Much of mainland Southeast Asia's primary forest has been converted into secondary vegetation types in the past several decades. In the Lower Mekong Subregion, nearly 100 million ha of forest were significantly altered or removed, with depletion in terms of areal percent most severe in Thailand and Vietnam. Timber extraction and conversion of forestland to agriculture are the two principal causes of forest degradation in the region. Logged sites are often later occupied by migrant homesteaders. The current regional focus of logging has shifted to Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Forest resources share attributes with many other resource systems that make difficult their governance and management in a sustainable, efficient and equitable manner. Destruction or degradation of forest resources is most likely to occur in open-access forests where those involved, or external authorities, have not established effective governance. Conventional theories applied to forest resources presumed that forest users themselves were incapable of organizing to overcome the temptations to overharvest.

Agricultural landscapes must provide food, fiber and energy to

a growing population in a changing climate, while potentially

serving as instruments for climate change mitigation. Agriculture

is the backbone of the Kenyan economy, contributing approximately

25% of the GDP annually and employing more than 75%

of the population (The Government of Kenya 2010). The development

of agriculture is also important for poverty reduction since

most of the vulnerable groups, like pastoralists, the landless, and

Using family balance (i.e., combined net farm and non-farm incomes less family expenses), an output from an integrated model, which couples water resource, agronomic and socio-economic models, its sensitivity and uncertainty are evaluated for five smallholder farming groups (AeE) in the Olifants Basin. The crop management practiced included conventional rainfed, untied ridges, planting basins and supplemental irrigation.

With past and continued destruction of primary forest worldwide, secondary forest constitute a large and growing component of forest cover and have been found to be very important for a wide range of goods and services. Despite its widespread usage, there is considerable ambiguity with regard to the meaning of the term 'secondary forest' and the different forest types it encompasses.

Swidden farming is the main agent of conversion of primary forests to secondary forests in the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia, but there is a deterioration and decline of the practice with land use intensification. The population growth in northern Thailand has forced lowland farmers practising permanent wet rice cultivation to turn to short rotation swidden in the foot hill zone. Highland swidden agriculturists are adopting more intensive forms of swidden or are shifting to permanent farming.