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262. A Matter of Trust: Why Congress Should Turn Federal Lands into Fiduciary Trusts
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service collectivelymanagewell over a quarter of the land in theUnited States.Although everyone agrees that the landsandresourcesmanagedbytheseagencies are exceedingly valuable, the lands collectively cost taxpayers around $7 billion per year.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Civil Society, Environment, Government, and Privatization
263. Land titling and tenure security in the context of inequality
- Author:
- Rikke Broegaard
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The stated goal of land titling and administration projects supported worldwide by development agencies like the World Bank is to strengthen property rights for the poor. Formal property rights, it is argued, lead to increased tenure security, which in turn encourages property rights holders to invest. Hence, strengthening property rights for the poor contributes to facilitate pro-poor economic growth and a more equitable development. However, the link between formal land titles and tenure security is assumed rather than based on empirical evidence. This DIIS-brief reviews this and other key assumptions underlying land titling and administration interventions. Findings from research that explores rural landowners' own perceptions of the factors that constitute tenure security highlight the importance of formal titles for perceived tenure security, but only in combination with other resources. Therefore, to single out formal titles as being equal to or the most important element in tenure security does not correspond with people's perceptions. Thus, promoting land titling as the policy intervention to strengthen tenure security does not appear to be a feasible strategy for addressing the highly complex problem of insecure land tenure for the rural poor. On the contrary, emerging evidence suggests that land titling tends to make land more readily available to a larger and more resourceful circle of potential buyers. Thus, rather than facilitating pro-poor and equitable development, land titling projects may clear the road for large-scale concentrations of land that gradually exclude the rural poor.
- Topic:
- Security, Agriculture, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- Europe
264. The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global Food Security for the 21st Century
- Author:
- Alex Evans
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- Global food prices have eased significantly from their record highs in the first part of 2008. As a worldwide economic downturn has gathered pace, commodity markets have weakened significantly. By October 2008, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Price Index stood at 164, the same level as in August 2007, and 25% lower than the Index's high of 219 in June 2008.
- Topic:
- Agriculture and Food
265. Food Futures: Rethinking UK Strategy
- Author:
- Kate Bailey, Susan Ambler-Edwards, and Alexandra Kiff
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Chatham House
- Abstract:
- Over the next few decades, the global food system will come under renewed pressure from the combined effects of seven fundamental factors: population growth, the nutrition transition, energy, land, water, labour and climate change. The combined effects will create constraints on food supply and if action is not taken, there is a real potential for demand growth to outstrip increases in global food production. Effects on developing countries would be devastating. Developed countries will be affected too. Expectations of abundant and ever cheaper food could come under strain. The UK can no longer afford to take its food supply for granted.
- Topic:
- Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, Demographics, Globalization, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom
266. Achieving sustainable natural resource management in the Sahel after the era of desertification
- Author:
- Simon Bolwig, Signe Marie Cold-Ravnkilde, Kjeld Rasmussen, Tine Breinholt, and Michael Mortimore
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper provides a review of the experience gained through Danish and inter-national research and development projects within the field of sustainable natural-resource management (NRM) over the last ten years in the Sahel. It is based on a larger background study edited by Bolwig, Rasmussen and Hansen (Bolwig et al. 2008b), supplemented with new material, including a questionnaire survey targeted at experienced Danish researchers and development professionals. It addresses eco-nomic, institutional, governance, gender and environmental aspects of sustainable NRM. The main themes emerging from the review concern: 1) the functioning of the agricultural market, the significance of market failures and the regulation of markets to mitigate adverse social and environmental impacts; 2) the relationship between NRM, land tenure security and property right regimes; 3) the complexities of modern – central and decentralised – and customary institutions involved in the NRM domain; and 4) the environmental and climate change trends observed in the past and foreseen for the future. For each theme, we review recent findings and discuss how these may (or should) affect policies of relevance to NRM. Relative to past policies and practices, these findings do suggest revisions. First, the need for a strengthened focus on market functioning and on increasing the economic and social benefits to the rural poor from participation in NRM-based value chains. Second, the need to adjust policies on land tenure (including land-titling ), decentralization and NRM institution-building. Finally, national strategies and action plans for combating desertification and adapting to climate change should take account of the fact that the Sahel has generally been 'greening' over the last 25 years, and that the climate change outlook may not be as bleak as often presumed.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, and International Political Economy
267. Thought for Food: A New Dataset on Innovation for Agricultural Use
- Author:
- Daniel K. N. Johnson and Christopher Ryan Hughes
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Department of Economics and Business, Colorado College
- Abstract:
- Agriculture, like many primary and service sectors, is a frequent recipient of innovation intended for its use, even if those innovations originate in industrial sectors. The challenge has been identifying them from patent data, which are recorded for administrative purposes using the International Patent Classification (IPC) system. We reprogram a well-tested tool, the OECD Technology Concordance (OTC), to identify 16 million patents granted between 1975 and 2006 worldwide which have potential application in agriculture. This paper presents the methodology of that dataset's construction, introduces the data via summaries by nation and industrial sector over time, and suggests some potential avenues for future exploration of empirical issues using these data.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Science and Technology, Food, and Famine
268. Rebuilding Zimbabwe: Australia's role in supporting the transition
- Author:
- Joel Negin and Jolyon Ford
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- Zimbabwe's long night is by no means over. Nearly a year after the violent and disputed March 2008 elections, and months after the September signing of a 'Global Political Agreement' with the ruling ZANU-PF party, the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agreed in February to take part in a coalition government in which its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, became Prime Minister. The state apparatus in Zimbabwe is currently shared uneasily by reformers and reactionaries with each of the MDC and ZANU-PF having half of the cabinet seats. Hardline ZANU-PF elements remain in government and control the security services, and a quiet but intense power struggle continues.
- Topic:
- Security, Agriculture, Development, Foreign Aid, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Australia, and Zimbabwe
269. Biosecurity: Task Forces on Strengthening Multilateral Security Capacity
- Author:
- Pim Valdre
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Peace Institute
- Abstract:
- Unprecedented progress in biotechnology holds the prospect of historic improvements in the welfare of humankind. Used responsibly, biotechnology can help address food insecurity, improve human health, provide solutions for environmental degradation, and help countries leapfrog in technological development. Used carelessly, or misused deliberately, biotechnology could inflict considerable human suffering—from the disastrous effects of bioweapons, to the accidental and deliberate spread of disease by state and nonstate actors.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Demographics, Third World, and Food
270. What Happened to the Seasons? Changing seasonality may be one of the major impacts of climate change
- Author:
- Steve Jennings and John Magrath
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- The timing of rain, and intra-seasonal rainfall patterns are critical to smallholder farmers in developing countries. Seasonality influences farmers' decisions about when to cultivate and sow and harvest. It ultimately contributes to the success or failure of their crops. Worryingly, therefore, farmers are reporting that both the timing of rainy seasons and the pattern of rains within seasons are changing. These perceptions of change are striking in that they are geographically widespread and because the changes are described in remarkably consistent terms. In this paper, we relate the perceptions of farmers from several regions(East Asia, South Asia, Southern and East Africa, and Latin America) of how seasons are changing, and in some cases, how once distinct seasons appear to be disappearing altogether, and the impacts that these changes are having. We then go on to ask two critical questions. Firstly, do meteorological observations support farmers' perceptions of changing seasonality? Secondly, to what extent are these changes consistent with predictions from climate models? We conclude that changing seasonality may be one of the major impacts of climate change faced by smallholder farmers in developing countries over the next few decades. Indeed, this may already be the case. Yet it is relatively unexplored in the literature. We also suggest some of the key adaptation responses that might help farmers cope with these changes.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, and Energy Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa, East Asia, and Latin America