Voor de Natuurbalans 2005 heeft het Milieu- en Natuurplanbureau analyses verricht van veranderingen in het ruimtegebruik en het effect daarvan op de kwaliteit van het landschap. Verstedelijking speelt daar een belangrijke rol in. Tevens neemt men verstening waar in het landelijk gebied: landbouwbedrijven krijgen een meer industrieel karakter met grote schuren en silo's

In this oil research paper, we have set out the challenges confronting oil producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa by giving case studies of Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. We have also critiqued the draft National Oil and Gas Policy under formulation as well as the legal framework. We argue that the oil Dutch Disease and conflict nexus associated with oil producing countries are not a given since there are examples such as Norway which have utilised their oil revenue for transformation and sustainable development.

This note provides a short overview of urban land and housing market performance in Punjab Province of Pakistan. It describes the characteristics of well-functioning urban land and housing markets and argues that, at present, the Punjab's urban land and housing markets are not performing well. The paper identifies a range of structural and institutional shortcomings that impede urban land market performance, and then concludes by offering recommendations for making land and housing markets functions better.

Pour la première fois dans l'histoire du développement rural, il est possible de créer une infrastructure qui réduit de façon significative l'isolement de ceux qui vivent en milieu rural. Les TIC peuvent accélérer les échanges de connaissances entre centres urbains et communautés rurales. Les expériences réalisées dans les pays ACP confirment que les TIC peuvent jouer un rôle stratégique en tablissant un lien entre les jeunes vivant en milieu rural et les réalités en évolution constante de la vie moderne.

Les chaînes de valorisation de l'agriculture assurent le lien entre la consommation urbaine et la production rurale. La transformation de la demande, qui est une conséquence de l'urbanisation, l'émergence de types de consommation « modernes » ou de nouvelles tendances du commerce
international, ont une incidence sur les chaînes de valorisation des zones rurales et sur les systèmes de commercialisation et de production. Ces liens entre milieu rural et milieu urbain sont autant de défis à relever pour les producteurs et les consommateurs.

The paper discusses the application of the Water Poverty Index (WPI) as a monitoring tool for Benin’s water sector. Benin is currently in a process of political decentralization shifting responsibility for and administration of rural water supplies from the national to the communal level. Appropriate indicators are needed for monitoring and analyzing the progress of the water sector for each community.

Recent trends in agricultural growth and food security in Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) have been discouraging. With very low labor productivity, yields, and growth rates, agriculture is unable to keep up with population growth or achieve the type of pro-poor growth needed to reduce poverty dramatically.Yet agriculture accounts for about half of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) and is the main source of livelihood for the majority of the population. Behind this gloomy picture, however, lies agriculture’s potential to be the engine for growth in ECA.

"Recent trends in agricultural growth and food security in Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) have been discouraging. With very low labor productivity, yields, and growth rates, agriculture is unable to keep up with population growth or achieve the type of pro-poor growth needed to reduce poverty dramatically.Yet agriculture accounts for about half of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) and is the main source of livelihood for the majority of the population. Behind this gloomy picture, however, lies agriculture’s potential to be the engine for growth in ECA.

The variety of views about ICTs reveals that their role in development is unclear, especially without convincing evidence of their impact—and little research has been conducted on the direct and indirect links between ICTs and poverty reduction. This book, addresses several pressing questions surrounding ICTs. How do ICTs affect economic development in low-income countries? How do they affect poor people in these countries and in rural areas in particular? What policies and programs facilitate their potential to enhance development and the inclusion of poor constituents?

How can ecologists be more effective in supporting ecologically informed rural land-use planning and policy? Improved decision making about rural lands requires careful consideration of how ecological information and analyses can inform specific planning and policy needs. We provide a brief overview of rural land-use planning, including recently developed approaches to conservation.

The study analyzes the impact of degradation of private land as well as common land resources on migration decisions in three dryland districts in Gujarat. The study concludes that overall, in dry areas such as Gujarat, access to irrigation, rather than land ownership is likely to deter migration. The poorest rural households in dry land regions are the least likely to migrate. Thus, any employment creation in rural dryland regions is most likely to help the poorest. Further, it was found that degradation of common-pool land resources influences short-term but not long-term migration.

EURURALIS is developed for policy makers dealing with the future of agriculture and other land use in the enlarged Europe of 25 member states. Expecting that major developments affect the rural areas in Europe pro-active rural policy has to be informed timely and in a targeted and crispy way.