The latest thematic edition of the Green European Journal investigates the commons and reveals the wide-ranging spectrum of definitions and applications of this concept that exist across Europe. Yet from the numerous local initiatives, social movements and governance models associated with this term – is it possible to identify the outline of a commons-based approach that could […]
BOOK: Eating, Drinking, Surviving
A new open-access book on global food and water security "Eating, Drinking: Surviving" has been published by Springer. The publication addresses the global challenges of food and water security in a rapidly changing and complex world. The chapters highlight the links between bio-physical and socio-cultural processes, making connections between local and global scales, and focusing […]
PUBLICATION: Integrated Systems Research for Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture in the Central Mekong: Achievements and Challenges of Implementing Integrated Systems Research
This book is the result of research for development activities implemented from 2013 to 2016 in Central Mekong Action Area of Humidtropics, the CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics. The objective of this book is to demonstrate achievements made, as well as challenges faced, while implementing integrated systems research to promote […]
PUBLICATION: Guidelines to Engage with Marginalized Ethnic Minorities in Agricultural Research for Development in the Greater Mekong
This document is an output of Humidtropics, a CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics. This document is designed to help researchers who want to engage with ethnic groups to ensure agricultural research for development (R4D) stops contributing to their further marginalization. It can be used by those wanting to design new […]
PUBLICATION: Impacts of Community-Based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains on Income, Food Security and Employment in Bangladesh
This paper examines the impact of community based fish culture in seasonal floodplains on fish production, consumption, income, and food security of the participating households in Bangladesh. An analysis was performed using a randomly selected 46 % of the households from the three project and control floodplains; data were collected using longitudinal surveys on a seasonally, […]
PUBLICATION: Gender Inequalities in Access to and Benefits Derived from the Natural Fishery in the Barotse Floodplain, Zambia, Southern Africa
People living in and around the Barotse Floodplain are some of the poorest in Zambia due to many factors restricting their abilities to engage in activities to secure food and income. Women, and in particular resident women, are especially constrained given certain gender norms and power relations that hamper them from accessing and adequately benefiting […]
PUBLICATION: New Technical Guides from Voluntary Guidelines on Tenure
Two recent guides from FAO Voluntary guidelines highlight governance of pastoral lands and the commons. Governing Tenure Rights to Commons provides strategic guidance and suggested practices for proactively implementing the standards and recommendations of the Guidelines, with the aim of recognizing and protecting tenure rights to commons and community-based governance structures. The guide was prepared by […]
PUBLICATION: Ruling the Commons. Introducing a New Methodology for the Analysis of Historical Commons
From International Journal of the Commons Despite significant progress in recent years, the evolution of commons over the long run remains an under-explored area within commons studies. During the last years an international team of historians have worked under the umbrella of the Common Rules Project in order to design and test a new methodology aimed […]
PUBLICATION: Solidarity in Water Management
Adaptation to climate change can be an inclusive and collective, rather than an individual effort. The choice for collective arrangements is tied to a call for solidarity. We distinguish between one-sided (assisting community members in need) and two-sided solidarity (furthering a common interest) and between voluntary and compulsory solidarity. We assess the strength of solidarity […]
PUBLICATION: Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the Case of Chinese Banana Investments in Northern Laos
The scholarly debate around ‘global land grabbing’ is advancing theoretically, methodologically and empirically. This study contributes to these ongoing efforts by investigating a set of ‘small-scale land acquisitions’ in the context of a recent boom in banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. In relation to the actors, scales and processes involved, the banana […]