India's forest policy regime enacted so far had alienated the common users of their property rights in the name of forest and wildlife conservation. However, poor conservation outcomes have forced planners to reconsider the role of the forest community in resource use and conservation. Presence of a deep-rooted economic, social, cultural and ethical difference between members of Forest Protection Committee (FPC) constrains group behaviour and their capacity to modify regulations governing resource use.

Key Developments:
• Displacement and humanitarian needs continue to increase in Kachin State due to continued instability.
A UN team visited Laiza in Kachin State and provided household family kits to IDPs...
• Serious concern over southern Chin State Food insecurity.

This study assesses the determinants of forest land allocation to households in the forest tenure reforms in China in the period 1980-2005 using data from three provinces in Southern China; Fujian, Jiang Xi and Yunnan. Furthermore, it assesses the current level of tenure security on forest land and how this tenure security is affected by past and more recent policy changes.

In Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, a decentralized approach to land administration promises more accessible dispute resolution and a better deal for women. Among the challenges however, are old social attitudes that pre-empt discussion about women’s right to control land. In Lira district, for example, in-laws and land-grabbers routinely chase widows off land. A “viciously vibrant land market” often means that women are swindled in Bugunda district.

The objective is to record current living customary law and ways in which it is moving in progressive directions so that this information can be used towards justice, as evidence in court cases, and in policy development and political engagement from local to national levels.

Despite formal legal recognition of women’s land rights, no government institution is mandated to protect women’s land rights or to ensure their legal implementation and enforcement. The roles of decentralized land administration institutions do not include the protection of women’s land rights. More importantly, District Land Boards only control the allocation of public land and not private or customary. Several land dispute resolution institutions co-exist without clear coordination mechanisms.

For decades, efforts to distribute agricultural land more equitably consistently excluded women. Then, a groundbreaking research project made women part of the discussion. It set the stage for a provincial campaign that for the first time in Pakistan’s history transferred land to poor women.

Women in many African countries have a legal right to
own land, but this often means little in areas where
“customary law” prevails. As a result, researchers in two
countries have come to believe that women’s security
of tenure depends as much on addressing social
assumptions as on enacting legal reforms.