Community management

The Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI) is an Africa-wide environmental-governance research and training program focusing on enabling responsive and accountable decentralization to strengthen the representation of forest-based rural people in local-government decision making.

The Responsive Forest Governance Initiative (RFGI) is an Africa-wide environmental-governance research and training program focusing on enabling responsive and accountable decentralization to strengthen the representation of forest-based rural people in local-government decision making.

Natural resource governance is central to the outcomes of biodiversity conservation efforts and to patterns of economic development, particularly in resource-dependent rural communities. This volume examines the political dynamics of natural resource governance processes through a range of comparative case studies across east and southern Africa.

Rangelands are large natural landscapes that can include grasslands, shrublands, savannahs and woodlands. They are greatly influenced by, and often dependent on, the action of herbivores. In the majority of rangelands the dominant herbivores are found in domestic herds that are managed by mobile pastoralists. Most pastoralists manage their rangelands communally, benefitting from the greater flexibility and seasonal resource access that common property regimes can offer.

A vast number of national parks and protected areas throughout the world have been established in the customary territories of indigenous peoples. In many cases these conservation areas have displaced indigenous peoples, undermining their cultures, livelihoods, and self-governance, while squandering opportunities to benefit from their knowledge, values and practices.

Policy Matters is a peer reviewed journal published electronically and in print by IUCN’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). Policy Matters is published to encourage in-depth research and analysis into issues within the wide spectrum of issues included in the Commission’s mandate. Each edition of Policy Matters addresses a specific theme and appoints an editorial team and peer reviewers based on their expertise in the subject matter.

Concerns about food and energy security, coupled with increasing returns from agriculture, have increased interest in agricultural investments in developing countries. Public debates about 'land grabbing' have questioned the socio-economic impacts of large-scale land acquisitions. There is new interest in business models involving collaboration between companies and communities.