Malawi, a landlocked country in
southern, central Africa, depends on its natural resources,
especially the agriculture sector, to meet the demands of a
population of about 11 million people. The country has
developed a remarkable fishing industry, keeping in mind
that about 20 percent of the area is covered by water,
including the famous Lake Malawi (called Lake Nyasa by the
riparian states, Mozambique and Tanzania). Lake Malawi/Nyasa

This article, extracted from an
Implementation Completion Report, centers on the Mauritania
Natural Resources Management Project ( Projet de Gestion des
Ressources Naturelles en Zones Pluviales - PGRNP ) (
1998-2003 ), which had two specific objectives : 1)
empowering rural communities, i.e., providing skills to
organize and manage common resources, and obtain access to
financing; and (2) improving the institutional environment

The Natural Resources Management Project
(1996-2002), was intended to provide assistance to the
Government of Niger to (a) assist rural communities in
designing and implementing community-based land management
plans by providing them with the necessary know-how,
information, technical and financial resources, and proper
institutional and legal framework for implementation; and
(b) assist the Borrower in building capacity to promote,

The Sustainable and Participatory Energy
Management project - PROGEDE was implemented by the
government between 1997 and 2004. From project preparation
to supervision the World Bank worked in close collaboration
with Dutch Co-operation (DGIS). At the time of project
preparation, forest-based traditional fuels (firewood and
charcoal), mainly used for household cooking purposes,
represented 53 percent of Senegal's final energy

Participatory community-based Natural
Resources Management (NRM) Projects have been implemented
over the last 5-6 years in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, and
Niger with the support of France, Germany, Norway, the
United States, and the World Bank's International
Development Association facility. Furthermore, pilot
operation concentrating on specific NRM issues are underway
in Chad (pastoral perimeters) and Guinea (land tenure

The objective of the project is to
improve the environmental management capacity in Madagascar
through the implementation of institutional development and
emergency actions. Project components included: (i)
protection and management of biodiversity; (ii)
community-based soil conservation and watershed management;
(iii) mapping and remote sensing for improved natural
resources management; (iv) improved land security through

Within the sub-region of West Central
Africa (Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana,
Niger, Nigeria, and Togo) several countries have completed
National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs). Some are
implementing environmental support programs based on these
plans, as well as more site-specific natural resource
management, urban environmental management, and biodiversity
conservation projects. The report notes some success

This note centers on the Honduras Access to Land Pilot Project (PACTA). PACTA's objectives are twofold, to: (1) facilitate access to land for landless households through the land market; and (2) promote the development of sustainable rural enterprises. PACTA's achievements, thus far, can be summarized as follows: 1) It established a working model for rural enterprise formation that leverages private sector financing. 2) Grants made to families are used to establish productive projects, leverage a proportionally large private investment, and improve access to land.

In Kenya, insecure land tenure and inequitable access to land and natural resources have contributed to conflict and violence, which has in return exacerbated food insecurity. Most farmers in Kenya have no legal title for the land on which they farm. Sources of tenure insecurity can be ethnic conflicts over land between neighbouring communities, particularly in the Northern provinces, expropriation by the state or local government and land grabbing by local elite or companies. Competition is as well growing over water, especially over groundwater, which is scarce in Kenya.

This country note for Armenia is part of a series of country briefs that summarize information relevant to climate change and agriculture for three pilot countries in the Southern Caucasus Region, with a particular focus on climate and crop projections, adaptation options, policy development and institutional involvement. The note series has been developed to provide a baseline of knowledge on climate change and agriculture for the countries participating in the regional program on reducing vulnerability to climate change in Southern Caucasus Agricultural systems.

In both climate change adaptation and mitigation, contentious struggles for access and control of resources may turn violent unless stakeholders from the local to the international scale engage in open and transparent processes to negotiate new rules of access to land and other natural resources. Dispute resolution must go hand-in-hand with policies to restructure both statutory and customary tenure. National and international policy makers are beginning to explore the place of property rights and resource tenure in the discussions of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies.