Does forest tenure matter? In what way does it matter? What are the links among tenure, sustainable forest management (SFM) and poverty alleviation (PA)? This paper presents the main findings of research that was conducted by FAO and partners from the Asia Forest Partnership with the aim of analysing and understanding the role of tenure arrangements, their enabling impacts and their limitations. The paper presents a summary of different tenure instruments’ performance in supporting SFM and PA, and provides recommendations for more effective forest tenure systems.

Abstract: "While international humanitarian access in Burma has opened up
over the past decade and a half, the ongoing debate regarding the appropriate
relationship between politics and humanitarian assistance remains unresolved.
This debate has become especially limiting in regards to protection
measures for internally displaced persons (IDPs) which are increasingly seen
to fall within the mandate of humanitarian agencies. Conventional IDP
protection frameworks are biased towards a top-down model of politicallyaverse

Since the end of September 2008, SPDC and DKBA troops have begun preparing for what KHRG researchers expect to be a renewed offensive against KNU/KNLA-controlled areas in Pa'an District. These activities match a similar increase in joint SPDC-DKBA operations in Dooplaya District further south where these groups have conducted attacks against villagers and KNU/KNLA targets over the past couple of weeks.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
"Twenty years after the Burmese junta gunned down pro-democracy protesters, violations of human rights and humanitarian law in eastern Burma are more widespread and systematic than ever. Ten years after the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement were submitted, the international response in eastern Burma remains largely ineffective in dealing with a predatory governing regime.

This note contains a summary, for practitioners, of the World Bank Law, Justice, and Development Series Book Regulatory Frameworks for Water Resources Management: a comparative study (2006). It examines how the regulatory frameworks in 16 jurisdictions worldwide have addressed the various basic issues related to water resources management, provides a comparative analysis of those issues, and highlights the essential elements of the regulatory frameworks that are emerging in response.

Land tenure reform policy has been affected by many different types of decentralization, but the literature has rarely explicitly addressed the implications of this. The paper provides a review of how the issues of decentralization are linked to land tenure reform in theory and practice. Begins with clarifying some key terms, then looks at contending perspectives on decentralization and how these relate to the UNDP’s pillars of democratic governance.

Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in indigenous, traditional and customary approaches to peace-making in the context of civil wars. Supporters claim that indigenous approaches to peacemaking are participatory and relationship-focused, and that peaceful outcomes have a higher chance of community adherence than template-style international peace interventions effected through the `liberal peace'. Using historical and contemporary examples, this article assesses the feasibility of a complementary relationship between customary and Western forms of peace-making.

A Assembléia Geral, Tomando nota da recomendação que figura na resolução 1/2 do Conselho dos Direitos Humanos, de 29 de junho de 2006, na qual o Conselho aprovou o texto da Declaração das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos dos Povos Indígenas, Recordando sua resolução 61/178, de 20 de dezembro de 2006, em que decidiu adiar o exame e a adoção de medidas sobre a Declaração a fim de dispor de mais tempo para seguir realizando consultas a respeito, e decidiu também concluir o exame da Declaração antes de que terminasse o sexagésimo-primeiro período de sessões, Aprova a Declaração das Nações Unidas

Burma/Myanmar has suffered
from two decades of mine
warfare by both the State Peace
and Development Council and
ethnic-based insurgents. There
are no humanitarian demining
programmes within the country.
It is no surprise that those states
in Burma/Myanmar with the most
mine pollution are the highest
IDP- and refugee-producing
states. Antipersonnel mines
planted by both government
forces and ethnic armed groups
injure and kill not only enemy
combatants but also their own

Much of what is happening in the conflict zones of
eastern Burma is difficult to capture with photos, video
and reports. It is a slow and insidious strangulation of the
population rather than an all-out effort to crush them...

The feature section on Burma includes 29 articles exploring the extent of the displacement crisis, factors affecting displaced people and the search for solutions. The issue also includes 19 articles on other aspects of forced migration.....
Forced displacement of Burmese people,
Inge Brees...
Burma: in urgent need of change,
Douglas Alexander...
The international community's Responsibility to Protect,
Kavita Shukla... .
Landmines: reason for flight, obstacle to return,
Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan....

Abstract:
"Decades of neglect and abuses by the Burmese government have decimated the health of the
peoples of Burma, particularly along her eastern frontiers, overwhelmingly populated by
ethnic minorities such as the Shan. Vast areas of traditional Shan homelands have been
systematically depopulated by the Burmese military regime as part of its counter-insurgency
policy, which also employs widespread abuses of civilians by Burmese soldiers, including
rape, torture, and extrajudicial executions. These abuses, coupled with Burmese government