Considers the cultural dimension of applying the land information system (LIS) concept to lands held under customary land tenure. The article recognizes that the LIS concept has been developed primarily to serve the needs of countries with a western-style land market where individual land rights are the norm. However, many countries where customary landholdings exist, or predominate, are also interested in establishing LISs to manage their land resources better. The article has three main sections.

This paper explores the dualities in the coexistence within Zimbabwean politics of constitutionalism and legality versus a complex combination of paralegal, supralegal, oppressive and brutal political action, especially as this pertains to elections and land. The analysis is set in the period 1999-2002.

Land has historically been a source of dispute and conflict in Rwanda, compounded by the social unrest which resulted in the 1994 genocide. Up to one million people were killed and three million fled to neighbouring countries, leading to weakened political institutions, infrastructure and human capital. Traditional land allocation systems also suffered.

Overview of a conceptual definition or sustainable land management policies

Livelihoods in Darfur are intimately linked to the conflict. This document considers the livelihoods of the Northern Rizaygat, a group of Arabic-speaking, camel-herding nomads living in the Sudanese states of North, South, and West Darfur. The Northern Rizaygat have achieved notoriety for their role in the Janjaweed, the loose groupings of armed Arab tribesmen, who, since 2003, have been integral players in Darfur’s conflict and instrumental to the Sudanese government’s counterinsurgency campaign.

In the late 1960s the Malawi government established irrigated settlement schemes throughout the country with the goal of promoting the production of rice for export to raise farmers' incomes. A supplementary objective was to promote the development of a sense of nationhood among people of different ethnic backgrounds settled on the schemes. The permanent settlement of people and their investment of surplus incomes in the local economy was envisaged to spur the growth of rural towns.

Recent years have seen pastoralist communities in Tanzania becoming increasingly impoverished and vulnerable, due to  livestock diseases, drought, fluctuating market prices and unfavourable policies. This paper discusses strategies to address the last of these factors with reference to the Ereto-Ngorongoro Pastoralist Project, which was set up in response to growing concern about the unprecedented and rising levels of poverty among pastoralists in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

Brief summary of FAO’s experience in agrarian reform and the most relevant activities of the current programme related to this field. It argues that the type of agrarian reform that considers the redistribution of land from the rich to the poor either through confiscation or through pre-emptive buyouts belongs to the past. However, this does not mean that Member Nations have stopped seeking ways to improve access to productive resources (land, water, etc.) as a cornerstone to their rural development policy.

This report offers a detailed analysis of the different challenges of land reform in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. The report looks at the history of land ownership and policy in both countries.For Zimbabwe, it offers practical policy suggestions for ways forward by identifying the contours of a post-Mugabe land approach.

This study examines the use and management of natural resources in an area of South Africa at a time of profound political and social change. It takes as its focus the Mutale River valley, which lies almost entirely within Venda, a former black 'homeland' under the South African system of apartheid, and now part of the Northern Province. Venda is situated in the north-eastern corner of the country, adjacent to the Kruger National Park and the border with Zimbabwe.

With land being the main source of income for many people in the developing world, security of access or ownership rights is imperative to the alleviation of rural povety. Past polices of land redistribution, prohibition of land renting and later legalisation of short-term contracts only, may have prevented or undermined tenancy markets in Ethiopia. This paper examines the allocative efficiency of the land rental market in Northern Ethiopia, and the extent to which adjustment in the tenancy market is constrained by transaction costs.

This reference list has been collated – as part of a HelpDesk enquiry that was undertaken by the Evidence on Demand team – to peer-review social and gender issues in a business case, relating to forests and climate change. Whilst not exhaustive, this list may act as a useful resource in the development of future business cases. References are divided into two main categories: 1.Gender issues and forestry Gender participation, empowerment and forests  Gender research and sustainable forestry  Gender mainstreaming  Gender and agriculture  Gender, climate change and forests