The International Land Coalition (ILC)’s Commercial Pressures on Land initiative aims to support the efforts of ILC members and other stakeholders to influence global, regional, and national processes to enable secure and equitable access to land for poor women and men in the face of increasing commercial demand. Its global research contains a careful and focused analysis of the gendered impacts of commercial pressures on land (CPL), and especially the impacts on women.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Myanmar’s agricultural sector has for long suffered due to multiplicity of laws and regulations, deficient and degraded infrastructure, poor policies and planning, a chronic lack of credit, and an absence of tenure security for cultivators. These woes negate Myanmar’s bountiful natural endowments and immense agricultural potential, pushing its rural populace towards dire poverty. This review hopes to contribute to the ongoing debate on land issues in Myanmar.

PUBLISHER'S ABSTRACT: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 13 September 2007. Since then, the importance of the role that indigenous peoples play in economic, social and environmental conservation through traditional sustainable agricultural practices has been gradually recognized.

PUBLISHER'S ABSTRACT: Though Vietnam’s Forest Land Allocation (FLA) policies have been in effect for more than a decade, a systematic assessment of FLA impacts on forest resources and the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities has never been carried out. This report shows that forest land allocated to households tends to be used efficiently in protected areas, whereas land allocated to forest companies generally fails to generate positive outcomes.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Qualitative Social and Economic Monitoring of Livelihoods in Myanmar (QSEM) research program provides a descriptive picture of rural life in Myanmar.

ABSTRACTED FROM IIED WEBSITE INTRODUCTION: One of the outputs of a research project considering shifting cultivation in Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam. It considers the dynamics of shifting cultivation and alternative land use systems in the context of highland development in Thailand, gathered in order to provide up-to-date information to policymakers. The study includes examination of national policies relating to highland areas and the impacts of such policies on local communities and land use patterns.

This article explores the nature of property rights systems, their evolution, and their effect on resource allocation. It is argued that certain institutional arrangements for land rights have evolved in order to reduce uncertainty and increase efficiency in credit as well as in land markets. Of particular relevance to developing countries, the article emphasizes the contribution of public sector infrastructure to effective land rights systems.

The establishment or upgrading of cadastres and land registration systems is viewed by many as an essential infrastructure investment to be considered by less developed countries. Nevertheless, while many will agree that cadastres and land registration are useful, a decision to actually invest in establishing or expanding these activities will be easier to undertake if it is demonstrated that the resulting benefits are higher than those of other public investments. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to report the results of a recent study undertaken in rural Thailand.

Currently Tanzania faces numerous challenges regarding Land Registration Procedure in Tanzania as reflected in land owners perceptions on the procedure, especially in rural areas. This makes the need to improve the procedure compelling. However, the current Administrative, Financial, Legal, and Institutional aspects need to be taken into the consideration in promoting and improving the process of obtaining CCROs in the country.

In this publication two pioneering grassroots organisations from northern Tanzania examine and present their experiences and insights from their long-term work to secure the land rights of hunter-gatherer and pastoral communities. The case studies were presented at a one-day learning event held on 5th October 2012, when Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) and Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) joined together to share and reflect on their work to secure land rights, to learn from each other, and to identify ways to build on their achievements moving forward.

This edition of the Land Tenure Journal features a selection of articles from Central and Eastern Europe to Francophone and Anglophone West Africa, through East Africa and back to Northern Europe. The focus of the topics spans land consolidation approaches in Europe, experiences of land colonization and an overview of tenure reforms in Burkina Faso, post-conflict land policy in Liberia, land reform in Malawi, and community commons in Norway.

Land-titling programs, land and forest allocation programs, and projects on state-allocated land for development and investment in Laos have been key drivers of change in land tenure. These have triggered major shifts in land use rights, from customary, to temporary, and then to permanent land use rights. This article explores how government programs to grant land use rights to individual households have affected the way people have been able to acquire and secure land tenure.