Over the last three decades, many soil and water conservation projects have been implemented in various parts of eastern and southern Africa to control land degradation, and improve land productivity, especially under ‘catchment approach’ initiatives of the 1980s. In Ethiopia, many of these soil conservation projects were implemented following the severe drought of 1974.

The spread of industrial civilizations has been particularly traumatic for the last remaining hunter-gatherer societies. Manifestations of this include expatriation from ancestral lands, sickness, poverty, and environmental degradation. Northern Australia has been no exception despite remaining a stronghold of Aboriginal cultures and still containing vast areas of relatively intact landscapes. Most Aboriginal people reside in remote settlements where they remain on the negative extreme of basic indicators such as life expectancy and educational attainment.

BACKGROUND: Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) addresses the challenge of meeting the growing demand for food, fibre and fuel, despite the changing climate and fewer opportunities for agricultural expansion on additional lands. CSA focuses on contributing to economic development, poverty reduction and food security; maintaining and enhancing the productivity and resilience of natural and agricultural ecosystem functions, thus building natural capital; and reducing trade-offs involved in meeting these goals.

This paper begins by distinguishing open-access resources from common-property resources, the use of which is subject to communal rules. In practice, it is suggested that these cases are the outcomes of a spectrum of property rights. The standard economic theory of the use of open-access resources as developed by Western economists is outlined and ways in which it has limited applicability to developing countries are suggested.

In Bangladesh, agriculture is the most significant source of economic growth, it plays a fundamental role in the fight against poverty. The earning potential of most people is limited by their lack of skills, assets, and access to credit. The only lasting way is to ensure sustainable economic growth by implementing policies to promote financial stability and the efficient use of resources.

The transition to commercial agriculture is investigated in two communes from three ecological zones (mountain, plains, coastal) in Quang Binh Province, Vietnam. Field investigations were undertaken in late 2006 - early 2007 and again in 2008. One commune in each zone had good road infrastructure and associated market access, while the other had poor road access and was more distant from the market. Two rural households were selected from poor, medium and high wealth categories in each commune, providing 36 case households.

This study was aimed at assessing the causes of the gully erosion and its effects on the agricultural lands in the arid region of southeastern Iran. In this study, we have used geologic maps in scales of 1:50,000 and 1:250,000, aerial photographs on a scale of 1:20,000, field observation, and GPS (global positioning system).

There has been renewed interest in the academic discourse on land reforms due to recent high profile works suggesting a positive correlation between reforms and poverty reduction. Land is held under different tenure regimes in different regions, countries and communities. These are often in the form of community tenure, state tenure, individual tenure or a mixture of two or three of them. However, land reformers are in constant debate as to which of the three offers the most appropriate pathway to poverty reduction.