Since 2009, the Government of Switzerland and RECOFTC have partnered with ASEAN through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)’s support to the ASEAN Social Forestry Network (ASFN) and the ASEAN-Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change (ASFCC). This is a brochure describing the RECOFTC activities under the ASFCC Phase II (2014-2016).

This Topic Guide covers: the trends in and drivers of large-scale land acquisition, and the associated costs, risks and benefits; the provision of and access to more accurate data on large-scale land acquisitions, and key international and regional initiatives to provide guidelines to enhance security of tenure and promote good quality investment; land reform issues such as land tenure regularisation and land administration systems; and land issues in the context of fragile states, and conflict and post-conflict situations.

After more than two decades of agrarian change in Tajikistan, farming structures seem to crystallise. The first signs towards farm individualisation were observed only around 2000, which were the result of significant pressure from outside, when the post-conflict state was highly susceptible to pressure from multilateral institutions. Over time, striking differences in agrarian structures have emerged nation-wide; from highly fragmented, autonomous farms, to elite-controlled large-scale cotton farming.

Este informe examina los progresos que han realizado las autoridades para aplicar los elementos de restitución de tierras de la Ley 1448 con el fin de garantizar el derecho de los reclamantes de tierras a un recurso efectivo. Su objetivo es situar el actual proceso de restitución de tierras en el contexto de los intentos previos de los gobiernos colombianos de resolver los problemas asociados a la desigual distribución de la tierra y a la pobreza rural.

Recently dubbed “Africa’s Lion” (in allusion to the discourse around “Asian Tigers”), Ethiopia is celebrated for its steady economic growth, including a growing number of millionaires compared to other African nations. However, as documented in previous research by the Oakland Institute, the Ethiopian government’s “development strategy,” is founded on its policy of leasing millions of hectares (ha) of land to foreign investors.

Sri Lanka has recently emerged from nearly three decades of protracted conflict, which came to an end five years ago in 2009. A number of researchers have explored the devastating effect the conflict has had on public health, and its impact on Sri Lanka’s health system - hailed as a success story in the South Asian region. Remarkably, no attempt has been made to synthesize the findings of such studies in order to build an evidence-informed research platform. This review aims to map the ‘research landscape’ on the impact of conflict on health in Sri Lanka.

For a long time sub-Saharan Africa has been considered to have abundant and underutilized land than any other continent. On the contrary, recent studies show that many rural Africans live in increasingly densely populated areas where all arable land is allocated or under cultivation. This has led to a long-term decline in farm size and reduced fallows.

Land conflicts in 2013 continued to occupy an important position in the socio-economic and political agenda in the North Caucasus. North Caucasus, Dagestan Republic

The new book Forests under Pressure: Local Responses to Global Issues is the third major publication produced by the Special Project World Forests, Society and Environment (WFSE) of the International Union of Forest Research Organization (IUFRO). The book was launched at the WFSE Technical Session during the IUFRO World Congress, October 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, and is the result of the collaborative work of over 140 scientists and experts, as well as over 60 reviewers.

Land degradation has been a major political issue in Java for decades. Its causes have generally been framed by narratives focussing on farmers’ unsustainable cultivation practices. This paper causally links land degradation with struggles over natural resources in Central Java. It presents a case study that was part of a research project combining remote sensing and political ecology to explore land use/cover change and its drivers in the catchment of the Segara Anakan lagoon.

The stories in this report illustrate the invaluable contributions being made by community members, pioneering government personnel and others who are actively participating in forest management – leading to improved livelihoods, and more equity and a fairer share of benefits. The stories highlight the challenges faced and opportunities created by people in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand and Viet Nam who are promoting community forestry.