Liberia has long maintained a dual land tenure system over statutory and customary lands characterized by unclear terms of ownership. Most rural Liberians depend on common resources for their survival. These are largely communally owned;used and managed. But the Liberian government has effectively treated all un-deeded land as public land to be administered by the State. This has undermined the land rights of the majority.

In advance of the release of the World Bank’s 2019 Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) report;the Oakland Institute exposes the Bank’s new scheme to privatize land in the developing world. It details how the Bank’s prescribed reforms;via a new land indicator in the EBA project;promotes large-scale land acquisitions and the expansion of agribusinesses in the developing world. Initiated as a pilot in 38 countries in 2017;the land indicator is expected to be expanded to 80 countries in 2019. The project is funded by the US and UK governments and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Increasing population and rural to urban migration are accelerating urbanization globally, permanently transforming natural systems over large extents. Modelling landscape change over large regions, however, presents particular challenges due to local-scale variations in social and environmental factors that drive land change.

The article takes hydro-development schemes in the Upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia as an example to discuss the suitability and shortcomings of nexus approaches for the analysis of complex socio-ecological transformations. Based on critical theoretical debates and extensive field research in Ethiopia, the paper broadens the nexus perspective by integrating the three analytical dimensions of time, space, and power.

The value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) for informing resource management has long been recognized; however, its incorporation into ecosystem services (ES) assessments remains uncommon. Often “top-down” approaches are utilized, depending on “expert knowledge”, that are not relevant to local resource users. Here we propose an approach for combining participatory methods with remote sensing to provide a more holistic understanding of ES change. Participatory mapping in focus group discussions identified TEK regarding what ES were present, where, and their value to communities.

Artisanal and small-scale mining affects the quality and components of the environment in the Batouri area in different ways. Activities interfere with air, soil, water, fauna and forest resources. This study seeks to assess the impacts of mining on the environment using a combination of spatial analysis, questionnaires administration and Leopold’s grid of impact assessment. The impacts of mining on physical environment include air pollution by emission of dusts and fumes from engines, soil and subsoil degradation by earthworks and release of wastewater containing chemicals from companies.

A recent wave of large-scale commercial investments in agriculture;extractive industries and other land-based sectors has compounded the ‘global resource squeezein low- and middle-income countries. But many communities affected by land rights violations struggle to assert their rights or obtain redress. Demand for legal support outstrips resources and what is available is not always appropriate. Pursuing litigation often presents significant obstacles and risks to the communities involved without offering any certain outcomes.

New public policies and changing economic fundamentals have spurred private sector investment in commercial agriculture in low- and middle-income countries. Growing numbers of policies and programmes aim to integrate small-scale rural producers into agricultural value chains;based on concepts such as ‘inclusive businessand ‘shared value’.

This paper uses the tripartite place attachment framework to examine six rural parishes across Estonia and Latvia. Existing analyses/frameworks on participatory processes often neglect the complexity of relationships that rural residents have to their local environments.

Includes: why a focus on corporate accountability?; communities at the frontline; corporations: the accountability challenge; the way forward: legislative and policy opportunities; recommendations: action on accountability. Argues that devastating human rights violations will continue to occur with impunity unless we move beyond voluntary approaches and bring in a legally binding treaty on business and human rights. The size;influence and complexity of corporations pose major challenges for states to hold them to account. Impunity regarding human rights abuses by companies is increasing.

Argues that the role of the European Union in landgrabbing is manifold. EU actors are involved in the financing of large-scale land deals worldwide through forms of private finance;public finance and a combination of both. The EU’s position as an agricultural powerhouse is dependent on the huge import of agricultural commodities and inputs from the global South. Europe has a vast land import dependency with nearly 60% of the land used to meet Europe’s demand for agricultural and forestry products coming from outside its borders.

Smallholder farmers in the mid-hills of Nepal are facing an acute labor shortage due to out-migration which, in general, has affected the capacity to achieve timely crop establishment, harvest, and inter-cultural operations. These effects are more visible in the case of labor-intensive crops such as rice and promoting higher levels of rural mechanization has emerged as the primary policy response option. Nevertheless, quantitative evidence for the ability of mechanization to offset the adverse effects of shortages increasing labor prices in these systems is largely absent.