Grounded in an ongoing examination of 100 case studies, this analysis describes the overarching patterns of conflict between companies and local communities in emerging and frontier market concessions. Identifying those patterns is the first step to establishing best practices for managing the risks.

To date, all global assessments have concurred that Africa is the Earth’s most vulnerable region to climate change. The severity of Africa’s vulnerability to climate change was confirmed by the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Moreover, the International Research Institute for Climate and Society is warning of an El Niño that could result in above-average rainfall in the Horn of Africa. In spite of all these challenges, Africa’s determination to rise has never been stronger.

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.

The Act, consisting of 25 sections, makes provisions to stipulate restrictions on the alienation of lands in Sri Lanka to foreigners, foreign companies and certain institutions with foreign shareholding; to specify the circumstances where the exemptions are granted; to impose a Land Lease Tax for leasing lands to foreigners, foreign companies and certain institutions with foreign shareholding; for the granting of concessions to certain Development Projects.

Food-for-work (FFW) programs are commonly used both for short-term relief and long-term development purposes. In the latter capacity, they are increasingly used for natural resources management projects. Barrett, Holden and Clay (forthcoming) assess the suitability of FFW programs as insurance to cushion the poor against short-term, adverse shocks that could, in the absence of a safety net, have permanent repercussions.

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Health Economics and Policy, Industrial Organization, International Relations/Trade, Land Economics/Use,

Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, Land Economics/Use,

In many Sub-Saharan African countries, fuelwood collection is among the most important drivers of deforestation and particularly forest degradation. In a detailed field study in the Kafa region of southern Ethiopia, we assessed the potential of efficient cooking stoves to mitigate the negative impacts of fuelwood harvesting on forests. Eleven thousand improved cooking stoves (ICS), specifically designed for baking Ethiopia’s staple food injera, referred to locally as “Mirt” stoves, have been distributed here. We found a high acceptance rate of the stove.

Land use patterns are the consequence of dynamic processes that often include important legacy issues. Evaluation of past trends can be used to investigate the role of path dependence in influencing future land use through a reference “business as usual” (BAU) scenario. These issues are explored with regard to objectives for woodland expansion in Scotland as a major pillar of climate change policy.

International agreements on climate change have highlighted the role of land in climate and human dynamics, making it an issue of global importance. The modelling of land-related processes, sectors, and activities has recently become a central topic in economic and policy theory, as well as within environmental sciences. Modelling strategies have been improved and new datasets have come into light for land-cover and land-use change analysis.

In a modeling study we examine vulnerability of income from mobile (transhumant) pastoralism and sedentary pastoralism to reduced mean annual precipitation (MAP) and droughts. The study is based on empirical data of a 3410 km2 research region in southern, semi-arid Morocco. The land use decision model integrates a meta-model of the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) simulator to depict perennial and annual forage plant development. It also includes livestock dynamics and forward-looking decision making under uncertain weather.