ABSTRACTED FROM SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES: This study aims to examine the validity of some of the concerns expressed in Cambodia over the potential effects of FDI in agriculture on local communities and their environment. Initially, it investigates the extent and nature of FDI in agriculture and its sub-sectors, including crops, livestock, food processing, forestry and fisheries. It then analyses the policy and regulatory environment and institutions governing and facilitating such FDI, as well as prevailing business models, in the acquisition of agricultural land.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE SUMMARY: Notwithstanding progress both nationally and locally, there is not yet evidence of sufficient support either internationally or nationally for REDD to effectively neutralise either the top-down or the bottom-up drivers of deforestation in Cambodia. This report reviews official documents and research reports over the 2009-2012 period, supplemented by field visits in 2010 and 2011, in order to summarise lessons learned from Cambodia’s early engagement with REDD from the viewpoint of poverty reduction.

Across the world, ‘green grabbing’ – the appropriation of land and resources for environmental ends – is an emerging process of deep and growing significance. The vigorous debate on ‘land grabbing’ already highlights instances where ‘green’ credentials are called upon to justify appropriations of land for food or fuel – as where large tracts of land are acquired not just for ‘more efficient farming’ or ‘food security’, but also to ‘alleviate pressure on forests’.

PUBLISHER'S ABSTRACT: This report discusses the political, economic and social opportunities and constraints that will influence the design and implementation of REDD+ in Vietnam. In particular, four major direct drivers (land conversion for agriculture; infrastructure development; logging (illegal and legal); forest fire) and three indirect drivers (pressure of population growth and migration; the state's weak forest management capacity; the limited funding available for forest protection) of deforestation and degradation in Vietnam are discussed, along with their implications for REDD+.

Mapping land degradation and desertification (LDD) at the global scale still is a conceptual and operational challenge. The present study has been performed in the frame of the WAD (new World Atlas of Desertification) initiative. The objective of the paper is to test a structured procedure to identify relevant indicators for an effective representation of complex global LDD issues, based on available data sets (both geo-spatial and statistical), and conform to the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) requirements.

The originality of the REDD proposal is its incentives-based mechanism designed to reward the governments of developing countries for their performance in reducing deforestation as measured against a baseline. This mechanism is founded on the hypothesis that developing countries ‘pay’ an opportunity cost to conserve their forests and would prefer other choices and convert their wooden lands to other uses. The basic idea is, therefore, to pay rents to these countries to compensate for the anticipated foregone revenues.