The Bac Lieu Province in the Mekong Delta is part

of the Cà Mau Peninsula and is an important foodgrowing

area in Viet Nam. It has a population of

830,000 with approximately 116,000 farming families

living on small parcels of land producing a range of

commodities for food security and the export market.

These farmers and aquaculturalists1 (together called

producers in this report) are highly dependent on

accessing the right quality water, fresh or saline or

both, at the right time to grow their crops or raise

Secondary and logged-over tropical forests cover more than 600 million hectares. An international workshop held in Bogor (Indonesia) in November 1997 provided a forum of discussion on the research priorities for the sustainable management of secondary forests in Indonesia and more generally in South East Asia. Secondary forests were defined as: "woody vegetation regrowing on land whose previous forest cover was destroyed by at least 90 % by human activities or natural disaster".

Presents papers and abstracts on the management of vertisols in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the world. Overviews the importance, distribution, agroclimatology and properties of vertisols and the Indian Vertisol technology experience. Reviews resource assessment and management and highlights inter-institutional modes of operation and networking concepts in Vertisol research and development.

In 2002, mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) was listed on Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). This requires that all producing countries define and implement sustainable production systems for mahogany, the most commercially important neotropical timber, which is still harvested from natural forests. The only serious efforts to produce mahogany sustainably from managed natural forests are those of communities in Quintana Roo, Mexico, which control 800,000 of natural production forests.