This document is a collection of essays which survey the controversial aspects of the management of water resources in urban areas in view of the increasing urbanisation and privatisation of water services. It addresses and characterises the conflicts that arise within large human settlements…

The promotion of forestry activities is seen as a means by which to reduce poverty while protecting the environment. But if clearing of forests for agricultural activities can prove more profitable, will such efforts be effective? Through an analysis of the relative benefits of agriculture and…

Hundreds of millions of people in Asia are dependent on shifting cultivation, yet the practice has tended to be seen in a negative light and discouraged by policy makers. This document challenges prevailing assumptions, arguing that shifting cultivation – if properly practised – is actually a ‘…

Coinciding with the launch of a new international campaign calling for TOTAL’s withdrawal from Burma, this report gathers together much of the available evidence relating to TOTAL’s role in fuelling the oppressive dictatorship in Burma. It explores human rights abuses associated with TOTAL’s gas…

This document takes a historical view of the relations between individual and collective actors in local water management in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. It identifies and analysis the genesis and operation of institutional arrangements, forms of organisation, rules, and standards and…

Today, many rural poor Filipinos are using state law to try to claim land rights. In spite of the availability of a much stronger set of legal resources than ever before, claiming legal land rights remains difficult. Some argue these difficulties are a reason to turn away from state-led land…

Over ten million people have been displaced from protected areas by conservation projects. Forced displacement in developing countries is a major obstacle to reducing poverty. It should no longer be considered a mainstream strategy for conservation and only applied in extreme cases following…

This is the first in a series of evidence-based reports on the role of large engineering contractors in strengthening the positive local economic and social impacts of capital investment projects in the oil and gas sector in developing countries. The report looks at the Fluor-AMEC asset support…

This report explores how, across the world, the revenues from oil, gas and mining that should be funding sustainable economic development have often been misappropriated and mismanaged. Specifically, it analyses five major examples of this problem: Kazakhstan, Congo Brazzaville, Angola,…

Water governance in the Philippines is saddled by several problems. The failure to implement laws governing the watershed approach and the absence of institutional mechanisms has seriously undermined any effort to mainstream and integrate water and watershed plans and programmes into the…

This article, a summary of the book sharing the same title, examines issues around the allocation of land and education within families. Based on household surveys in Ghana, Indonesia and the Philippines, the book attempts to answer key questions, including:How do parents allocate land and…