One consequence of the transition of rural communities from industrialised agriculture and natural resource extraction to sustainable development principles has been the rise of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). CBNRM entails collaborative efforts, typically involving local, state and federal agencies, private firms and landowners, non-governmental organisations such as environmental and economic development groups, and watershed councils. There are no agreed-upon metrics or even broadly accepted approaches for assessing the effectiveness of these new institutions.

Although there is alarm over the global land rush, many plans for the large-scale transformation of land acquired by investors remain on the drawing board. Based on a study of two land deals in Kenya's Tana Delta, this paper considers the processes by which blueprint designs are amended or delayed through the involvement of local actors. It demonstrates that even top-down acquisition of land by powerful state-linked actors with the support of policy discourse can be stalled by the rural poor, particularly if the latter have strong customary claims and links to wider opposition.