This report brings together four studies that evaluate regulatory initiatives with implications for forest-dependent communities from a rights-based perspective. These are: The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 – India; Regulatory initiatives and selected outcomes of judicial processes in Malaysia; The Community Forest Act (2007) – Thailand; and The Indigenous People’s Rights Act (1997) – Philippines. Each study covers law making, content and implementation.

This paper assesses the influence of forest policies on forestry development, and especially timber production, in Bolivia during three different periods of time. The first period began in the early 1970s when a conservative forest policy was adopted privileging commercial logging companies, and thus fueling land conflicts in particular with indigenous people, allowing a minority to accumulate considerable wealth, and marking the onset of forest degradation.

Rangelands and savannas occupy 70% of the Australian continent and are mainly used for commercial grazing of sheep and cattle. In the center and north, where there are extensive areas of indigenous land ownership and pastoral production is less intensive, savanna burning is frequent. Greenhouse gas emissions from rangelands have been overwhelmingly from land clearing and methane production by livestock.

Amazonian plant management is perhaps nowhere as intense as in homegardens and swiddens. A quantitative ethnobotanical study was conducted in Indigenous Territory and National Park Isiboro-Sécure, Bolivia, to investigate plant use and management in homegardens and swiddens by local Yuracaré and Trinitario ethnic groups. Ethnobotanical data of plants were obtained from 11 Yuracaré and 11 Trinitario participants through semistructured interviews.

Commitment of local communities to protected areas is essential for conserving biodiversity. However, in many developing countries like Benin, former management strategies kept human from protected areas using coercion. Fortunately, more recent regimes attempt to give local populations more control on the management but little is known about local residents' perceptions, beliefs and attitudes toward the management of these areas.

Civilians in Dooplaya District continue to be impacted by conflict between the Tatmadaw and armed Karen groups, who have increased fighting in the area since November 7th 2010. The situation around Palu village remains highly unstable; in order to avoid conflict and conflict-related abuse, civilians are moving frequently between their homes and fields, more secure locations outside the village and along the Moei River, and both official and unofficial locations in Thailand's Phop Phra District.

Rights-based conservation depends on institutions that give citizens clear and enforceable rights to manage lands and natural resources. Such rights hinge on citizens’ abilities to strengthen and defend their rights and on the operation of the rule of law and impersonal forms of government for legal reforms to take place and have meaning.

Accroître l'accès des femmes à la terre est crucial pour lutter contre la faim et la pauvreté. Toutefois, les disparités entre les sexes concernant l'accès aux terres restent importantes dans la plupart des pays, quel que soit leur niveau de développement. Une nouvelle base de données de la FAO aide à comprendre les facteurs qui empêchent les femmes d'accéder à la terre, et à concevoir de meilleures politiques pour lutter efficacement contre cette situation.

Documento de trabajo sobre la tenencia de la tierra 18. Presenta los principales temas para caracterizar la gobernanza en la tenencia de la tierra y analiza los aspectos relacionados con la evolución de las problemáticas de política agraria en los diferentes países de América Central. Además, ofrece algunos ejemplos y lecciones aprendidas derivadas de los nuevos modelos de administración y mecanismos de acceso a la tierra que los gobiernos centroamericanos y la cooperación internacional han promovido en los últimos quince años en la Región.