Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are disadvantaged in a myriad of ways and they have special needs which require special attention. Challenges such as undiversified economies, vulnerability to climate change and climate variability, land degradation and desertification, among others, are undermining the economic potential of many LLDCs. This has been exacerbated by weak export base of many LLDCs centered on a few primary agricultural and/ or mineral commodities.

Land liberalisation policies and programmes based on giving individual property rights implemented in the last decades have not produced the expected results in improving rural peasant and/or native livelihoods in Andean and African countries. Previous studies have found mixed results, with more recent literature showing that these programmes were ineffective in increasing productivity, input use or access to credit.

This book presents the findings of a nine-month action research process in Karamoja. Over the months, the broad topics of the research – land, peace and customary law – were refined to three precise areas of focus on how decisions are made: herder-cultivator disputes and Karimojong governance; peace and the links between customary and state law; and land alienation and associated state laws and policies. The research team, 23 young men and women from Karamoja, developed the initial text for this book in September 2013.

Examines the relationship of people’s rights in land to the manner in which they may be involved in the management of forests in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and to a lesser degree Botswana and Swaziland.Includes examination of property relations, state power, land reform, recognition of customary rights, the changing nature of tenure, and the impact of new land law on community forest rights.

Improving land governance is key in assuring that land resources can be enjoyed by all parts of the population. Donors can play an important role in combatting corruption in land administration and building a well-functioning land administration by both supporting domestic government efforts as well as engaging in international and multi-country initiatives. However, donors are advised by experts and civil society organisations to be mindful of the possible impact of their interventions on issues of land grabbing and forced relocations.

In India, the Schedule Tribes have remained on the fringes of growth, but less so in the majority tribal areas of the North East. This has increased the interest in the Sixth Schedule, the special constitutional provision relating to these areas, recognising the tribal communities’ rights of ownership and control over their land and natural resources.

In contemporary South Africa, land use management may be considered to be a crucial, but weak link in the transformative project attempted by the overall land management system, and planning activity in general. Land use management is increasingly recognised to have been a neglected area of engagement, and this neglect has had significant consequences.

Farmland consolidation is the act of consolidating a series of fragmented and irregular farmland plots to enlarge plot their size and support sufficient irrigation. Farmland consolidation also combines and groups the proprietor’s farmland into one area by administrative give-and-take as well as division-and-junction of their land. Moreover, it also includes the rearrangement of farmland, which is small or lacks sufficient infrastructure due to farmland consolidation or earthwork waterways projects that were done in the past.

Tibetan grasslands constitute one of the most important grazing ecosystems in the world and encompass the source areas of many major Asian rivers. While a variety of government policies have been applied in recent years to protect the ecology and biodiversity of China’s grasslands, there is growing concern that national and global economic considerations have overshadowed emerging conservation agendas. This article critically reviews several key policies affecting pastoralists, with special attention given to the Sanjiangyuan region of Qinghai Province.

This book, prepared by the Philippine Environmental Governance Project, serves as a reference guide for field personnel in guiding communities, investors, local government units, private persons and other organisations desiring to apply for tenure instruments on forest lands.The book covers all existing tenure and allocation agreements for the management and use of forest resources in forest lands. Agreements generally refer to long-term tenure instruments in forest lands with right of occupation.

This sourcebook is intended as a ready reference for practitioners (including World Bank stakeholders and clients in borrowing countries as well as Bank project leaders) seeking information on the state of the art about good land management approaches and innovations for investments, and close monitoring for potential scaling up.

Originally Published In: World Bank, Agriculture and Rural Development Department (2008)

This book is a challenge to those who see the drylands as naturally vulnerable to food insecurity and poverty. 

It argues that improving agricultural productivity in dryland environments is possible by working with climatic uncertainty rather than seeking to control it – a view that runs contrary to decade of development practice in arid and semi-arid lands.

Across China, Kenya and India – and most other dryland countries – family farmers and herders relate to the inherent variability of the drylands as a resource to be valued, rather than a problem to be avoided.