The global financial roller coaster, with the Euro zone as its lead car, has hit economic prospects across the globe. The South African economy, with its close links to the world economy, has suffered, too, resulting in weakened growth prospects, lower fiscal revenues, lower and more volatile valuation of the rand, and dampened external financing. This further compounds the policy challenges facing the authorities, on top of their preoccupation with unyielding unemployment, which requires higher and more inclusive economic growth.

Vietnam's rapid and sustained economic growth and poverty reduction in the last two decades benefitted from the policy and legal reforms embodied in the Land Laws of 1987, 1993 and 2003 and subsequent related legal acts. This note outlines reforms related to four main themes. The first relates to the needed reform for agriculture land use to create opportunity to enhance effectiveness of land use as well as to secure farmers' rights in land use. Prolonging the duration of agricultural land tenure would give land users greater incentives to invest and care for the land.

By the year 2020, Ha Long will be a city of tourism, a center of seaborne commerce, a commercial capital and playing the role of a core urban area in the Northern region of Vietnam. It will be a place that will attract investment and tourism from all over the world with a growing, dynamic, stable economy which is environmentally friendly. Ha Long city will become an urban development co-existing harmoniously with the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth has slowed to a nine year low of 6.5 percent for FY2011-12, from 8.4 percent in the two previous years. The slowdown was most pronounced in the industrial sector, and more specifically in manufacturing and mining. In the quarter ending in June 2012, industrial output growth as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has been negative. The contraction was particularly pronounced in the production of capital goods, which is in line with falling investment demand on the expenditure side of the National Accounts.

Reforestation measures for degraded lands, strategies for the sustainable management of forest resources, and agroforestry practices that incorporate trees into farming systems are increasingly demonstrating their promise for producing commercialized tree products. Although the level of investment so far has remained modest, the challenge is to find ways to scale up promising investments in a way that will have a clear impact at the landscape level.

China's success in addressing food problems after adopting the reforms in 1978 has been nothing less than remarkable. Grain output (rice, wheat and maize) has almost doubled and most hunger has been eliminated. Ever since China embarked on its reform agenda more than 30 years ago, its economic growth and poverty reduction have been nothing less than remarkable. Agriculture has been an important contributor to these developments.

International food prices spiked for the second time in four years in early 2011, igniting concerns about a repeat of the 2008 food price crisis and its consequences for the poor. International food price uncertainty has also increased along with average levels. Although price volatility is an intrinsic characteristic of agricultural markets, it has increased markedly over the last five years, compared to the previous two and a half decades, even when controlling for inflation.

Tanzania's land, local government and forest laws mean that rural communities have well defined rights to own, manage and benefit from forest and woodland resources within their local areas through the establishment of village forests. This approach, known by practitioners as Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) results in the legal establishment of village land forest reserves, community forest reserves or private forests. By 2008, 1,460 villages on mainland Tanzania1 were involved in establishing or managing village forests covering a total of over 2.345 million hectares.

In 2011, India's economic growth has slowed to below 7 percent and the stock markets mirrored the weakening economic conditions, but recovered somewhat in early 2012. Industrial sector output growth briefly slipped into negative territory. On the demand side, fixed investment and consumption growth slowed. India's exports were growing very strongly through 2011 despite the worsening economic conditions in Europe, which continued to be India's most important export market.

For Ghana's national REDD plus scheme to be viable, the rights to carbon or the emission credits generated must be clearly delineated, and be accompanied by equitable and efficient benefit sharing systems. There are a number of approaches that the State can use to determine whom to vest the right to carbon in. If defined as a natural resource, the state would be vested with the rights. If recognized as an ecosystem service, then the right to the benefits would be vested in the owner of the trees.

This publication is the result of an initiative to promote an exchange between Brazil and African countries on lessons learned about the role of community forestry as a strategic option to achieve the goals of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). The initiative was supported by the World Bank with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and coordinated by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) with support from the National Forestry Agency International (ONFI).

This policy note provides an assessment of some of the impacts and proposed policy responses to problems related to the drought, including the rise in food prices. To address immediate needs, the humanitarian response to the drought is being managed by the Government of Kenya and a number of international organizations including the World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).