It has often been stated that land fragmentation and farm structures characterized by small agricultural holdings and farms divided in a large number of parcels have been the side-effect of land reform in Central and Eastern Europe. This article reports the findings of a study of land reform in 25 countries in the region from 1989 and onwards and provides an overview of applied land reform approaches. With a basis in theory on land fragmentation, the linkage between land reform approaches and land fragmentation is explored.

From 9 to 11 November 2016 the ‘symposium on land consolidation and land readjustment for sustainable development’ was held in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. The symposium was a joint initiative from FIG commissions 7 and 8, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), LANDNET, the Dutch Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, and supported by Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and the World Bank. About 200 participants from 50 countries shared their experiences and knowledge about state of the art practices of land consolidation and land readjustment across the world.

The Republic of Azerbaijan implemented during the late 1990s a land reform, which distributed the state owned agricultural land to the rural population but also led to excessive land fragmentation and small farm sizes. Agricultural and rural development is high on the political agenda in Azerbaijan and is seen as an important sector to development as part of an overall strategy of reducing dependency on income from oil production.

This publication is the outcome of our research on the socio-environmental impacts of large pulp and paper, timber tree and oil palm plantations in Sarawak. It contains two case studies on plantation affected indigenous communities in Batu Niah and Bakong in the Miri Division. It stresses on the importance of understanding the context of large monoculture plantations in Sarawak accurately, as it entails two destructive factors. First, it involves deforestation, as it is clearly a post-logging development.

This publication is the outcome of our research on the socio-environmental impacts of large pulp and paper, timber tree and oil palm plantations in Sarawak. It contains two case studies on plantation affected indigenous communities in Batu Niah and Bakong in the Miri Division. It stresses on the importance of understanding the context of large monoculture plantations in Sarawak accurately, as it entails two destructive factors. First, it involves deforestation, as it is clearly a post-logging development.

Land consolidation is a well-proven land management instrument, which has traditionally been used for agricultural development with a main objective of reducing land fragmentation and increasing holding and farm sizes. Some European countries have a land consolidation tradition that goes back a hundred years or more. It is also widespread in particular in countries in Asia but also in Africa.

This paper outlines Singapore’s major sustainability challenges and its policy response in the areas of land use, transportation, waste management, water, and energy. We review the current and past Concept Plans from the perspective of sustainable land use and provide an overview of transportation policy in Singapore. We also examine Singapore’s policies to manage increasing wastes and review the four tap water management plan. Finally, we look at various initiatives by the government for sustainable use of energy.

Cities as we know them today are already dramatically changing. Our living environments are reshaping the way we live.

This new ‘urban age’ presents

a unique opportunity for us to remake and reinvent our cities. How well we plan and design our living environments will matter.

Designing our city looks at how Singapore is planned for long-term sustainability, encouraging us to think about how we can shape it and new ideas that can transform our future.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE INTRODUCTION: 

The interface between environment and conflict has gained traction in policy and security circles in recent times. Growing scholarly interest on the linkage stems from increasing awareness on the role climate change plays in precipitating resource contestations and conflict over depleting natural resources, particularly in poor regions. Such impacts sometimes result from secondary consequences of environmental decline and resources scarcity which give rise to stiff competitions over access to available resources.

The Land Tenure Security Advantage presents an overview of IFAD’s engagement in securing land tenure for the rural poor, specifically through the lens of its mainstreaming priorities for inclusive and sustainable rural transformation: gender equality and women’s empowerment, youth employment, indigenous peoples, and climate change and the environment.

The suburban territories of large cities are transitional zones where intensive transformations in land use are constantly taking place. Therefore, the presented work is devoted to an integrated assessment of land use changes in the Shortandy district (Kazakhstan) based on an integrated study of the dynamics of land use and sustainable development indicators (SDIs). It was found that the main tendency in the land use of this Peri-urban area (PUA) during 1992–2018 is their intensification, through an increase in arable lands.