Vietnam's rapid and sustained economic growth and poverty reduction in the last two decades benefitted from the policy and legal reforms embodied in the Land Laws of 1987, 1993 and 2003 and subsequent related legal acts. This note outlines reforms related to four main themes. The first relates to the needed reform for agriculture land use to create opportunity to enhance effectiveness of land use as well as to secure farmers' rights in land use. Prolonging the duration of agricultural land tenure would give land users greater incentives to invest and care for the land.

This report presents the results of a review of the World Bank's Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) experience undertaken by the World Bank learning community-the SEA Community of Practice (CoP). This report is no more than a first step. Its findings and results cannot be treated as conclusive.

Ensuring food security under changing
climate conditions is one of the major challenges of our
era. Agriculture must not only become increasingly
productive, but must also adapt to climate change while
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Soil carbon
sequestration, the process by which atmospheric carbon
dioxide is taken up by plants through photosynthesis and
stored as carbon in biomass and soils, can support these

Declining soil fertility due to
inadequate farming practices, deforestation and overgrazing
are among the primary impediments to increased agricultural
productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa. These causal factors,
driven by social, economic and political forces, manifest
themselves in market, policy and institutional failures,
inappropriate technologies and practices. This is also the
case in Tanzania where over 90 percent of the population is

Tajikistan is highly vulnerable to the
adverse impacts of global climate change, as it already
suffers from low agricultural productivity, water stress,
and high losses from disasters. Public awareness of the
multiple consequences of climate change is high, with
possible impacts on health, natural disasters, and
agriculture of greatest public concern. Climate change can
potentially deepen poverty by lowering agricultural yields,

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Costa Rica, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, Costa Rica has submitted
one national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one
under preparation. Land use change and forestry are the

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in El Salvador, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, El Salvador has submitted
one national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one
under preparation. According to the national greenhouse

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Haiti, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Haiti
has submitted its National Adaptation Plan of Action to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC). Land use change and forestry are the largest
contributors to green house gas (GHG) emissions in the

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Nicaragua, with focus on policy developments (including
action plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like
most countries in Latin America, Nicaragua has submitted one
national communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a second one
under preparation. Land use change and forestry are by far

This country note briefly summarizes
information relevant to both climate change and agriculture
in Peru, with focus on policy developments (including action
plans and programs) and institutional make-up. Like most
developing countries, Peru has submitted only one national
communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC), with the second one under
preparation. Land use change and forestry are the largest

Climate change is the defining
development challenge of our time. More than a global
environmental issue, climate change is also a threat to
poverty reduction and economic growth and may unravel many
of the development gains made in recent decades. Latin
America and the Caribbean account for a relatively modest
twelve percent of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions, but communities across the region are already