Causal pathways in environmental governance

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I’ve been silent for several months. I’m hoping that in the new year I can get back to a regular monthly schedule.   In an earlier post, I argued that formal land tenure systems—including policies and laws aimed at...

Objectives for the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists

Objectives of the IYRP During its meeting in late September and early October of this year, the United Nations Committee on Agriculture (COAG) endorsed the proposal to declare 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP).  There are further...

It’s not always a collective action problem

Commons thinking has had a profound influence on how we understand sustainability, land rights, and natural resource management.  This school of thought traces its origins most notably to Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom and believes that under the right circumstances...

Communal Land Tenure is a Hammer

It has become accepted wisdom that effective land governance is an unavoidable prerequisite for investment in the future and secure land tenure is the cornerstone of land governance.  It is seen as a pillar in the fight against poverty and a precondition for...

Are all ecosystems meant to be forests?

Are all ecosystems meant to be forests? The implied answer to this question, embedded in the way that the increasingly influential sustainable landscapes movement describes itself, is apparently “yes”.  The title of one of the leading initiatives—the Global...