Secure property rights to land and well-functioning land rental and sales markets are essential for creating investment incentives, improving the allocation of land, and developing financial markets. Yet regulatory restrictions on land rental and sales and regulatory frameworks providing inadequate tenure security are common. This paper looks at the impact of imperfections in other factor markets and the costs and benefits of government intervention to improve the security of property rights and the functioning of land markets and draws conclusions about land policy issues [author]

Through an analysis of the right to adequate food and the right to land, this civil society report, argued that achieving food sovereignty requires agrarian reform.

This article discusses the extent to which the location of roads s and protected areas affects deforestation in North Thailand. The article stresses that establishing protected areas (national parks together with wildlife sanctuaries) in North Thailand did not reduce the likelihood of forest clearing, but wildlife sanctuaries may have reduced the probability of deforestation.

Land use in much of North-East China in the 1930s has been reconstructed and compared with that of today. North-East China, which was once called Manchuria in Japan or elsewhere, was a place of invasion and colonization by Japan till the end of World War II. This region currently comprises of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang Province and Neimongol Autonomous Region (see Figure 1).

Land disputes are threatening the prospects of post-war reconstruction in Afghanistan. Population growth, returning refugees, opium poppy production, ethnic tension and drought have increased the pressure on the land. A growing number of rural Afghans are either landless or own plots too small for survival. Competition over pasture is leading to armed clashes between nomads and settled farmers. Neither the Karzai government nor the international community is doing enough to restore order to land relations.

Chapter list in HTML, chapters are in PDF formatAlthough recent analyses of land markets show a growing concern for policy and regulatory issues, the literature still lacks a robust framework capable of showing how land markets function, the major policy and regulatory constraints to their efficient operations, and the implications for reform.This chapter is a step in that direction. The first section sets out to characterize land markets -- their emergence, closely associated with the evolution of property rights; major imperfections; and key spatial aspects.

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.

Ugandan refugee policy is characterised by the encampment of refugees in designated and enclosed settlements in rural areas, removed from the mainstream economic and political activity of the country.

The economy of post-apartheid South Africa continues to grow. Yet between 45 and 55 percent of the population remain in poverty. This inequality is most obvious in rural areas, where over 70 percent of poor people live. Policymakers are increasingly recognising the importance of rural land reform to poverty reduction.

Describes (1) the processes of privatization of land management in selected transition countries and (2) the post-privatization changes in land administration institutions which are being crafted to establish land markets. It begins with the proposition that there are similar land market institutional problems which most "transition" countries are facing, due largely to common experiences in creating command economies during the past 50-80 years and the almost simultaneous decisions of these countries to move toward market political economies in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

This policy brief discusses the issue of food security in relation to trade and the anticipated impacts of climate change within Southeast Asia. It begins by contextualizing the debate before examining the manner in which trade, climate change and food security are interlinked within the Mekong region. The brief goes onto examine Cambodia as a case study in order to establish lessons for other countries in the region.