Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform has had a bad press. Reports of violence and intimidation have obscured the reality that formal procedures used to settle black farmers in model villages bear a striking resemblance to earlier colonial procedures. Whilst colonial myths about African farmers as subsistence oriented and inefficient live on, evidence from south-eastern Zimbabwe suggests that the reforms have benefited some poor black farmers

This paper is motivated by the observation that children in land-rich households are often more likely to be in work than the children of land-poor households.The vast majority of working children in developing countries are in agricultural work, predominantly on farms operated by their families. Land is the most important store of wealth in agrarian societies and it is typically distributed very unequally. These facts challenge the common presumption that child labour emerges from the poorest households.

Is the World Bank’s approach to land relations gender insensitive? Is it realistic to pin poverty reduction aspirations on the promotion of credit markets and reliance on women’s unpaid labour? Does the acquisition of secure tenure rights necessarily benefit poor women? How should advocates of women’s rights in Africa respond to the Bank’s land agenda?

This PhD thesis provides an econometric analysis of various aspects of the rural economy in Northern Ethiopia.The thesis consists of five papers:an in-depth analysis of poverty, its distribution, dynamics and its correlates within the framework of the role of economic reforms on poverty reduction in a remote, unstable and environmentally troubled regionlooks at the issue of the efficacy of a micro-finance program in reaching out to the poor and measures the impact of program participationexamines the efficacy of food-for-work (FFW) programs in targeting the poor by emphasizing the role of F

Report finds that land rights in Ethiopia are highly insecure, and higher tenure security and transferability could enhance investment and agricultural productivity. Trying to identify and implement measures to increase producers’ tenure security could have a large pay-off in terms of rural productivity and poverty reduction.The authors use a large data set from Ethiopia that differentiates tenure security and transferability to explore determinants of different types of land-related investment and its possible impact on productivity.

El presente documento establece la Política de Equidad de Género en el Sector de la Gestión Ambiental y su Plan de Acción, que tienen alcance nacional y se refieren al período 2003-2008. La política tiene por objetivo principal propiciar dentro del Ministerio de Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (MARN) la equidad de género en todas las políticas, programas, proyectos y planes de acción que se emitan. Entre los objetivos específicos, cabe destacar el de impulsar una eficaz política ambiental que propicie y fomente oportunidades, con base en los derechos humanos.

The protection and management of environment are among the pillars of Vision 2020. The objective of the Government is that by 2020, it will have built a nation in which pressure on natural resources, particularly on land, water, biomass and biodiversity, has significantly been reduced and the process of environmental pollution and degradation has been reversed; a nation in which the management and protection of these resources and environment are more rational and well regulated in order to preserve and bequeath to future generations the basic wealth necessary for sustainable development.

This report identifies the links among economic growth, poverty alleviation, and natural resource degradation in Brazil. It examines the effects of (1) a major devaluation of the Brazilian real (R$); (2) improvements of infrastructure in the Amazon to link it with the rest of Brazil and bordering countries; (3) modification of land tenure regimes in the Amazon agricultural frontier; (4) adoption of technological change in agriculture both inside and outside the Amazon; and (5) fiscal mechanisms to reduce deforestation." -- from Author's Abstract

"In contrast to popular predictions of Africa’s worsening economic decline, recent research supports an alternative and more positive vision of Africa’s future. New political commitment and African ownership of the development agenda, combined with a renewed focus on and investments in smallholder-led agriculture, have the potential to halt or reverse the current downward spiral of hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, disease, and civil strife.

Assessing the impact of integrated natural resource management (INRM) research poses a challenge to scientists. The complexity of INRM interventions requires a more holistic approach to impact assessment, beyond the plot and farm levels and beyond traditional analysis of economic returns. Impact assessment for INRM combines the traditional "what" and "where" factors of economic and environmental priorities with newer "who" and "how" aspects of social actors and institutions. This paper presents an analytical framework and methodology for assessing the impact of INRM.

Deze studie komt voort uit het project Kwaliteitsimpuls landelijk gebied, dat tot doel had de kwaliteit en identiteit van het landelijk gebied te versterken door de aanleg, het herstel en het beheer van 40 000 ha aan landschapselementen. Deze landschapselementen kunnen functies vervullen op het gebied van natuur, landschap, landbouw, recreatie en toerisme, waterhuishouding, en wonen en werken. Het rapport geeft een overzicht van voorwaarden voor en voorbeelden van kansrijke situaties voor functiecombinaties.