Poor rural women are among the most vulnerable people in El Salvador, where the Reconstruction and Rural Modernization Programme was launched in 2003 to aid areas stricken by earthquakes two years earlier. Women’s land tenure was not initially a central theme of the programme. The issue had to be addressed, however, when women – a large segment of the target population – were unable to benefit from an investment fund for rural economic development because they had no access to land.

"The civil war in Sierra Leone, caused by a mix of political, social, and economic factors, had a huge impact on the overall economy in general and on the performance of the agricultural sector in particular. The agricultural research system of Sierra Leone was severely affected by the civil war. Research infrastructure was destroyed, laboratories were damaged and abandoned, and well-trained researchers and scientists fled from the country.

This publication, from the Global Land Tool Network, presents a mechanism for effective inclusion of women and men in land tool development and outlines methodologies and strategies for systematically developing land tools that are responsive to both women and men’s needs. Equal property rights for women and men are fundamental to social and economic gender equality. However, women often face discrimination in formal, informal and customary systems of land tenure.

This perspective document: 1 Provides examples of ‘no regrets’ approaches, applied in small island countries to cope with current climate variability and adapt to future climate change, at different levels ranging from communities, local administrations and national governments. 2 Demonstrates the need for a sound knowledge base and information system, as well as a better understanding of the relation between water resources, water and health, and climatic extremes.

ASOCAM conducted the XII ASOCAM Latin American Seminar 2009 in the district of Yucay in Cusco, Peru on ‘How to promote adaptation to climate change on water management in rural areas?’ The seminar brought together 40 participants from 8 countries submitted their institutional experiences generated so far in development projects and initiatives related to the use and management of water in the rural Andes in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

This paper outlines options for rural communities to participate in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in the forest sector in Nepal. It looks at the various institutional barriers that would need to be overcome, as well as the existing institutional opportunities, particularly in relation to tenure rights, both for mitigation (Clean Development Mechanism projects and REDD+) as well as for adaptation action.

This policy brief examines the manner in which Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) pilot projects have been undertaken in Indonesia and Peru. The research data summarized within the brief was gathered using a method known as Fair and Efficient REDD Value Chain Allocation (FERVA). The FERVA analysis is used to capture the perceptions and expectations of REDD stakeholders at the preliminary stages of REDD initiatives; it also informs stakeholders of the different functions of the REDD value chain.

Population and housing census of Kenya, 2009

This study presents an approach to analyzing decentralized forestry and natural resource management and land property rights issues, and catalyzing collective action among villages and district governments. It focuses on understanding the current policies governing local people's access to property rights and decision making processes, and learning how collective action among community groups and interaction among stakeholders can enhance local people's rights over lands, resources, and policy processes for development.

The Promotional Paper Forest Land Transformation in Latvia by Gunta Bāra has been developed at the Forest Faculty of the Latvian University of Agriculture between 2001 and 2007. Goal of the Promotional Paper: to identify the main problems in transformation of forest land in the Republic of Latvia and gaps in legislative instruments regulating the process of change of land use type, to prepare recommendations for their elimination, to develop a methodology for calculation of compensation for the losses caused to the state as a result of destruction of natural forest environment.

Having done research on agricultural decollectivization and its consequences since 1992, Ilkka Alanen and his colleagues has accumulated a wealth of knowledge on the coping strategies people adopted in order to survive in the Baltic countries and elsewhere (See Alanen 1998, Alanen et al 2001 and Alanen 2004a). The problems turned out to be much more difficult than the reforms planers anticipated, and that some of the initial failures still overshadow people’s lives.