In this issue, we will be looking at work underway on the Voluntary Guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land and other natural resources. We will also look at work done in Thailand and lessons learned by the German-financed Bioenergy and Food Security project.

This report is the outcome of a study undertaken on men and women’s access to and control over land in seven districts of the Volta Region in Ghana. The study evolved out of a need for increased insight into gender differences in access to and control over land and the implications of insecure access to land for households within the Volta Region of Ghana. The objective of the study was to obtain an improved understanding of gender-specific constraints that exist in the Volta Region with regard to land tenure.

La parte delantera de la postal ofrece una breve descripción sobre el desequilibrio de nutrientes del suelo (definición, causa, hechos clave), mientras que la parte posterior muestra las condiciones y tendencias mundiales por región. Estos datos se derivan de la información publicada en el informe del Estado Mundial del Recurso Suelo, publicado en diciembre de 2015.

The articles in this issue supplement the recent publication "Good governance in land tenure and administration" (Land Tenure Studies No. 9), which provides practical advice for land professionals on improving governance in a land administration system or other land tenure arrangement.

La parte delantera de la postal ofrece una breve descripción sobre la Contaminación del suelo (definición, causa, hechos clave), mientras que la parte posterior muestra las condiciones y tendencias mundiales por región. Estos datos se derivan de la información publicada en el informe del Estado Mundial del Recurso Suelo, publicado en diciembre de 2015.

Ce numro d'Unasylva se veut en quelque sorte un reflet du Plan d'action forestier tropical puisque les articles de fond traitent du financement international an matire de foresterie (S.E. McGaughey) et des questions lies trois programmes principaux du plan, savoir, le bois de feu et l'nergie (G. Foley); l'amnagement des bassins versants, volet du programme sur la foresterie dans l'utilisation des terres (U. Chanphaka); et les industries forestires (T.M. Maloney).

Issues relating to land and land reform have been moving up the agenda of rural poverty and food security in recent years with the increasing acceptance that the prerequisites for broad-based and equitable development include the essential need for people to have access to land and other natural resources. Access needs to be on an equitable basis allowing the poor and the disadvantaged, including women, to secure the assets needed for them and their families to generate sustainable livelihoods.

This local level land resources assessment methodology (LADA-Local) was produced within the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) project. See Box 1 for the LADA project objectives and outcomes and the website http://www.fao.org/nr/lada">www.fao.org/nr/lada for further information.

This report summarizes the findings of the e-mail conference that took place from 9 October to 4 November 2002 and which was organized by the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands project (LADA). The report contains exchanges of views on data sets and methods that may be used to assess land degradation and a discussion on the biophysical, socio-economic and institutional indicators that explain the root causes, driving forces, status, impact and reponses to land degradation at various scales.