasukwa There is often a mismatch between the apparent benevolent intents and the practical manifestations of the large scale land deals. The empirical realities of the large-scale land deals call for critical scrutiny and interrogation of the underlying interests of the stakeholders involved to assess the extent to which they genuinely prioritize win-win scenarios. As the experiences of the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) in Malawi demonstrated, the smallholder farmer is almost always the loser.

Reviews the current understanding of the relationship between land use (especially forestry), carbon dioxide emissions and the Kyoto Protocol agreementsTopics cover: how the global carbon cycle operates, and how this relates to forestry activitiesaccounting rulescomparison of the usefulness of models and ground-based assessments of changes in carbon stocksshort term prospects for policy implementationimplications for sustainable development

This study sought to determine a 22-year past and future land use and land cover trend and its implication on green spaces in an eThekwini Municipal Area’s peripheral settlement. Results show a consistent pattern of decline in land use and land cover types associated with green spaces and an increase in impervious surfaces. The study is taken to confirm recent urban bio-physical transformation and anticipated increased pressure on peripheral urban green spaces in eThekwini Municipality.

This paper begins by exploring the history of tenure in Tanzania's forests. It states that, while the government has retained ownership of forests centrally; locally, people have used forest resources without restriction. This has led to the over exploitation of many forest resources and a lack of sense of ownership and responsibility among forest communities.The author states that the government plans to transfer management rights for forests while retaining tenure centrally, but that there is confusion over how this division of rights can occur legally.