This collection of analyses spotlight cases and interviews with prominent women activists involved in natural resource management in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines and China to better understand the diverse challenges faced by Asian women in relation to limited rights and insecure tenure. Despite contextual differences, the studies identify a number of similarities and trends.

This document details Vietnam’s progress in relation to Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Readiness; it was submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a World Bank programme that aims to assist developing countries with REDD+, during March 2012. It sets out a timeline of Vietnamese REDD+ Readiness; national REDD+ readiness management arrangements; stakeholder consultations and communication; REDD+ strategy preparation; the development of a reference scenario and monitoring, reporting and verification.

Ecosystems are a form of natural capital. Invasions by introduced alien plant species alter ecosystems, often reducing supplies of valuable ecosystem goods and services and imposing substantial costs on South Africa’s economy. Reversing these losses by removing alien plants imposes further costs because clearing and control operations are expensive. However, the high costs can be offset by the benefits of creating employment opportunities through such operations and the livelihood benefits that can be derived from the cleared land.

This literature review assesses current and potential future changes occurring within the forestry sector. It identifies challenges posed to forests and analyses the relationship between forests and climate change. While it is relatively safe to assume that temperature increase is a threat to the survival of many ecosystems other challenges, such as extreme weather and precipitation levels, are harder to predict.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have published this annual report on joint projects financed during 2011 on ecosystems and biodiversity preservation, green development strategies, and sustainable use of water and ocean resources, among other topics. The GEF financed and supported 323 UNDP projects in 2011.

The adaptation of land-use patterns is an essential aspect of minimising the impact of climate change at regional and local scales; for example, adapting watershed land-use patterns to mitigate the impact of climate change on a region’s hydrology. The aim of this study is to simulate and assess a region’s ability to adapt to hydrological changes by modifying land-use patterns in the Wu-Du watershed in northern Taiwan.

Tackling the issue of land and resource tenure is one of the prerequisites for mechanisms such as REDD+ to have positive impacts not only on reducing emissions from the forestry sector but also in reducing poverty and achieving food security. These new guidelines by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) outline principles and practices that governments can refer to when making laws and administering land, fisheries and forests rights.

Recent large-scale land acquisitions for agricultural production, also known as land grabbing, have attracted headline attention. However, water as both a target and driver of this phenomenon has been largely ignored in the debate. This special issue of Water Alternatives aims to fill this gap and to widen the perspective beyond the limited focus on agriculture-driven resource grabbing.

This guidebook by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) project describes crop and livestock management technologies and practices that contribute to climate change mitigation while improving crop productivity and reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers. It focuses on six broad mitigation measures: cropland management; livestock management; manure/bio-solid management; bioenergy; grazing land management/pasture improvement; and the management of organic soils and restoration of degraded lands.

This case study, published in the journal Conservation and Society, examines the impact of forest reforms in Bolivia on the indigenous Yuracaré people.

The recent surge in the efforts to reform forest governance-both through decentralisation and tenure reforms has been coupled by an increase in empirical studies that assess the virtues and limitations of the new regimes. Despite an increasing body of literature, however, there is still limited knowledge about the effects of these reforms on the indigenous groups and their forest governance institutions.

This document discusses the outcome of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 17th Conference of Parties, with an explicit focus on implications for the forestry sector in the Asia-Pacific region. The report’s content is the product of a specialist workshop held in the Philippines during February 2012; the event was organized by the Centre for People and Forests (RECOFTC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and CoDe REDD. The report consists of responses to 13 key questions which were discussed during the specialist workshop.

This report reviews the status of REDD+ implementation in Africa, identifying forest degradation as one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. The research lists current projects in Africa to build a database of REDD initiatives and their status of implementation. The main issues addressed are: the political and institutional challenges and prospects for REDD; the technical challenges and prospects for REDD; social and economic challenges; resource and funding issues; and performance monitoring/reporting metrics being developed.