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

This study aims to examine current land access and youth livelihood opportunities in Southern Ethiopia. Access to agricultural land is a constitutional right for rural residents of Ethiopia. We used survey data from the relatively land abundant districts of Oromia Region and from the land scarce districts of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ (SNNP) Region. We found that youth in the rural south have limited potential to obtain agricultural land that can be a basis for viable livelihood. The law prohibits the purchase and sale of land in Ethiopia.

Land has always been an important site of struggle in Mexico, often bringing peasant movements and peasant communities into conflicts with the Mexican military. This CMI Insight focuses on the key conflict dimensions since the Mexican revolution (1910-1917) and up till today.

The Korea Land Information System (KLIS) aims to provide information necessary for land policy establishment promptly and accurately. This system manages accurate information on land use zoning designated by land use regulations and provides it to government agencies, local governments, and people. KLIS manages and provides specifically the land information database to prevent duplication of investment among agencies and to effectively manage the land by securing the compatibility of data sets.

This paper summarises the importance of wetlands in relation to climate change and eaxmines their potential role in the measures for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) under the Kyoto Protocol. The links between REDD concepts and wetlands are explored for the following reasons:

Land rental markets can potentially improve the access to land for land-poor households that possess complementary resources that can enable them to utilize land efficiently. Land rental markets can also enable landowners who are poor in non-land resources to rent out their land such that their land is utilized more efficiently and they themselves can get a better income and improved welfare from their land resource. This report assesses the land rental market that is dominated by a reverse tenancy system with relatively poorer landlords and less poor tenants.

Professor Kjell Havnevik is retiring from the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) in 2015. For four decades, he has carried out research, taught and supervised students as well as participated in policy debates on different aspects of agriculture, the environment and African and international development policies. His output has been voluminous and is internationally recognised. His academic record includes research and teaching positions at universities and research institutes in Tanzania, Norway and Sweden as well as shorter assignments in several other countries.

Jordan is dominated by arid climate with limited arable land and water resources. This study focuses on crop production and water resources under trends of anticipated climate change and population growth to analyse how these affect water and food security in the country. It finds that recession of irrigated areas led to lesser food production and food security. Results indicate that climate change and population growth increase and intensify problems of water scarcity and food insecurity.

In the natural resources sector, laws are often formulated to regulate the relationship between men and the environment. Ideally, the law can play a vital role in regulating and protecting communities from adverse environmental and social impacts of mining, loss of land, biodiversity and natural wealth, as well as other human rights violations. Almost all countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have developed laws and institutions to regulate and monitor the extraction of mineral resources and their impact on the environment and people.

IATP have consistently argued that trade agreements need to respect and promote human rights, not drive a process of globalisation that privileges commercial interests and pushes public interests aside. This paper concludes that the globalisation enshrined in the free trade and investment agreements of the 1990s and 2000s have led to yet another manifestation of commercial interests trampling human rights - namely land grabs.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) recently implemented climate risk management studies in seven countries. This report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, gives a detailed summary of efforts in a Niger wetland environment to conduct one such study, incorporating climate change with three key sectors: agriculture, livestock and water resources.