The growth of agriculture output over the past 200 years has been phenomenal. When Malthus wrote in 1798, he perceived limits on agricultural production as serious and imminent. Since then world population has increased by six-fold and global agricultural production has more than kept pace. Falling real grain prices for most of the 20th Century are cited as evidence. The sources of the increase in food production, however, have been quite different and have come in distinct waves. For most of the 19th century, increased output came from expanded land area in production.

As international concern over tropical deforestation has grown over the last ten years, researchers have sought to understand the causes of deforestation and possible solutions using quantitative economic models. This book reviews the results and methodology of over 150 of these models and synthesizes the main lessons that can be learned from them. Higher agricultural prices, lower wages, less off-farm employment, and more roads generally lead to more deforestation. Major doubts remain on the impact of technological change, agricultural input prices, household incomes, and tenure security.

Short-term trends show that livestock production is becoming an increasingly important factor in regional development, possibly because of the combined effect of increasing the forages on offer and planting crops better adapted to the environmental and economic conditions of marginal areas and the decreasing interest of the State in expanding the agricultural frontier. Overall planning of land use should be improved, but to do so, a more detailed characterization and monitoring of deforestation are essential.

The main objectives of the workshop were to discuss current insights into the water quality of the Bundala Lagoons, to set priorities for further research, and develop appropriate water management strategies that could improve and sustain the environment of the Bundala Na- tional Park. The workshop brought together a multidisciplinary group of 38 people from 22 governmental and nongovernmental organizations.

This paper discusses the assumptions underlying non-timber forest product (NTFP)-based approaches. The authors examine conservation dimensions, highlighting the differences in perceptions among different stakeholder groups about what should be conserved, and development issues, including the role of NTFPs in meeting cultural and subsistence, and in enabling people to deal with increasing integration into market systems. This is followed by an examination of the institutional frameworks that influence pursuit of both conservation and development objectives.

This paper reviews perceived notions of the relationships between catchment land use and hydrology and explores whether much of the widely disseminated folklore, so often inextricably linked with issues of land use, is based on myth or reality. Gaps in our knowledge of the underlying processes in relation to land use and hydrology are identified. Our ability to apply this knowledge at different scales ranging from the plot to the catchment and regional scales are discussed and specific examples are drawn from Indian and African case studies.

This paper argues that conflicts in the northern Thai highlands are a clear case of the politics of environmental discourse in the sense that conservation has played a role in lending legitimacy to both government agencies and ethnic communities in their struggle for the control of forest resources. Underlying such conflicts is the official line of negative thinking about ethnic minorities in the hills by associating them with various vices, namely as enemies of the forest, opium producers, and a threat to national security.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: In this article, we aim to outline the emergence of territoriality in state power in Thailand, formerly called Siam. In particular, we examine the use of what we call internal territorialization in establishing control over natural resources and the people who use them.

Food insecurity is expected to accelerate substantially in sub-Saharan Africa where available evidence suggests that environmental degradation such as soil erosion, desertification and deforestation is seriously depend for increasing their agricultural productivity. As a result, about 44 percent of Africa's population live below the poverty line earning an income of about $39 per month.