There is no doubt that the poorest
people are already and will continue to be most severely
impacted by climatic changes, including shifting trends as
well as more frequent and severe extreme events. Yet, new
insights on the dynamics and distribution of poverty point
to the need to comprehend where the poor and poorest are,
how they are poor, and why their poverty constrains their
abilities to cope with and adapt to occurring and predicted

As India continues to urbanize and move
towards a less agricultural- and more industry-based
economy, land demands will continue to grow. Its urban
population is expected to increase by more than 200 million
by 2030, requiring 4 to 8 million hectares of land for
residential use alone. Demands for infrastructure and
industry could add a similar amount, summing to total land
demand of 5 to10 percent of the land area currently used for

Land rights and the systems that
administer them can vary significantly across the world and
within countries (World Bank 2003). For a number of reasons,
land rights may be unclear or insecure. Securing land rights
plays an important role in driving economic growth and
poverty reduction. In recent years there has been increasing
awareness of the relevance of land tenure issues to food
security, climate change, rapid urbanization, informality,

In most countries, the private sector
owns the vast majority of the buildings and a considerable
portion of the infrastructure at risk. However, most
investment in disaster risk management is made by the public
sector, with the private sector lagging far behind. The
situation represents missed opportunities for businesses to
capture not only higher levels of the direct benefits of
disaster risk management, but also a broader set of

El barrio de Cerro Norte constituye un territorio para muchos de sus habitantes, geográficamente ubicado en la frontera donde se acaba lo urbano y empieza lo rural, Cerro Norte ha sido un espacio forjado al calor de conflictos y luchas por el acceso a la tierra, a los servicios, al agua y a la soberanía alimentaria.

These organizations have joined together to recommend the principles presented below. The document concludes with anticipated next steps, which point toward a toolkit of best practices, guidelines, governance frameworks, and possibly codes of practice by the major sets of private actors.

Ecosystem accounting is a coherent and integrated approach to the assessment of

The purpose of this paper is to provide
information on how to transform and strengthen pluralistic
agricultural extension and advisory systems in moving toward
the broader goal of increasing farm income and improving
rural livelihoods. The focus of this book is primarily on
the technical knowledge, management skills, and information
services that small-scale farm households will need to
improve their livelihoods in the rapidly changing global

This book made an attempt to bring together various legislative protections available to the tribals communities pertaining to the land and governance in the scheduled areas and the role of different institutions to achieve the goals enshrined in the Constitution. It examined the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and its various provisions and special arrangements made for areas inhabited by Scheduled Tribes and the law relating to local self governance in these areas, primarily through village panchayat-an institution of local self governance.

Nolundi Luwaya examines how the laws affecting rural citizens in South Africa fit together. She examines the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act and highlights key sections of the Act including the requirements for establishment of Traditional Councils, the status and role of traditional leaders. She reviews contested legislation including the Communal Land Rights Act, struck down by the Constitutional Court and the Traditional Courts Bill which threatened to turn rural citizens in the former bantustans into chiefly subjects.

The major role tropical forests play in
biodiversity and climate change has led the world to search
for effective ways to slow down deforestation. Community
forest management (CFM) is an example of the broader concept
of community-based natural resources management (CBNRM). As
part of the decentralization policy in many countries,
mainly in Africa and Asia, CFM was expected to promote: (i)
a more effective stewardship of the resources by involving