This study will review the past studies of the cost of land degradation in Ethiopia, assess the major methodological and conceptual issues and problems existing in the different approaches, compare the findings across these studies considering the relative merits of the different approaches, and draw implications for policies and programs, as well as for future research related to land management in Ethiopia.

One of the most pressing problems faced by the Tunisian farmers and authorities is the inexorable decline of the water table over the past twenty years due to the over-exploitation of the groundwater. This study is an attempt to find how this issue can be resolved through collective action.

By making use of national historical data and statistical analysis, this paper argues that community-based wildlife conservation is a feasible hedge asset for agricultural production in rural Zimbabwe.

While many factors might affect biodiversity conservation, the use of economic incentives is argued to be potentially one of the most effective mechanisms for mainstreaming biodiversityconservation in bioregions. Institutions are singled out as one important class of socio-economic arrangements directly associated with economic incentives.

Using a difference-in-difference approach, this paper assesses the effects on investment of a low-cost land registration program in Ethiopia, which covered some 20 million plots over five years. Despite policy constraints, the program increased land-related investment and yielded benefits significantly above the cost of implementation.

This is an empirical exploration of villagers’ dependence on non-timber forest products in the Morogoro region in Tanzania, the decision rules used concerning where and how much they collect, how collection changes with forest degradation, and the implications of more restrictive access from participatory forest management. Villagers’ responses to increased degradation vary by forest product; some collection tends to be displaced to other forests, less of the resources are collected, and collection times increase considerably.

This paper relates principle findings in the optimal economic enforcement literature to practical issues of enforcing and managing forest and wildlife access restrictions in developing countries.

The authors identified large gaps in the theoretical literature that limit its usefulness for practical management, particularly regarding limited funding and cost recovery, multiple layers of enforcement, different incentives faced by enforcers, and conflict between protected-area managers’ job requirements and rural people’s needs.

The authors explore the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) in Tanzania that excludes villagers from traditional access to forests to collect non-timber forest products (NTFPs).

Using fieldwork and a spatial-temporal model, they focused on forest degradation and regeneration and villagers’ utility before and after PFM has been introduced. Although the PFM forest improves, they found that a moratorium on NTFP collection often adversely affects villagers’ livelihoods and more distant, less-protected forests.