Includes understanding the commons, getting to the sources of vulnerability, recommendations – making the playing field more equal for the poor.

Addresses the tenure fate of three commons: the 30 million hectares of pasture lands of Afghanistan which represent 45 percent of the total land area and are key to livelihood and water catchment in that exceedingly dry country; the 5.7 million hectares of timber-rich tropical forests in Liberia, 59 percent of the total land area; and the 125 million hectares of savannah in Sudan, half the area of that largest state of Africa. All three resources have a long history as customary properties of local communities and also share a 20th century history as the property of the state.

Divided into 7 sections: introduction – tenure insecurity, poverty and power relations; the subordination of customary land rights; attempts to make amends; an end of century turn-around – towards the liberation of customary land rights; launching reform through new policy and law; the need to assure success; how to make land reform work? Argues that dramatic improvement in the legal status of customary land interests is globally on the horizon.

El tema del acaparamiento de tierras por parte de extranjeros ha sido ampliamente estudiado en distintas regiones del mundo, analizando las características de los inversores, las consecuencias sobre los campesinos que deben ser desplazados de sus tierras o los mecanismos por medio de los cuales los capitales extranjeros ocupan los territorios de la mano de los Estados locales. En este trabajo, queremos proponer un enfoque diferente: los efectos sobre los bienes comunes derivados de la extranjerización de la tierra, para el caso de Argentina.

La presente investigación tuvo por objeto analizar la organización social que existe en San Juan Evangelista Analco, Oaxaca para el manejo forestal comunitario. La compilación de datos se hizo mediante el uso de la “técnica etnográfica”, lo que hizo necesario aplicar técnicas de investigación de campo de tipo cualitativo, como la de “observación participante”, “genealogías” y “entrevistas”. Los resultados reflejaron que en la comunidad existe una organización comunitaria para la administración de los bosques basada en el capital social, que recae en el Comisariado de Bienes Comunales.

Forests at the tropical Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers (VRAE), the second coca-growing region of Peru, are public common resources and nevertheless privately managed mainly by coca farmers, without effective State control of such use. The need for survival of the coca farmers, their chrematistic perception of the forest, the cultivation of cocoa (theobroma cacao) and land availability are crucial factors influencing the rates of deforestation of primary and secondary forest. Variables such as the legality of land tenure seem to have no influence.

Jordan is dominated by arid climate with limited arable land and water resources. This study focuses on crop production and water resources under trends of anticipated climate change and population growth to analyse how these affect water and food security in the country. It finds that recession of irrigated areas led to lesser food production and food security. Results indicate that climate change and population growth increase and intensify problems of water scarcity and food insecurity.

This paper explores key issues relating to the privatisation of livestock production in Botswana, with particular relevance to pastoral livelihoods.The paper reviews the history of land policy; summarises developments in recent years of rangeland policies; and analyses the economic, social and environmental impact of the process of privatising the commons in Botswana.Main conclusions include:the benefits of the privatisation of the commons have mainly been concentrated in the hands of a small number of wealthy cattle owners, an elite consisting largely of members or supporters of the ruling

This paper considers the evidence surrounding the popular view that common property management regimes (CPMRs) of forest management in Latin America must inevitably break down in the face of economic and demographic pressures. The evidence shows that there have been both positive and negative experiences, with a number of policy implications. The over-riding need is to correct for institutional and policy failures which have catalysed the erosion of CPMRs.

Under the socialist regime that prevailed until the start of the 1990s, Mongolia made great progress in improving human development indicators, and poverty was virtually unknown. Through innovative service delivery mechanisms to nomadic pastoralists, almost universal coverage of primary health care services was achieved and adult literacy reached 97%.Political and economic transition in the 1990s ushered in a rapid rise in asset and income inequality, and a third of the population have been defined as living below the poverty line since 1995.

This article explores the history of notions of land ownership among Mongolian pastoralists in a historical context.In the 1990s the Mongolian state implemented a series of reforms designed to create a competitive market economy based on private property. These included the wholesale privatisation of the pastoral economy and the dissolution of the collective and state farms. The Asian Development Bank and other international development agencies advocated new legislation to allow the private ownership of land.

This article discusses what is the best means of managing the commons. The article stresses that these are critical questions in the current wave of decentralisation and tenure reform taking place in many Sahelian states.