This report is a follow up of a study that was carried out in the year 2001/2 commissioned by the FAO and SARPN. The main objective of the initial study was an assessment of the negative impacts of HIV/AIDS on livelihoods of the affected and infected communities through lowering their agricultural productivity.

This paper examines the experiences of implementation of land reform policies in the Eastern Cape through a series of case studies.It looks at how attempts at redistribution, restitution and land tenure reform have resulted in a variety of models and approaches.

This paper examines the marginalization of women's land rights by governmental institutions and rural women's movements in Brazil.

This report identifies the links among economic growth, poverty alleviation, and natural resource degradation in Brazil. It examines the effects of (1) a major devaluation of the Brazilian real (R$); (2) improvements of infrastructure in the Amazon to link it with the rest of Brazil and bordering countries; (3) modification of land tenure regimes in the Amazon agricultural frontier; (4) adoption of technological change in agriculture both inside and outside the Amazon; and (5) fiscal mechanisms to reduce deforestation." -- from Author's Abstract

En las últimas décadas, el mundo ha hecho un progreso impresionante para mejorar la calidad de vida de millones de personas; sin embargo, todavía sigue inconclusa la tarea de garantizar la seguridad alimentaria a los más pobres de una manera sostenible. La explosión demográfica, la expansión urbana, la desnutrición y la mala salud persistentes, las tierras agrícolas degradadas y el agua escasa, la carencia de poder de las mujeres, la globalización acelerada y la rápida aparición de nuevas tecnologías - todos estos y muchos otros factores están influenciando este esfuerzo continuo.

"In contrast to popular predictions of Africa’s worsening economic decline, recent research supports an alternative and more positive vision of Africa’s future. New political commitment and African ownership of the development agenda, combined with a renewed focus on and investments in smallholder-led agriculture, have the potential to halt or reverse the current downward spiral of hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, disease, and civil strife.

Recent debates about governance, poverty and environmental sustainability have emphasized a ‘‘rights-based’’ approach, in which equitable development is strongly associated with individual and communal rights. This paper reviews this approach and explores its practical application to Thailand’s ‘‘Community Forestry Bill,’’ which seeks to establish communal rights of access and conservation in forest reserve areas.