Increasingly, social capital, defined as shared norms, trust, and the horizontal and vertical social networks that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutually beneficial collective action, is seen as an important asset upon which people rely to manage natural resources and resolve conflicts. This paper uses empirical data from households and community surveys and case studies, to examine the role, strengths, and limits of social capital in managing conflicts over the use and management of natural resources.

This report investigates cases of land grabbing in Uganda, focusing in particular on oil palm plantations in Kalangala, Lake Victoria. It assesses the impacts on rural communities and on the local environment, and questions who benefits from these projects.

This research forms part of a larger study on large-scale land acquisition in Uganda. There are three main components of this study: (1) a “risk map” that identifies areas “at risk” for land acquisition due to their high suitability for biofuel crop production; (2) a due diligence report on the existing land uses and users of land identified as “at risk” in the first activity; and (3) an assessment of the land acquisition process, including applicable social and environmental safeguards.

To improve the welfare of the rural poor involved in cassava production in communities in Ceara, NE Brazil, an integrated production, processing, and commercialization project of cassava chips for animal consumption was established.

Between March 1997 and February 1998 three tests of Criteria and Indicators (C&I) for assessing the sustainability of community-managed forests were conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research. The tests, each lasting approximately one month, were sited in humid forest in Central Province, Cameroon; Sanggau, West Kalimantan, Indonesia; and in the Arapiuns river basin, Para, Brazil.

This paper examines the conversion of Indonesia’s natural forests to timber and tree crop plantations, notably oil palm. The principal aims are to understand the impact of this process on natural forest and on forest-dwelling people, and to establish whether past and present policies governing this process are meeting their objectives.

This paper describes an action research process undertaken with four African agricultural carbon projects—CARE’s Sustainable Agriculture in Changing Climate Initiative in Western Kenya; World Vision’s Assisted Natural Regeneration Project in Humbo, Ethiopia; Vi Agroforestry’s Western Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project; and ECOTRUST’s Trees for Global Benefits in Uganda—to explore their institutional changes as project managers and communities work to build local capacity for project management.

In erosion- and drought-prone Nyando, self-help groups affiliated to large umbrella bodies are working with extension agents, researchers and development partners to improve local livestock and diversify crops, to improve soil and water management, and to pool financial and labour resources.

India is vast, diverse and complex, in its environments and in environment-society relations. These relationships, and government policies which influence or control them, are the subject of very significant reforms currently occurring in India. At the most fundamental level, this report asks "Who is to protect, manage and regenerate India’s forests, where and for what, and what resources or support does each agent need to fulfil the mandate efficiently and equitably?" The conventional forestry systems have been under scrutiny.

De nombreux pays dans le monde sont engagés dans des processus de décentralisation et la plupart des États africains sont confrontés à de graves problèmes de gouvernance forestière, depuis la répartition des avantages à l’illégalité et à la gestion durable des forêts. Ce livre résume les expériences à ce jour concernant l’ampleur et la nature de la décentralisation ainsi que les conséquences de celle-ci, dont la plupart suggèrent une sous-performance des réformes de gouvernance.

The results of a case study conducted in Betulia (Sucre, Colombia) in May-Dec. 1983 to evaluate the competition for land between cassava cultivation (monocropped or in association with maize or yam) and cattle raising are discussed. In general, profits from cassava either in association or in monoculture are much higher than for cattle raising. Regarding labor requirements, cassava cultivation and cattle raising are equally attractive from an economic viewpoint.