With the introduction of rural reforms in the early 1980s, China broke with its
collectivist past and began the arduous transition from a centrally planned to a free
market economy. The People’s Communes – the institutional basis of
agriculture under Mao – were disbanded, and communal land was
redistributed to users through a family-based ‘Household Contract
Responsibility System’ (HCRS), which offered farmers more managerial

This article begins with an investigation into woodland management in Mali and moves onto a discussion of some of the fundamental practical problems associated with a major part of forest policy in Mali.

This article discusses the enclosure of rangelands and registration of exclusive rights to grazing by individuals or groups of pastoralists. This trend has been increasing greatly over the last twenty years. This occurs because:it is encouraged by governments, planners and multi-lateral donor agencies in an attempt to 'rationalise'the use of rangelands.

In Morocco's Western High Atlas Mountains, Berber agropastoralists are oblivious to the ideological debate over land tenure occurring in the rangeland development community. Berber producers of sheep and goats use a continuum of tenure institutions, from private ownership, to communal control, to uncontrolled, open range. Far from being ideological opposites, these different types of land tenure are complementary tools.

Explores how the institutions of property rights and collective action play a particularly important role in the application of technologies for agricultural and natural resource management.Technologies with long time frames tend to require tenure security to provide sufficient incentives for adoption, while those that operate on a large spatial scale will require collective action to coordinate.

The present paper is based on a participatory survey carried out in order to establish baseline information on a little known livestock production system and its role in local ecology and economy.The study is based on research in El Kala National Park (North East Algeria).This paper draws attention to some of the problems that arise in understanding the cost and benefit flows in pastoralist systems.

The poor adapt and learn to live with poverty in a variety of ways. They also try to cope with shocks from events such as droughts, floods and loss of employment. Environmental resources play a vital role in their survival strategies. As the poor depend on environmental resources, one can expect them to have a stake in their preservation. Much of the damage done to natural resources is by others. Thus deforestation is much more an outcome of commercial logging for timber than fuelwood gathering by the poor.

The present century has seen a significant real increase in resource conflict in semi-arid Africa. The most important causes of this are human population increase and the globalisation of the economy. Such conflicts reflect both point resources (mines, farms, reserves) and ecozonal conflicts (water, grazing and hunting rights). Although attempts to involve the community have been partially successful in relation to reserved land, conflict over extensive and patchy common property resources such as wetlands and grazing has made them more difficult to conserve and manage.

Since the early 1970s, the position of pastoralists in West Africa's Sahel zone has become ever more precarious. Their plight is evidenced by rural-urban migration movements as well as the results of field surveys. The last major drought of 1983-1985 delivered a major blow to communities which derive most of their food and revenues from herding. In many rangeland areas there is civil unrest - even building to armed conflict in places - owing to mounting tensions between various pastoral groups.

The enclosure of open rangeland and its allocation to individuals or groups is a component of many African livestock development projects. In project after project, however, pastoralists have declined to fence or reallocate ownership of their land according to project specifications. It would now appear that the promise of a more efficient system of livestock production and range management is not, in itself, sufficient to induce pastoralists to adopt a fenced system of ranching.

Articles in this edition develop several areas and introduce specific experiences relating to land reform. The main thread running through the articles is that of change; how we can help to understand what change means and how it can be managed.

The 21st Century opened with a commitment to involving forest-local communities in the processes of securing and sustaining forests. But what is the relationship between people’s right to land and the manner in which they may be involved in the management of forests?