On 18 October 2014 the Myanmar government released a much-awaited draft national land use policy. Land and how it is governed is of fundamental importance for Myanmar society. The current laws mainly benefit private companies and not small-holder farmers in the country, who represent more then 75% of the population. The current laws also do not respect traditional and customary practices of the country's ethnic minority groups. This new TNI briefing examines the draft national land policy and assesses whether it is pro-business or pro-poor.

ABSTRACTED FROM WEB INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In order to inform Myanmar’s first multi-stakeholder national dialogue workshop on land tenure and user rights (held November 24th & 25th, 2012), Forest Trend’s Senior Law & Policy Advisor Rob Oberndorf was asked to conduct an in-depth analysis of recently enacted land legislation in the country, and suggest ways in which the legal frameworks relating to rural land management could be improved. This report is the result of that research and analysis assignment.

This article examines the transition from shifting cultivation to rubber production for a study area in northern Laos PDR using an agent-based model of land-cover change. A primary objective of the model was to assess changes in household-level inequality with the transition from shifting cultivation to rubber adoption. A secondary objective was to develop explanations for the rate of rubber adoption in the study area.

Đổi Mới, the name given to the economic reforms initiated in 1986 in Vietnam, has renewed the party-state’s ambitious scheme of industrialization and has intensified the process of urbanization in Vietnam. A large area of land has been converted for these purposes, with various effects on both the state and society. This article sheds light on how land conversion has resulted in farmers’ resistance and in what way and to what extent it has transformed their livelihoods in the transitional context of contemporary Vietnam.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE OPENING PARAGRAPHS, AND THE BOOK BLURB: The decentralization of control over the vast forests of the world is moving at a rapid pace, with both positive and negative ramifications for people and forests themselves. Th[is] chapter examines LFA from the decentralized forest management perspective. In particular, it examines the process by which the policy was implemented and considers whether it helped build sustainable forest management at the community level. [It] first reviews the history of LFA and the major actors involved.

In a world of food abundance, millions of people suffer from poor nutrition. In some parts of the world, the poor have inadequate access to energy from food to meet their energy requirements. In these locations, food shortage is often a seasonal phenomenon and micronutrients are also generally lacking in the diet. Elsewhere, there is a stable supply of energy but the poor have monotonous diets lacking in essential micronutrients.

This year´s annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report takes stock of progress made towards achieving the internationally established Millennium Development Goal (MDG1) and World Food Summit hunger targets and reflects on what needs to be done, as we transition to the new post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. The report reviews progress made since 1990 for every country and region as well as for the world as a whole.

Continuing population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years. Growing competition for land, water, and energy, in addition to the overexploitation of fisheries, will affect our ability to produce food, as will the urgent requirement to reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. The effects of climate change are a further threat. But the world can produce more food and can ensure that it is used more efficiently and equitably.

The 2011 Global Food Policy Report is a new annual IFPRI publication that provides a comprehensive, research-based analysis of major food policy challenges at the global, regional, national, and local levels. It highlights important developments and events in food policy that occurred in 2011, discusses lessons learned, offers policy recommendations, presents IFPRI’s food policy tools and indicators, and takes a look forward into 2012. The Report reflects perspectives from across the globe.

Producing adequate food to meet global demand by 2050 is widely recognized as a major challenge, particularly for Africa south of the Sahara, including Tanzania (Godfray et al. 2010; Alexandratos and Bruinsma 2012; van Ittersum et al. 2016). Increased price volatility of major food crops (Koning et al. 2008; Lagi et al. 2011) and an abrupt surge in land area devoted to crop production in recent years (Grassini et al. 2013) reflect the powerful forces underpinning this challenge.

During the 20th century hunger has become a problem of poverty amidst plenty rather than absolute food scarcity. The question is whether this will remain so or whether the hunger of the poor will once more be exacerbated by rising food prices. In this paper we discuss biophysical conditions, social forces and non-linear interactions that may critically influence the global availability of food in the long term.

Global biomass demand is expected to roughly double between 2005 and 2050. Current studies suggest that agricultural intensification through optimally managed crops on today's cropland alone is insufficient to satisfy future demand. In practice though, improving crop growth management through better technology and knowledge almost inevitably goes along with (1) improving farm management with increased cropping intensity and more annual harvests where feasible and (2) an economically more efficient spatial allocation of crops which maximizes farmers' profit.