Across rural Africa, land legislation struggles to be properly implemented, and most resource users gain access to land on the basis of local land tenure systems. There is growing recognition that land laws must build on local practice. In recent years, several African countries have adopted legislation that strengthens protection for local land rights.
Since independence, African governments have adopted policies and programmes aimed at increasing land tenure security for farmers, so as to foster agricultural investment and productivity. These policies have usually been based on systematic registration of land rights, ignoring existing customary and local institutions and largely disregarding the distributive issues underlying tenure security ("security for whom?"). The materialisation of their hoped for benefits has been generally limited, and their implementation has enabled elite capture of land and has resulted in the expropriation of the rights of weaker groups. Over the last decade, new approaches to improving tenure security have been devised, usually paying more attention to local/customary norms and practices and to protecting all rights and interests in land.
Haramata - bulletin of the drylands - published its last issue in 2010. It had established itself as a valuable information and networking channel for people working for the sustainable development of dryland areas, mainly but not exclusively in Africa. Published in English and French, it also sought to bridge the language divide between anglophone and francophone regions. The last issue was produced in collaboration with partners in East and West Africa. Haramata is now seeking funding to transform itself into a wider communications initiative.
www.regoverningmarkets.org This flagship project has recently concluded. Focusing on corporate concentration in the global food sector and its consequences for sustainable development, the goal was to secure more equitable producer and trade benefits in response to the dynamic changes in agrifood market restructuring.
Payments for environmental services (also known as payments for ecosystem services or PES), are payments to farmers or landowners who have agreed to take certain actions to manage their land or watersheds to provide an ecological service.
The farmers of southern Bangladesh have seen it all: cyclones, catastrophic flooding, silted-up rivers and creeping salination. Their South Asian homeland — a wedge of the tropics regularly exposed to searing heat and heavy monsoons — is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries on Earth.
Citizens' juries are processes that aims to link local voices and visions with national and international policy making. The idea of making a decision or judgement based on an often randomly selected group of members of society has been accepted in many countries for hundreds of years. The composition of a jury and the way jurors are chosen varies considerably from country to country.
www.agrifoodstandards.net
This programme explored opportunities for small-scale producers in developing countries to participate in international horticultural supply chains - particularly those in the UK. The programme was a three-year collaboration between DFID, IIED and NRI.
* 26 power tools based on experience from around the world
* Discussion of power tools in theory and practice
* Related research on policy tools in action
* A directory of the many other websites that contain policy tool resources
Freshwater ecosystem services – the benefits obtained by people from rivers, swamps, floodplains and groundwater systems – are central to human well-being.
The world is facing an energy crisis with major global and local implications. Energy issues need to be addressed holistically, based on integrated models and approaches and involving multiple stakeholders. IIED's work on energy currently focuses on two key areas: governance of large-scale energy sector development (oil, gas, biofuels); and models for delivery of sustainable decentralised energy services.
After six years of being a subsidiary of IIED, the Foundation for International Law and Development (FIELD) has re-established itself as an independent NGO. FIELD works with local partners, NGOs and institutions and has a worldwide reputation for expertise in the development and application of international environmental law and for siding with the disadvantaged.
The Environmental Economics Programme together with SouthSouthNorth prepared a carbon finance toolkit for the Community Development Carbon Fund of the World Bank. This is aimed at multiple audiences including Task Team Leaders, Local Government and local communities to help them better understand carbon finance and the potential for incorporating carbon finance into community development projects.
Many small and medium forest enterprises work together in associations to reduce transaction costs, adapt to new market opportunities and shape the policy environment in their favour.
