This paper investigates the patterns and determinants of change in livelihood strategies ("development pathways" ), land management practices, agricultural productivity, resource and human welfare conditions in Uganda since 1990, based upon a community- level survey conducted in 107 villages.

Arid shrub-lands in Syria and elsewhere in West Asia and North Africa are widely thought degraded. Characteristic of these areas is a preponderance of unpalatable shrubs or a lack of overall ground cover with a rise in the associated risks of soil erosion. Migrating pastoralists have been the scapegoats for this condition of the range. State steppe interventions of the last forty years have reflected this with programs to supplant customary systems with structures and institutions promoting western grazing systems and technologies.

This book brings together briefs and articles generated by the 2020 Vision initiative that remain highly relevant to the ongoing dialog and debate and, given the nature of the topics addressed, are likely to remain so for some time to come.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: How have national and state governments the world over come to “own” huge expanses of territory under the rubric of “national forest,” “national parks”, or “wastelands”? The two contradictory statements in the above epigraph illustrate that not all colonial administrators agreed that forests should be taken away from local people and “protected” by the state. The assumption of state authority over forests is based on a relatively recent convergence of historical circumstances.

The forests on Barreiras formations are located in fragmented areas extending from the Rio Grande do Norte State to north of Rio de Janeiro State. In the north of Rio de Janeiro State, the "Mata do Carvão" (1053 ha) is the largest remaining fragment. This study describes the structure and floristic composition of a remnant forest on tertiary tabuleiros and its main aim was to compare this forest with other "tabuleiro" and Atlantic forest remnants in the region.

This paper sheds light on changing farmers' land management practices in two mountain watersheds, with and without external assistance, in the western hills of Nepal. Information used in the analysis were obtained through a survey of 300 households, group discussion, key informant interviews, and field observation conducted during April–September 1999.

The objective of this paper is to present a way of complementing empirical results with farmers' perceptions in defining limiting biophysical land properties in a land suitability evaluation using the FAO framework methodology. The farmers' perceptions were identified using rapid and participatory rural appraisal (RRA/PRA) tools. The study catchment, having a semiarid continental climate and located on the Loess Plateau in northern China, covered an area of 3.5 km2. Most of the land users were dependent on subsistence agriculture.

The increasing problem of landlessness in Ethiopia has put pressure on regional governments to redistribute land. In 1997 and 1998, a major land redistribution was undertaken in the Amhara Region, reducing landlessness where implemented. While the impacts of such redistributions have been hotly debated, little empirical evidence exists concerning the actual impacts of redistribution.