The Conflict in Liberia and subsequent trarnsitional justice process through means of a truth and reconciliation commission provide a unique opportunity to examine how the exploitation of religious and traditional identities/institutions became a means to fuel and perpetuate the conflict. Likewise, it also offers an example of how the strength and credibility of a religious community can be instrumental in facilitating formal peace processes.

What rural dwellers in the Global South experience as land grabbing, tends to be seen in the Global North as ‘agricultural investment’. The World Bank has been at the forefront of a drive to legitimate these investments, convening to win support for a code of conduct based on Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) principles. Many key civil society groups reject the proposal for a code of conduct, objecting to the top-down process by which it was formulated and arguing that it was more likely to legitimate than prevent land grabbing.

Los contenidos relacionados con la Seguridad y Soberanía Alimentaria están cada vez más presentes en las agendas académicas, políticas y sociales del desarrollo rural en Sudamérica. Sin embargo, no se trata de un tema nuevo. Por el contrario, como puede verse en el presente texto, su tratamiento es fácilmente rastreable en documentos de investigación y propuestas de organizaciones y movimientos sociales, de gobiernos y de Organizaciones no Gubernamentales (ONG).

TNRF, UCRT and Maliasili Initiatives have published, From Promise to Performance?: Wildlife Mangement Areas in Northern Tanzania.  The summary provides an overview of findings of two studies recently carried out by TNRF on the current status and performance of three WMAs in northern Tanzania, in Arusha and Manyara regions 

... Myanmar is a country of huge biodiversity importance that is undergoing major political change, bringing with it new international engagement. This includes access to international markets, which will likely spur investment in export-oriented agriculture, leading to increased pressures on already threatened ecosystems. This scenario is illustrated in the Ayeyarwady Delta, the country’s agricultural heartland sustaining high deforestation rates. Using the Delta as a model system, we use an integrated

Poverty and vulnerability are among the major problems in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA). To design appropriate poverty reduction initiatives for the region, it is not only important to understand the distribution of poverty but also the determinants. Various reports have documented information on the status, distribution and determinants of poverty in each of the countries.

CRP 1.1 was presented at the 4th Fund Council Meeting in April 2011. CRP1.1 targets the poor and highly vulnerable populations of the dry areas. It aims to develop technology, policy and institutional innovations to improve livelihoods, using an integrated systems approach. The program focuses on four strategic research themes (SRTs ) which cut across five focus regions. This CRP was approved with conditions at the meeting and subsequently received unconditional approval of inception phase & conditional approval of overall program & budget on Nov. 9, 2011.

This article examines the empirical facts about the actual outcome of Zimbabwe's land reform, based on years of field research. It shows that the popular assumption about failed land reform in Zimbabwe is wrong on several counts: the character of Zimbabwe's land reform has been redistributive, and the extent of this has been wide enough to trigger significant progressive changes in the agrarian structure. This is despite some elites having benefited from the process and foreign-owned agro-industrial estates and conservancies being retained.

Les chercheurs de l’université de Californie font état d’une surprenante découverte: un gène qui «étanchéifie» les plants de riz les protège également de la sécheresse. Le gène Sub1a, naturellement présent dans certaines variétés à faible rendement, en Inde, a été découvert dans les années 1990 à l’Institut international de recherche sur le riz, aux Philippines.

Une algue rouge vivant dans la mer qui baigne les îles Fidji pourrait contribuer à lutter contre le paludisme. Une équipe de chercheurs américains a découvert que l’algue Callophycus serratus contient des composés chimiques capables de détruire le parasite responsable du paludisme, le Plasmodium falciparum. Cette algue produit diverses substances antimicrobiennes qui semblent agir essentiellement contre les champignons microscopiques.

Une équipe de scientifiques de l’International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) a identifié toutes les zones à haut risque du monde dans lesquelles la famine et les conséquences négatives du changement climatique s’exacerberont particulièrement violemment. Ces régions sont principalement situées en Afrique et en Asie du Sud, mais la Chine et l’Amérique latine pourraient également être concernées. Dans moins de 40 ans, la saison agricole de ces régions sera plus courte, plus chaude et plus sèche, mettant en danger des centaines de millions de personnes déjà très démunies.

Includes communal tenure reform – a contested terrain; impacts of the legal challenge to CLARA; ‘rights’ as a medium of local struggle, advocacy, litigation, mobilisation and research agendas. Farm tenure reform – policies and progress since 1994; declining priority and shifting politics; why the slow progress on realising rights?; ‘rights’ as a medium of struggle among farm dwellers and owners and civil society strategies; agendas for litigation, research, activism and advocacy. Evaluation – potential and limits of a rights framework.