The main aims of this study are to highlight the differences and the similarities between the European model of agricultural and rural development, and the state of play in the Romanian agricultural sector. Statistically speaking, the agricultural sector's indicators of the past two decades place Romania outside the family picture of the EU countries, with very slight resemblances, and very strong discrepancies between their economic, technical, and institutional characteristics.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been proposed as a model for sustainable urban and regional development beyond the troubled heritage of modernistic planning. Key to TOD is mixed use and reduced dependence on private cars. However, functionalistic land-use divides persist in the principles of TOD, such as the division between leisure and work and between permanent residences and second homes. These divides relate to, and are emphasised by, a strong focus on urban qualities within the TOD discourse, while discussions on landscape amenities are set aside.

In a world where natural capital is often unpriced or undervalued, thus making resource exploitation very lucrative, environmentally degrading activities will continue to dominate the economy. The past decade has seen a bourgeoning interest in scaling up private investment to address persistent socioeconomic and environmental challenges globally. The recently formulated sustainable development goals and global climate agenda have further heightened the urgency for a more holistic and integrated conceptualization of transitioning towards a sustainable low-carbon economy.

The relationship between forests and people is of substantial interest to peoples and agencies that govern and use them, private sector actors that seek to manage and profit from them, NGOs who support and implement conservation and development projects, and researchers who study these relationships and others. The term ⿿forest-dependent people⿿ is widely used to describe human populations that gain some form of benefits from forests.

Between 1940 and 2000, nearly 10 million housing units were constructed throughout California. This increased interaction between human and natural communities creates a number of significant socio-ecological challenges. Here we present a novel spatially explicit model that allows better characterization of the extent and intensity of future housing settlements using three development scenarios between 2000 and 2050. We estimate that California's exurban land classes will replace nearly 12 million acres of wild and agricultural lands.

Economists argue that land rent taxation is an ideal form of taxation as it causes no deadweight losses. Nevertheless, pure land rent taxation is rarely applied. This paper revisits the case of land taxation for developing countries. We first provide an up-to-date review on land taxation in development countries, including feasibility and implementation challenges. We then simulate land tax reforms for Rwanda, Peru, Nicaragua and Indonesia, based on household surveys.

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) promotes a change of European water governance towards increased stakeholder participation and water management according to river basins. To implement the WFD, new institutional arrangements are needed. In Sweden, water councils have been established on the local level to meet the requirements of the WFD of a broad stakeholder involvement in water management. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge on institutional arrangements for meeting the WFD requirements on stakeholder participation in local water management.

Within the debate about rural development policy (RDP), there has been increasing call for a stronger territorial focus emphasising the potentials, resources and demands of regions. Investments in territorial capital and regional capacity building have been considered as the two main cornerstones of a place-based approach to rural development (OECD, 2006). On the basis of an analytical literature review, we developed a framework to operationalise a place-based approach of RDP.

In this onepager, you can find details on the LAND-at-scale project in Zimbabwe. This project is implemented by FAO and BEAT, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. 

-- This project was discontinued in 2022 -- 

Malaysia has declared its vision of developed country status by the year 2020. Much has been written about its top-down development approach, its relative economic success and the social as well as environmental costs of such approach. In 2011 and 2012 the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) set into motion a national inquiry into the status of customary rights to land in the country. As part of the inquiry, a nationwide series of consultations was held over several months in 2012, culminating in formal public hearings in Peninsular Malyasia, Sarawak and Sabah.

Brazil has the fifth-largest national land area in the world and this land resource represents a critical asset for the country’s urban, agricultural, and economic development, also providing essential environmental services. Nevertheless, it has a historical lack of governance over its lands, failing to provide secure land rights and to control the extensive frauds resulting in public and private land grabs. The objective of this study is to depict evidence of these land grabs and propose a typology for analyzing them.

This article presents a comparison for the impact from lack of land governance in Brazil between livestock and agricultural production. It begins with a brief description of the land regulatory system and its development in Mato Grosso do Sul State and Brazil. The methodology was based on focus groups research, conducted by CEPEA/USP (Center for advanced Studies on Applied Economics/University of São Paulo) on local production sites in Mato Grosso do Sul state, where a regional modal farm was established.