PUBLISHER'S ABSTRACT: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. Since then, the importance of the role that indigenous peoples play in economic, social and environmental conservation through traditional sustainable agricultural practices has been gradually recognized.

Land uses are changing rapidly in Vietnam’s upland northern borderlands. Regional development platforms such as the Greater Mekong Subregion, state-propelled market integration and reforestation programs, and lowland entrepreneurs and migrants are all impacting this frontier landscape. Drawing on a mixed methods approach using remote sensing data from 2000 to 2009 and ethnographic fieldwork, we examine how land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) has occurred across three borderland provinces—Lai Châu, Lào Cai and Hà Giang—with high proportions of ethnic minority semi-subsistence farmers.

The Lao Land and Forest Allocation Policy (LFAP) was intended to provide clearer property rights for swidden farmers living in mountainous areas. These lands are legally defined as “State” forests but are under various forms of customary tenure. The policy involves demarcating village territorial boundaries, ecological zoning of lands within village territories, and finally allocating a limited number of individual land parcels to specific households for farming.

The government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic has made great efforts to halt the rapid decline in forest cover by implementing different policy measures, which include measures: to address the causes of the decline in forest cover; to sustainably manage natural forests; and to regenerate degraded forests. In the last decade, forest cover has continued to decrease at a lower rate of just 1% from 2002 (41.5%) to 2010 (40.3%) at national level; however, there has been a net gain of forests in the northern region.

Thirty years after Cambodia’s ‘democratization’ by the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC), the transition to a market-based economy is raging at full steam. Democracy remains elusive, but policy interventions from Cambodia’s “development partners” color the political, social, and environmental landscapes. This paper attends to the land grabs characteristic of market transitions and to the climate change mitigation strategies currently enhancing conflicts over land and resources in contemporary Cambodia.

In this paper, we present an analysis of the change in household land use following a conservation-driven process of indigenous land titling reform in a Cambodian protected area. In each of the two study villages, we investigated how household land use had changed and the extent of compliance with both legal boundaries of titled areas and community regulations created to govern land use within these areas. A comparison of current household land holdings in each village with those at the start of the tenure reform process indicated a significant increase in household land holdings.

Under conditions of wide interstate integration within the AIC system, membership of Russia in the World trade organization, introducing anti-Russian economic sanctions by separate countries of the West and adopting responsive protection measures from Russian side for ensuring the stable growth of agrarian sector and surmounting a whole set of socioeconomic risks, the new agrarian policy is required.

The system of assessing the efficiency of state regulation of agriculture, included in the State program, does not permit in full extent to reveal the efficiency of using budgetary means; it does not cover all important spheres of agriculture and its influence on macroeconomic situation. In view of that, it is feasible to enforce the target direction of assessing the state regulation with accounting for changed socioeconomic situation in the country, including the membership of Russia in the WTO ant participating in the Europe-Asia economic union (EAEU).

Land consolidations in Slovakia are regarded as an instrument for solution of ownership fragmentation in accordance to rural development. In the introduction of this paper, we describe problems in Slovakia associated with the ownership fragmentation. Country, rural areas were significantly influenced by the period of collectivization. The benefits of land consolidation project are shown in a case study area for Kanianka cadastre. We compare ownership relations before and after the land consolidation.

EU agrarian policy is one of the most extensive policies of the EU. The aim of this paper is to analyse the EU agrarian policy legal framework from the point of view of law & development concept. Final remarks are based on an analysis of three topics: (1st) law & development concept, (2nd) agrarian policies and development, and (3rd) EU concept of development. Results show position of the EU agrarian policy legal framework in the EU development practice. The EU agrarian policy legal framework might be labelled as “law in development”.

The paper analysis the development of the legal regulations of the currency law related to the acquisition of the land by the foreigners and the new legal regulation no. 140/2014 Coll. on the acquisition of the ownership to the agricultural land which entered into force on June, 1st, 2014 and to limit not only the rights of foreigners but also the rights of the Slovak residents as well.

Efficient land use plays an important role in the context of sustainable agricultural development. Assuming that it will be viable only in cases when individuals employed in agriculture can ensure themselves an income equivalent and not less than the average wage in the national economy. Certain sizes of agricultural area, which are different for every key agricultural sector, are required to achieve it.