Under present and foreseeable economic and social trends in the Asia-Pacific region, can we achieve sustainable forest management and better realize the potential of forests and forestry to contribute to improved human well-being? 

In the face of continuing grave violations of human rights
by the Burmese government against its own civilians, it is
imperative that the international community start to
respond to Burma in terms of the Responsibility to Protect
(R2P) principle...

Most Burmese people fleeing their homes do so for a combination of reasons. The root causes for leaving, however,
determine which ‘category’ they belong to: ‘internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) or ‘economic migrants’. There is
some discussion as to whether people leaving their homes due to exhaustion of livelihoods options are IDPs
according to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement1 – or not. Ashley South and Andrew Bosson present
their views below...

Public-Private Partnerships broadly identify a spectrum of complex legal arrangements between the public and the private sector to provide goods or services within a country. The objective of the PPP is share control, risks, and rewards of a set of fixed assets between a private enterprise and a “public unit”, which is normally a national government. A common thread that runs throughout all PPPs is some degree of private participation intertwined with the provision of goods and services traditionally handled by the public domain.

The MLHUD Sector Strategic Plan for Statistics (SSPS) is a 5 year (2007/8 – 2011/12) plan which provides a framework for further reform and acceleration of statistical development in the sector statistical system. This Plan is intended to guide the development of an integrated, coordinated and coherent statistical system which ensures harmonized data production processes at all levels of administration. Although the Ministry is relatively new, it strives to obtain quality statistics.

The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing rapid changes. There is a major need to strengthen capacities to assist countries and forestry stakeholders to respond in ways that benefit both people and forests.

Over the last two decades, Vietnam has made significant progress in forest tenure reform, which aims to meaningfully include all relevant stakeholders in the management of forest resources. Under these reforms, forest area officially under the management of local people has expanded from almost nothing in the early 1990s to nearly 3.5 million ha (27% of the national forest area) in 2006. However, until now little is known about the extent to which such tenure reform has worked in practice and how it has affected local people’s livelihoods and wellbeing.

PES is a new concept gaining momentum in the Asia-Pacific region. But what are the enabling conditions for employing PES schemes, and how can they be made pro-poor? Payment for Environmental Services (PES) sets up systems where beneficiaries of environmental services reward the providers of such services with payments or other non-financial goods (market access, land security, public services, infrastructure, capacity building).

The Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG) Vietnam undertook a survey in Dak Lak and Thua Thien Hue provinces between December 2006 and April 2007. The survey aimed to provide insights into different forms of community forest management, the factors influencing its success, and their contribution to poverty alleviation. 

A contribution to the current vibrant debate on land in Kenya following recent upheavals. Argues the need for a radical restructure of the way property relations are governed because what is being contested today is not just property but power over property. Makes practical suggestions for genuinely local democratisation of land governance. Need to act on identified illegal allocation of public land; devolve, not de-concentrate, land administration and to the most local level possible; and vest radical title in real communities, not district/tribal territorial domains.

Conclusion: "Most relevant reports and surveys I have been able to access state essentially that people from all parts of Burma leave home either in obedience to a direct relocation order from the military or civil authorities or as a result of a process whereby coercive measures imposed by the authorities play a major role in forcing down household incomes to the point where the family cannot survive. At this point, leaving home may seem to be the only option.

Abstract:
"Decades of neglect and abuses by the Burmese government have decimated the health of the
peoples of Burma, particularly along her eastern frontiers, overwhelmingly populated by
ethnic minorities such as the Shan. Vast areas of traditional Shan homelands have been
systematically depopulated by the Burmese military regime as part of its counter-insurgency
policy, which also employs widespread abuses of civilians by Burmese soldiers, including
rape, torture, and extrajudicial executions. These abuses, coupled with Burmese government