An international workshop on Forest and Land Tenure Reform was held in Vientiane on 28-29 August, 2012. The workshop was hosted by the National Assembly of Lao PDR, with support from RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests through the Rights and Resources Initiatives (RRI). The key objectives of the workshop were:

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Bolivia, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, Bolivia has submitted one
national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one
under preparation. Land use change and forestry, coupled

"The main argument for community forestry, in the context of climate change, is that it responds to multiple interests.  Forests, and in particular community forestry, represent a bundle of assets and benefits. They serve as a safety net in times of hardship and support critical ecosystems required for well-being.  The cases point out that while the contributions of community forestry to mitigation are well-recognized, in the case of adaptation, community forestry is equally well placed to support adaptive capacity, but this is not automatic." - Regan Suzuki

Volume 2, Issue 3 of the ASEAN Social Forestry Network's (ASFN) quarterly newsletter, outlining recent project activities implemented by RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests.

Many  countries  in  the  region  are  developing  or  revising  their  national climate chage adaptation strategies and it is critical that forest use by communities be considered and included within these plans. At the same time, mitigation activities  such  as  REDD+  have  rarely  explicitly  considered  adaptation or  the  need  to  develop  adaptive  capacity  (FAO,  2012). This  means  that valuable  opportunities  are  being  missed  to  ‘couple  up’  activities  with a goal to achieving results in both areas.

This paper presents a framework for
analyzing tropical deforestation and reforestation using the
von Thunen model as its starting point: land is allocated to
the use which yields the highest rent, and the rents of
various land uses are determined by location. Forest cover
change therefore becomes a question of changes in rent of
forest versus non-forest use. While this is a simple and
powerful starting point, more intriguing issues arise when

There are many causes, consequences, and
connections of deforestation and forest poverty in the
tropical world. This report specifically addresses the
potential dilemma of trade-offs between poverty reduction
and environmental protection. It seeks to improve the
diagnosis of forest problems and facilitate the prescription
and application of solutions by focusing on both the causes
and consequences of forest conversion to agriculture and on

This report is organized around three
thematic chapters. Chapter one looks at the contribution of
the environment and tourism sector to the Namibian economy
as well as at some key achievements and challenges. Chapter
two describes the policy and legislative framework, and the
institutional analysis of the environment and tourism
sector. Chapter three examines the financing of the sector
and some key budget management issues. And finally in

Irrigation management transfer is an
important strategy among donors and governments to
strengthen farmer control over water and irrigation
infrastructure. This study seeks to understand whether
irrigation management transfer is meeting the promise of its
commitments. The authors use data from a survey of 68
irrigator associations and 1,020 farm households in the
Philippines to estimate the impact of irrigation management

This report seeks to present micro
evidence on how environmental changes affect poor
households. It focuses primarily on environmental resources
that are outside the private sphere, particularly commonly
held and managed resources such as forests, fisheries, and
wildlife. The objectives for this volume are three-fold. It
is first interested in using an empirical data-driven
approach to examine the dependence of the poor on natural

A 2003 World Bank study, "Governance of Natural Resources in the Philippines," analyzed natural resources management and governance in the Philippines. It assessed sector policies, particularly property rights, institutions, and financing mechanisms as well as program implementation.

This study by the World Bank indicates that forests offer vast potential for poverty reduction and rural economic growth in India while also supporting critical national conservation goals. An estimated 275 million people in rural areas depend on forests for at least part of their livelihoods. Forest dwellers, which include a high proportion of tribals, are among the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society. The government of India has adopted Joint Forest Management as a principal approach for community-based forestry.