Since 1990 at least eighteen violent conflicts have been fuelled by the exploitation of natural resources. In fact, recent research suggests that over the last sixty years at least forty percent of all intrastate conflicts have a link to natural resources. Civil wars such as those in Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo have centred on high-value resources like timber, diamonds, gold, minerals and oil. Other conflicts, including those in Darfur and the Middle East, have involved control of scarce resources such as fertile land and water.

This Complementary Law, consisting of 42 articles divided into seven Chapters, establishes the Planning and Territorial Planning System of the State of Roraima. The above mentioned System, called SPOT/RR, is the main guiding instrument for planning of land occupation and control of the use of natural resources of the territory of the State of Roraima, in the implementation of plans, programmes, projects, works and public and private activities. The purpose of the SPOT/RR is to implement the provisions of art.

La experiencia de los Paises Bajos en el manejo del territorio y de las aguas es extensa. Sus habitantes poseen conocimiento acabado de sus características, interactuando dinámicamente con su hábitat. Las necesidades medioambientales y económicas, sin embargo, han obligado a replantarse e incluso revertir este complejo sistema hidráulico.

This paper summarises the case for greater consideration of the economic dimensions of conflicts in mediation processes – particularly those concerning natural resources. The author highlights the recent United Nations Environment Programme publication, From Conflict to Peace building – the Role of Natural Resources and the Environment as further evidence of the need for this inclusion. For instance the report finds that:

A review of policies and interventions effecting pastoralists in Tanzania, including consequences on livelihoods, social relations and access to resources including land.

This policy brief focuses on ecotourism in north-eastern Kenya and is based on the analysis of two key existing ecotourism industry models in Laikipia and Isiolo. The purpose of the work was to provide the Government of Kenya (GoK) policymakers and private sector investors with a deeper understanding of the eco-tourism industry already established in the region. As highlighted, the study is based on two different ecotourism models (and four enterprises) in pro-pastoral communities in Laikipia and Isiolo using a framework of common qualitative measures of analysis.

 In Kenya, the pastoral Maasai’s districts have been the vanguard in rangeland tenure transitions and experimentation as pastoralists’ territory gave way to communal group ranches and to individual land holdings under diverse land-use activities. The tenure transformations have been accompanied by institutional and socio-economic changes that have had bearings on local communities’ capacities for collective action, pastoral livelihoods, and environmental sustainability.

Through case studies from Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and Latin America, this book by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Susie Jacobs presents an overview of global gender and agrarian reform experiences.  Recognising the widespread marginalisation of gender issues from policy and theoretical discussions of agrarian reform,  Jacobs attempts to highlight the profound implications that redistribution of land has for women and for gender relations.  The book compares land and agrarian reforms in which land has been redistributed collectively and to individual households.

This research has been conducted by RRDTC's action research unit as part of its participation in the Mekong Institute research cycle 2009.

The land management practices of pastoralist Maasai communities have a major bearing on landscapes and wildlife habitats in northern Tanzania. Pastoralists manage lands according to locally devised rules designed to manage and conserve key resources such as pastures and water sources. Dry season grazing reserves are an important part of traditional land management systems in many pastoralist communities, providing a ‘grass bank’ for livestock to consume during the long dry season when forage invariably becomes scarce and domestic animals are stressed for water and nutrients.

[via UN-HABITAT] GLTN considers gender as a critical cross-cutting theme in the work on promoting pro-poor, large-scale land tools (for more information on GLTN see www.gltn.net). This short report summarises an analysis undertaken by the GLTN Secretariat to assess how women’s rights, and specific needs, are being addressed by selected projects in the GLTN land tool inventory—a database consisting of numerous international development projects in the land sector is available on the website.