La gestion durable des ressources naturelles, notamment dans les pays du Sahel, a toujours soulevé des problèmes dont celui de l’inadaptation des législations nationales y relatives. Le processus d’élaboration et de mise en œuvre de ces législations est à l’image des conditions politiques, socio-économiques et culturelles des pays en question. Le Burkina Faso, pour sa part, a connu plusieurs formes de régimes politiques et, de ce fait, capitalise un certain nombre d’expériences de réformes législatives et réglementaires dans le secteur des forêts et des ressources naturelles.

Malinau District, established through partition in 1999, is the largest district in East Kalimantan and contains some of its largest tracts of forest. With decentralization, the district has sought to generate revenues from its forests, but these efforts have been handicapped by a concurrent lack of institutional capacities to manage rapid forest exploitation and conflicts over claims. Timber extraction and utilization permits (Izin Pemungutan dan Pemanfaatan Kayu or IPPK) have been the main instrument for revenue generation, with 39 IPPK covering 56,000 ha.

The report describes the impacts of forestry decentralization on district finance, local communities and spatial planning, drawing on an 18-month research project in Bulungan District in East Kalimantan Province. It describes forestry management policies following the implementation of regional autonomy, and their impacts on district revenue and local livelihoods. The authors analyze district spatial planning, forest land use and community control over forest lands.

Reliance on rainfall for agriculture and increased climate change and variability pose growing production risks in developing countries. Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by smallholder farmers who depend mainly on rain-fed agriculture, putting food security at both household and national levels at risk, especially in the event of drought. Investment in smallholder irrigation becomes a priority in developing countries if food security and national development goals are to be met, as their economies are agro-based.

Throughout Southern Africa there has been a move to decentralize natural resource management (NRM). Decentralization has taken many forms, resulting in different organizational structures for NRM. Fourteen case studies from eight countries can be classed into four types, depending on the key organizations for NRM: (1) district-level organizations; (2) village organizations supported by sectoral departments (e.g. Village Forest Committees); (3) organizations or authorities outside the state hierarchy (e.g.

Around ten years ago the government of the Gambia earmarked a strip of land along the Atlantic coast for tourism development. More recently, land in the same area is being used to provide affordable housing for civil servants. The chief of one village affected by these policies describes the problem of land shortage he now faces.

Mr. Situma Mwichebe talking to Ann Mikia about the reality of water rights in Kenya.