This book presents the findings of a nine-month action research process in Karamoja. Over the months, the broad topics of the research – land, peace and customary law – were refined to three precise areas of focus on how decisions are made: herder-cultivator disputes and Karimojong governance; peace and the links between customary and state law; and land alienation and associated state laws and policies. The research team, 23 young men and women from Karamoja, developed the initial text for this book in September 2013.

Examines the relationship of people’s rights in land to the manner in which they may be involved in the management of forests in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Lesotho and to a lesser degree Botswana and Swaziland.Includes examination of property relations, state power, land reform, recognition of customary rights, the changing nature of tenure, and the impact of new land law on community forest rights.

Improving land governance is key in assuring that land resources can be enjoyed by all parts of the population. Donors can play an important role in combatting corruption in land administration and building a well-functioning land administration by both supporting domestic government efforts as well as engaging in international and multi-country initiatives. However, donors are advised by experts and civil society organisations to be mindful of the possible impact of their interventions on issues of land grabbing and forced relocations.

In India, the Schedule Tribes have remained on the fringes of growth, but less so in the majority tribal areas of the North East. This has increased the interest in the Sixth Schedule, the special constitutional provision relating to these areas, recognising the tribal communities’ rights of ownership and control over their land and natural resources.

Overview of the rangelands of the Jianshe region of China which discusses the environmental and social issues associated with the pastoralist land use in the area.

This document takes a historical view of the relations between individual and collective actors in local water management in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam.

The paper begins by outlining Chinese grassland policy in the reform period and then describes key aspects of actual local level arrangements for grassland management. This description is based on the authors’ field studies at different sites on the Tibetan plateau (within Sichuan and Yunnan Province and the Tibetan Autonomous Region) and Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region1. A considerable difference between grassland policy and local-level arrangements is found, and the next section justifies these arrangements in terms of the social, ecological and economic context.

Tibetan grasslands constitute one of the most important grazing ecosystems in the world and encompass the source areas of many major Asian rivers. While a variety of government policies have been applied in recent years to protect the ecology and biodiversity of China’s grasslands, there is growing concern that national and global economic considerations have overshadowed emerging conservation agendas. This article critically reviews several key policies affecting pastoralists, with special attention given to the Sanjiangyuan region of Qinghai Province.

This book, prepared by the Philippine Environmental Governance Project, serves as a reference guide for field personnel in guiding communities, investors, local government units, private persons and other organisations desiring to apply for tenure instruments on forest lands.The book covers all existing tenure and allocation agreements for the management and use of forest resources in forest lands. Agreements generally refer to long-term tenure instruments in forest lands with right of occupation.

This sourcebook is intended as a ready reference for practitioners (including World Bank stakeholders and clients in borrowing countries as well as Bank project leaders) seeking information on the state of the art about good land management approaches and innovations for investments, and close monitoring for potential scaling up.

Originally Published In: World Bank, Agriculture and Rural Development Department (2008)

This book is a challenge to those who see the drylands as naturally vulnerable to food insecurity and poverty. 

It argues that improving agricultural productivity in dryland environments is possible by working with climatic uncertainty rather than seeking to control it – a view that runs contrary to decade of development practice in arid and semi-arid lands.

Across China, Kenya and India – and most other dryland countries – family farmers and herders relate to the inherent variability of the drylands as a resource to be valued, rather than a problem to be avoided. 

Evaluation of LAMP in different contexts:broader change processesdevelopment thinkingcomparative analysis of different conditions of LAMP in the four districts it has been implemented inFindings include: recommending that the programme shifts focus from considering its core as natural resources management to one of support to the empowerment, mobilisation and capacity building of village communities with emphasis on natural resource managementconcentration should be on production, environment and rightstechnical assitance should shift towards capacity building and empowermentstakeholder par