What does community based natural resource management (CBNRM) mean for Mozambique's poor?Through the case study of Derre Forest Reserve in Zambezia province, this paper explores the theory and practice of CBNRM, an approach which has been widely promoted in southern Africa, and is central to elements of the Mozambican forestry and wildlife policy of 1999.The paper examines the history of community involvement in forest use in the reserve, and the changing nature of local organisations.

This paper examines the impact of land reform in Vietnam which gives households the power to exchange, transfer, lease, inherit, and mortgage their land-use rights. The authors expect this change to increase the incentives as well as the ability to undertake long-term investments on the part of households.

Built on earlier quantitative assessment of the socio-economic drivers of the above changes, this paper focuses on the role of national level policies implemented in the area over the past decades, and how these have affected the traditional institutional setting that determines land use, property rights and pathways of livestock development.The paper uses a literature review combined with in-depth key informant and group interviews to identify key policies and interventions, assess their impacts and explore the responses and strategies adopted at both individual and community levels to cop

With an estimated 40 percent of people in Africa, South America and Asia living in drylands, land degradation poses a significant threat to food security and survival. This report looks at the relationship between gender and dryland management based on an analysis of field experiences in Africa and Asia. Highlighting the roles of women and men in dryland areas for food security, land conservation/desertification, and the conservation of biodiversity, it makes available key findings on a number of projects and programs in the regions.

This paper looks at the case of Mdudwa village in the Eastern Cape to explore the processes and impacts of democratic decentralisation.

This document presents the results of an evaluation of an IFAD project aimed at preventing land degradation in Nepal. The project is based on leasehold forestry, an innovative approach introduced by IFAD in the early 1990s. It works by providing forty-year leases to groups of households and giving them user rights over plots of degraded forest land.

This paper examines case studies from Asia and Latin America to show the possibilities for states to tap into community-level energies and resources for development if they seek to interact more synergistically with local communities.Using case studies from Asia and Latin America, the report shows how: State efforts to bring about land reform, tenancy reform, and expanding non-crop sources of income can broaden the distribution of power in rural communities, laying the basis for more effective community-driven collective action; and Higher levels of government can form alliances with commun

The Theory of the Second Best implies that any country with less-than-ideal resources can lose from international trade. Recently it has been suggested this means the South (poor countries) are better off suppressing trade with the North, especially trade in natural resource products, since the North has better developed rights to protect its natural resources. Here we show that the suppression of such trade may also impede the development of property rights in the South, but that even taking this into account, trade liberalization need not improve Southern welfare.

This paper presents a method for stratifying villages into Development domains using multivariate analysis of a broad community-based survey. The results from the analysis are used to draw conclusions in terms of policy implications. Topics of discussion include Development domains and policy implications. The paper ends with comment by Samuel Benin.

La preocupación por preservar la Amazonía remite a una doble problemática ambiental y geopolítica. Por una parte refleja la toma de conciencia, en el ámbito internacional, de los límites del desarrollo industrial, tanto entre las ONGs y la sociedad civil como entre los organismos multilaterales que conforman el sistema institucional internacional. Por otra parte, plantea el problema de la soberanía nacional de los países y la legitimidad de políticas que pueden ir en contra del interés general en el plano global.

This shadow report, led by The Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights -Peru (CLADEM-Peru), contributes to the United Nations Committee that monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It is an opportunity for women's groups to monitor their government and to raise concerns about the official submission of the government to the CEDAW committee.

The main objective of this paper is to describe the magnitude of displacement, the rehabilitation policy and the impact with special reference to tribal people in Orissa. The paper, divided into four sections, discusses the tribal displacement briefly in section one. The second section provides a bird’s eye view of dam-induced displacements in Orissa. Experiences related to four major dams of Orissa have been discussed in section three. Concluding observations have been presented in the last section.