This research explores the activities of community institutions in achieving sustainable forest management (SFM) and sustained forest cover. Three institutions representing the administrative, economic, and social/traditional institutions were identified. The institutions had 30 forest management activities and satisfied about 66% of SFM Criteria and Indicators. A loss of 122 ha of forest cover was estimated over the last 30 yr, attributed to conversion of forests to built-up areas.

Guest commentary by Robert Primmer, Land Tenure and Climate Change Specialist, Evaluation, Research, and Communication (ERC) Project.

This paper uses data from the General
Household Survey Panel 2010/11 to analyze differences in
agricultural productivity across male and female plot
managers in Nigeria. The analysis utilizes the
Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method, which allows for
decomposing the unconditional gender gap into (i) the
portion caused by observable differences in the factors of
production (endowment effect) and (ii) the unexplained

Using newly collected national and
sub-national data, and historical case studies, this paper
argues that differences in innovative capacity, captured by
the density of engineers at the dawn of the Second
Industrial Revolution, are important to explaining present
income differences, and, in particular, the poor performance
of Latin America relative to North America. This remains the
case after controlling for literacy, other higher order

This Working Paper presents the current
trends in maritime transport and port sectors in West and
Central Africa (WCA), and proposes several policy
recommendations to improve maritime transport and port
efficiency in order to enhance economic growth. West and
Central African economies, which depend on maritime
transport for an overwhelming proportion of their trade,
rely on efficient maritime transport and port sectors to be

This study entitled, Landfill gas
capture opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa, analyzes urban
waste in both quantitative and qualitative terms in selected
Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries to find out if available
methane from municipal waste could be used as a
supplementary energy source and evaluate whether potential
waste-to-energy (WTE) project candidates meet a certain
level of cost effectiveness, which is valuable to investors.

In recent years helpful guides have
appeared in both English and Spanish to assist planners and
officials to construct accessible buildings and pedestrian
infrastructure which are usable by seniors, persons with
disabilities, and all others who especially benefit from
universal design. Less has been written about access to
public transport systems. Very little guidance is available
concerning specific issues which confront those planning Bus

Most existing estimates of the
macroeconomic costs of AIDS, as measured by the reduction in
the growth rate of gross domestic product, are modest. For
Africa-the continent where the epidemic has hit the
hardest-they range between 0.3 and 1.5 percent annually. The
reason is that these estimates are based on an underlying
assumption that the main effect of increased mortality is to
relieve pressure on existing land and physical capital so

The report presents findings, and the
way forward in respect of the Knowledge and Research (KAR)
Project on vehicle operations in Sub-Saharan Africa,
basically undertaken in Uganda and Ghana. In the first
phase, the study identified problems faced by transport
operators in both countries, and analyzed their impact on
vehicle operating costs, as well as examining transport
regulations, and current organization of transport services

Facilitating trade flows between
countries belonging to the same sub-region does not only
require adequate transport infrastructure, or the
availability of competitive and reliable transport services.
Both will be used effectively only to the extent allowed by
the legal framework governing their operations. Similarly,
better regional economic integration will be served not only
through harmonization of national development policies, but

Ministerial Order N° 003/14 OF 14/04/2014 Determining the Structure of Land Registers, the Responsibilities and the Functioning of the District Land Bureau. Published on the 14 April 2014

By Anthony Piaskowy, Communication and Urban Specialist for USAID's Land Tenure and Property Rights Division.