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The Challenge of Improving Water and Sanitation Services in Less Developed Countries

March, 2012

This paper argues that there are many challenges to designing and implementing water and sanitation interventions that actually deliver economic benefits to the households in developing countries. Perhaps most critical to successful water and sanitation investments is to discover and implement forms of service and payment mechanisms that will render the improvements worthwhile for those who must pay for them.

Agricultural developments on Middelrus farms on land not part of the joint ventures – livestock and arable options

Reports & Research
January, 2012
South Africa

Phuhlisani undertook this study to investigate agricultural options for six land holding communities which had each contributed land to a joint venture. The study focused on potential land uses for land hweld by the entities but that was part of the joint venture: including

  • Arable land for household production
  • Arable land for small‐scale commercial production
  • Sustainable use of the grazing land 

Description of land fragmentation in Latvia and its prevention opportunities

December, 2011
Latvia

Already during the Land Reform, land properties of several land parcels were formed in the rural areas. Another factor that benefits to the fragmentation of farm properties is development of land market because buying or renting land for farm size building, it is not always possible to find adjacent land plot. Consequently, the land fragmentation not only makes land management difficult, but also increases the transport costs. With this rural land tenure system, competitive and efficient agricultural production cannot be discussed, so a large part of rural areas remains untreated.

Land Reforms and the Tragedy of the Anticommons—A Case Study from Cambodia

Peer-reviewed publication
December, 2011
Cambodia

Most of the land reforms of recent decades have followed an approach of “formalization and capitalization” of individual land titles (de Soto 2000). However, within the privatization agenda, benefits of unimproved land (such as land rents and value capture) are reaped privately by well-organized actors, whereas the costs of valorization (e.g., infrastructure) or opportunity costs of land use changes are shifted onto poorly organized groups. Consequences of capitalization and formalization include rent seeking and land grabbing.

“PLUP FICTION”: Landscape Simulation for Participatory Land Use Planning in Northern Lao PDR

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011
Laos

A landscape simulation was designed and tested in Viengkham, a mountainous district in the north of Lao PDR. This social learning process was introduced by researchers affiliated with national research institutions to improve land use planning practices and increase the ownership of local people in the planning process. Twelve members of the village land management committees participated in the role play called PLUP Fiction, which is part of a stepwise process of participatory land use planning (PLUP).

Food Security versus Food Sovereignty: Choice of Concept, Policies, and Classes in Vietnam’s Post-Reform Economy

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011
Vietnam

This article discusses two important concepts of food security and food sovereignty in the context of Vietnam’s post-reform economy. It examines Vietnam’s persistent choice of the food security framework, its resulting policies and their implications. The article argues that the choice of food security framework has served to justify the promotion of industrial agriculture and international trade. While this model has led to increased food productivity, it failed to guarantee access to and quality of food, the other two important pillars of the food security framework.

Peasant responses to agricultural land conversion and mechanism of rural social differentiation in Hung Yen province, Northern Vietnam

Institutional & promotional materials
December, 2011
Vietnam

Agricultural accumulation has been one of the main source determined the social differentiation in Vietnamese countryside. The complexities of agrarian changes under the post - socialist industrialization with high rate of agricultural land conversion in recent context reveal the new forms of capital accumulation and social differentiation. This research investigates how land conversion process to industrial zones and clusters affected to the way that different groups of peasant households accumulate their resources.

Real Estate Market, Property Valuation, Land Taxation and Capacity Building in Cambodia

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011
Cambodia

Following the »Land Policy Declaration« from July 2009, the Royal Government of Cambodia henceforth has the unique opportunity to implement a land valuation policy by the Council of Land Policy. Land valuation, taxation and capacity building are indispensable elements of a land reform in Cambodia. By improving prior assessment tools for valuation and taxation, Cambodia could serve as an example for the development of taxation in circumstances when rent-seeking, speculation, informal land markets and an unequal land distribution occur.

Recognizing and Reducing Corruption Risks In Land Management in Vietnam

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011
Vietnam

Corruption in land management from the perspective of a simple risk framework. These risk factors and forms of corruption spring from more general shortcomings in the integrity framework. In this regard, this report argues that corruption is most likely to occur when an official or office has a monopoly, when the official or office has a great deal of discretion over how the decision is taken, and when there is little accountability for that decision or transparency, which might make it harder for the corruption to proceed unabated.

The Social Economy - Key Element of Sustainable Environmental and Societal Development in Asia

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2011
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar
Thailand
Vietnam

Cooperatives, associations, partnerships, non-profit organizations (NPOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are core elements of the Social Economy. Social Economy as an economic and societal development approach could support the sustainable rural and environmental management in South East Asian countries. Examples for Social Economy enterprises are microlending institutions, fishing and rice cooperatives in Vietnam and Thailand, pepper and pottery associations in Cambodia or rural and small scale industry commodities and service associations.

Swidden, Rubber and Carbon: Can REDD+ work for people and the environment in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia?

Policy Papers & Briefs
December, 2011
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar
Thailand
Vietnam

Swidden (also called shifting cultivation) has long been the dominant farming system in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia (MMSEA). Today the ecological bounty of this region is threatened by the expansion of settled agriculture, including the proliferation of rubber plantations. In the current conception of REDD+, landscapes involving swidden qualify almost automatically for replacement by other land-use systems because swiddens are perceived to be degraded and inefficient with regard to carbon sequestration.

Titling against grabbing? Critiques and conundrums around land formalisation in Southeast Asia

Institutional & promotional materials
December, 2011
Cambodia
Laos
Myanmar
Thailand
Vietnam

Debates and critiques around land policy often focus on the neo-liberal agenda of formalising land as alienable property, most notably through land titling schemes. Sometimes these schemes are posited against alternatives such as land reform and community land holding under common property arrangements. Claims and counter- claims are made for land titling as a means to boost smallholder security in the face of involuntary or otherwise unfair alienation of land sometimes under the rubric of land grabbing.