This is a book about social and environmental decay in African rural landscapes endowed with natural resources. The authors present evidence based research from Cameroon-Chad, Lesotho, Niger Delta, Nigeria, East Congo, Rwanda, Sudan and Ghana to illustrate how the planet, people and profit, so far, has failed to strike a balance and provide rec-ommendations based on findings the way forward. Many of the arguments focus on the local as well rnational political economy in which resources are...

NATIONAL BESTSELLEROne of Canada’s leading voices on our energy future offers a powerful case for taking back control of our resourcesCanada has a world-class resource base and the capacity to become a world leader in the petroleum and other resource-based industries. But as former federal cabinet minister and Alberta premier Jim Prentice argues in this provocative and timely new book, we have lost our way. He outlines how our nation has re...

One of the most important yet least understood organizations in the world, the WTO is a lynchpin of globalization, allowing us to enjoy products and services from around the globe. However, it also lays bare the frailty of many industries, leading some to claim that it stokes unemployment and harms the developing world.In this engaging introduction, David Collins examines the goals of the WTO and the difficulties experienced by member countries struggling to adapt to the pressures ...

Forests and trees support sustainable agriculture. They stabilize soils and climate, regulate water flows, give shade and shelter, and provide a habitat for pollinators and the natural predators of agricultural pests. They also contribute to the food security of hundreds of millions of people, for whom they are important sources of food, energy and income. Yet, agriculture remains the major driver of deforestation globally, and agricultural, forestry and land policies are often at odds.

This highly accessible book gives readers a thorough and nuanced overview of European environmental law, covering on the basic framework and principles as well as substantive law. It provides much-needed insight into a crucial area of legal practice throughout the EU; at a time when environmental law in Member States is becoming ever less 'national' and EU regulation is growing in scope and importance. The book provides state-of-the-art insights into key pieces of legislation and topical d...

In this ambitious, challenging, yet superbly readable book, Jean-Francois Rischard first tells us what constitutes a "global" problem and then offers a brief overview of the twenty most important. He finds they all have two things in common: They're getting worse, not better, and the standard strategies for dealing with them, such as international treaties, are woefully inadequate to the task. The chief problem is that in our high-population, fast-moving, globalized and interconnected worl...

The collection of lectures and publications from the Schumacher Center for a New Economics represents some of the foremost voices on a new economics.In this lecture, Gar Alperovitz starts to formulate a response to the simple yet unnerving question: "what do you want?" He argues that the decay of the labor movement in the United States calls for new forms of progressive politics and systemic change. He offers an overview of the myriad, underreported projects and ownership structure...

America is in decline, and the rise of the East suggests a bleak future for the world's only superpower -- so goes the conventional wisdom. But what if the traditional measures of national status are no longer as important as they once were? What if America's well-being was assessed according to entirely different factors?In The Upside of Down, Charles Kenny argues that America's so-called decline is only relative to the newfound success of other countries. And there is tr...

Based on a broad literature review, this publication discusses rural women's time poverty in agriculture, elaborates on its possible causes and implications and provides insight into the various types of constraints that affect the adoption of solutions for reducing work burden. This paper raises questions about the adequacy of women's access to technologies, services and infrastructure and about the control women have over their time, given their major contributions to agriculture. It als...

The purpose of this paper is examine the notion of tenure in connection with water resources and to explore whether the concept of water tenure has the potential to make a useful contribution towards resolving the world's water resources challenges. It seeks to provide answers to the following questions: (a) What is water tenure? (b) Does water tenure really exist or is water simply too different from other natural resources? (c) Could the concept of water tenure be useful in terms of the ...

This report presents strategies that can leverage the potential of food systems to become the engine of inclusive economic development and rural prosperity in low-income countries. It analyses the structural and rural transformations now under way, and examines the opportunities and challenges they present to millions of small-scale food producers. It shows how an "agroterritorial" planning approach, focused on connecting cities and towns and their surrounding rural areas, combined with ag...

South Africa's rainbow nation has become a restless nation. Citizens are faced with poor service delivery and corruption, while a new bling culture has infected both politics and business. Renowned political commentator William Gumede takes a fearless look at these and other burning issues which threaten the South African democracy: leadership battles within the ANC, attacks on the constitution, black economic empowerment strategies which only benefit a few, racism and moral bankruptcy. Do...