Following from the Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture project, this book examines the relationships and linkages between land use and water management and social systems. Given that agriculture is the largest economic sector in many developing countries, this volume provides innovative ideas for the prevention of land degradation and for improving the sustainability of food production in the developing world.

The IUCN protected area management categories are a global framework, recognised by the Convention on Biological Diversity, for categorising the variety of protected area management types. The following guidelines provide direction, descriptions, principles and advice in the application of the IUCN protected area management categories in particular biomes and management approaches.The document is broken into different sections focusing on key discussions on IUCN protected area management, which are included below.

Divided into three parts, this collaborative work looks at the varied challenges brought about as a result of corruption in the water sector. It also looks at recent research conducted and provides an overview of the water sector corruption challenges in country profiles across the globe. Corruption in the water sector puts the lives and livelihoods of billions of people at risk. The onset of climate change and the increasing stress on water supply around the world make the fight against corruption in water more urgent than ever.

This policy paper sets out the relevance of social and environmental standards for small-scale timber growers. It focuses on the development of the National Forest Standards currently being developed by the South African Government . The paper points out that the significance of small-scale timber growers in South Africa is likely to grow: Approximately one third of its timber production in the near future may be derived from small growers.  A key concern for growers is access to markets, especially where growers are not members of out-grower schemes or marketing cooperatives.

In context of the recent emergence of the debate on rights-based approaches (RBA) to conservation, this paper provides a collaborative piece of work on the constitution of RBA’s and some of the key issues surrounding them. It also looks at some examples from countries where there is a need for RBA’s.

Forestry education in recent years has largely failed to adequately respond to the dynamics in forestry practice, the demands of the job market and the challenges of new global forestry paradigms.

This paper notes that under a sustainable, well-managed, logging regime, Papua – the most densely forested part of Indonesia – can potentially contribute substantial forest revenues for socio-economic development. Yet, it remains the poorest region in the country, in part due to widespread corruption involving public and private actors.The paper argues that, reforming the management of these resources – specifically, introducing accountability and transparency into the collection of forest revenues – is a key precondition for welfare improvements in the region.

This book examines the gender dimensions of natural resource exploitation and management, with a focus on Asia. It explores the uneasy negotiations between theory, policy, and practice that are often evident within the realm of gender, environment, and natural resource management. It offers a critical feminist perspective on gender relations and natural resource management in the context of contemporary policy concerns: decentralized governance, the elimination of poverty, and the mainstreaming of gender.The book is centred around three themes:

A publication from Engineers Against Poverty for the extractive industries - an eight-page briefing note to guide oil, gas and mining (OGM) companies on how they can maximise the contribution of local enterprises to the supply chain of their projects in low income countries. It provides practical guidance on three major opportunity areas to increase local enterprise participation in project supply chains:

modifying procurement policies and processes
modifying contract documentation
supporting the efficacy of supplier development programs

In 1992, a United Nations declaration proclaimed water as a human right. However, the water profession and the vast majority of governments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have not paid much attention.
This online book systematically analyses the legal development of the concept of water as a human right with particular reference to MENA countries. It considers:

This paper discusses how a participatory method to facilitate thinking about future scenarios can help change the way forest communities and local governments interact. It reviews a growing body of literature on future scenarios and shares first-hand experiences in forest communities in the northern Bolivian Amazon and the central provinces of Vietnam. This paper finds that under the right conditions, the use of future scenarios:

This sourcebook is intended as a ready reference for practitioners (including World Bank stakeholders and clients in borrowing countries as well as Bank project leaders) seeking information on the state of the art about good land management approaches and innovations for investments, and close monitoring for potential scaling up.

Originally Published In: World Bank, Agriculture and Rural Development Department (2008)