This study adopts an institutional approach to analyze the way in which informal rules, in their interaction with formal rules, shape the use of forest resources by diverse types of smallholders and communities (i.e., indigenous people, agro-extractive and traditional communities) in Latin America. Attention is given to understanding the ‘working rules’, comprising both formal and informal rules, that individuals use in making their decisions for land and forest resources access and use, which in turn affect benefits generation and distribution from such resources use.

A commercial farmer from Cameroon discusses the difficulty of large-scale organic production, and a plant health specialist comments on crop rotation and organic market development.

India's National River Linking Project (NRLP), which has been on the drawing board for some three decades, is the largest inter-basin water transfer planned to date in India or elsewhere. The idea has waxed and waned depending upon the political dispensation at any given point in time. Under the Challenge Program for Water and Food, IWMI undertook a broad strategic exploration of the basic idea of NRLP and its assumptions. This Highlight examines few contentious issues of the NRLP that received considerable attention in the national discourse.

Organic fertilizer may be the only type available to poor farmers, but it can help to restore their land and keep their crops alive during drought. The report comes from Malawi.

Throughout Southern Africa there has been a move to decentralize natural resource management (NRM). Decentralization has taken many forms, resulting in different organizational structures for NRM. Fourteen case studies from eight countries can be classed into four types, depending on the key organizations for NRM: (1) district-level organizations; (2) village organizations supported by sectoral departments (e.g. Village Forest Committees); (3) organizations or authorities outside the state hierarchy (e.g.

Around ten years ago the government of the Gambia earmarked a strip of land along the Atlantic coast for tourism development. More recently, land in the same area is being used to provide affordable housing for civil servants. The chief of one village affected by these policies describes the problem of land shortage he now faces.

Mr. Situma Mwichebe talking to Ann Mikia about the reality of water rights in Kenya.

Community-based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) has been promoted as part of the development discourse on sustainable natural resources management since the mid-1980s. It has influenced recent water policy in Bangladesh through the Guidelines for Participatory Water Management (GPWM) where community-based organisations are to participate in the management of water resources. This paper reviews the extent of success of such participatory water management.

Research dedicated to rare endemic plants is usually focused on one given aspect. However, holistic studies, addressing several key issues, might be more useful, supporting management programs, while unravelling basic knowledge about ecological and population level processes. A more comprehensive approach to research is proposed, encompassing: phylogenetics/systematics, pollination biology and seed dispersal, propagation, population genetics, species distribution models (SDMs), threats and monitoring.

The historical legacy in South Africa of apartheid and the resulting discriminatory policies and power imbalances are critical to understanding how water is managed and allocated, and how people participate in designated water governance structures. The progressive post-apartheid National Water Act (NWA) is the principal legal instrument related to water governance which has broadly embraced the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM).

Water is absent in the ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of Food Security’ (FAO, 2012). This paper explored whether and how the people-centred approaches and the human rights values that underpin this document can be better applied in the water sector and how more recognition of the land-water interface can support this.

The Volta River is one of the major rivers in Africa. A transboundary basin, which is the principal water source for approximately 24 million people in six riparian states, it is likely to experience increasing stress in the near future as a consequence of both greater water demand and climate change.