This paper assesses the prospects of mitigating climate change through emission reductions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon. It uses official statistics, literature and case study material to identify the scope for emission reductions, in terms of potential additionality, opportunity costs, technological complexity, transaction costs, and risks of economic and environmental spill-over effects.

The author begins by providing a brief overview of the concept and reasoning behind certification of forest products. She states that, at the outset, one of the aims of certification was to provide market access and other benefits for small-scale, low-impact, community run ‘eco-timber’ projects.

This report presents a collection of case studies which focus on processes of conflict management and resolution and the different ways and means that conflicts are addressed.

This report examines the destruction and systematic plunder of Asia's greatest rainforests under former Indonesian president Suharto. The report focuses on the 1997-1998 forest fires in Indonesia that resulted in the burning of 10 million hectares of forests. Many of these fires were deliberately set by plantation owners who take advantage of the dry season to clear the forests and plant export crops like palm oil.

Agroforestry, the inclusion of woody perennials within farming systems, has been widespread throughout the tropics as a traditional land use developed by subsistence farmers and, more recently, as an important livelihoods’ option promoted by land-use managers and international development agencies. Agroforestry systems range from subsistence livestock and pastoral systems to home gardens, alley intercropping, and biomass plantations with a wide diversity of biophysical conditions and socio-ecological characteristics.

Indonesia’s forests have been disappearing rapidly since the 1980s: 1.8 million hectares per year are estimated to have been deforested between 1985 and 1997. Consequently, there is a possibility that in some areas, the forests will cease to function as a viable resource base in the near future.This paper examines the role of economic incentives in causing deforestation, focussing on policies that distort prices and create the conditions for unsustainable harvesting.

An historical record of concessionaire activity in Cambodian forests since 1995, and a critique of the ADB-funded concession review carried out in late 1999.Available in Word and Text verisons and in Khmer at: http://www.fatbeehive.com/globalwitness/text/campaigns/forests/cambodia/...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief introduction to greenhouse and climate change, international frameworks, carbon sequestration and carbon trading. It focusses in particular on policy relating to Australia.The paper demonstrates that increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have been identified as a major cause of global warming. The Kyoto Protocol set the collective target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions of industrialised countries by 5% of 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

This paper is concerned with understanding cattle production in Zimbabwe's Communal Lands, in so-called communal farming systems. Although commercial offtake from Zimbabwe's communal cattle herd is low, communal farmers are productive and rational in their cattle herd management. The economic rationale for cattle ownership is firstly to provide draught power and manure for tillage and secondly to provide milk and meat for local consumption, although the role of livestock in the farming system varies significantly from one part of Zimbabwe to another.

This booklet provides information to forestry and land-use audiences, principally in developing countries, who want to find out more about the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and how it affects their activities.

Briefing document on Cambodian forest reforms.Document available in Word and Text formats and available in Khmer at: http://www.fatbeehive.com/globalwitness/text/campaigns/forests/cambodia/...

Synthesizes the results of more than 140 economic models analyzing the causes of tropical deforestation. Raises significant doubts about many conventional hypotheses in the debate about deforestation. More roads, higher agricultural prices, lower wages, and a shortage of off-farm employment generally lead to more deforestation. How technical change, agricultural input prices, household income levels, and tenure security affect deforestation—if at all—is unknown.