As regulative institutions, Andean barter markets help sustain local food systems and the ecosystems in which they are embedded. Action research with indigenous communities in the Lares Valley (Department of Cusco, Peru) generated new evidence on the importance of barter markets for: - giving some of the poorest social groups in the Andes better food security and nutrition; - conserving agricultural biodiversity (genetic, species, ecosystem) through the growing and exchange of native food crops in barter markets

This review documents how community conservation can contribute to human well-being and the preservation of natural resources in southern Africa. Additional examples and experience are drawn from India, South East Asia and Central America. The report provides eight recommendations to further advance community conservation processes

PGIS is an evolved form of community mapping, the result of a spontaneous merger of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) methods with Geographic Information Technologies and Systems (GIT&S). PGIS practice is based on using geo-spatial information management tools ranging from sketch maps, participatory 3D models (P3DM), aerial photographs, satellite imagery, readings obtained through Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software as interactive vehicles for discussion, information exchange, analysis and support in decision making. If appropriately utilised, PGIS practice may have profound implications and stimulate innovation and social change. More importantly and unlike traditional GIS applications, PGIS aims at placing control on access and use of culturally sensitive spatial data in the hands of those who generated the data thereby protecting traditional knowledge and wisdom from external exploitation. The articles for this special issue were selected from papers presented at the Mapping for Change International Conference of Spatial Information Management and Communication held in Nairobi, Kenya, 7-10 September 2005.

This special edition of Participatory Learning and Action is a collation of lessons and innovative tools that have been developed by the facilitators of community-based natural resource management programmes in southern Africa and is also an important resource for facilitators in other regions. These tools have been broadly divided into two categories: facilitators tools and management tools. Tools in the former category range from Theatre for Africa's role in policy development to the CAMPFIRE Game for improving training in financial management. The managment tools have been developed to allow communities to manage wildlife in modern market economies. Examples of these tools range from the event book system developed in Namibia to the quota setting methodologies developed in Zimbabwe.

A broad arch of deforestation spans the lower Brazilian Amazon, cutting through the State of Mato Grosso. At the forest frontier, varied traditions of family farming are being adapted by migrant settlers of diverse origins. The forceful expansion of soybean plantations led by global markets is displacing family farms or incorportating them into out-growing schemes. Commodity plantations are pushing cattle ranching further into the forests. Logging is also opening up new access at the frontier. Conflicts are all but inevitable. As associations endeavor to strengthen the voice of marginalized groups their role and functions continue to evolve. This report analyses eight active associations along the BR 163 highway in Mato Grosso. It assesses the factors that have allowed them to function and spread benefits to the poor. It also identifies the types of external support that have proven useful.

Barbara Ward is remembered as one of the great intellectuals and internationalists of the 20th century. And among the first champions of sustainable development. In this book, David Satterthwaite describes her life and her works, especially the main themes of her many books. This includes a discussion of her contribution to the formative years of the Sustainable Development agenda and her role in building the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The book also includes personal recollections about Barbara Ward from Maurice Strong, David Runnalls, Sartaj Aziz and Sir Richard Jolly.

The outcomes of an electronic conference on the ‘Future of Food and Small Scale Producers’ are presented in this report. The electronic discussion primarily involved indigenous, small and family farmers, landless and fisherfolk as well as their representative organisations. The focus was on small-scale food producers – women and men who produce and harvest field and tree crops as well as livestock, fish and other aquatic organisms. The E-Conference process was thus specifically designed to allow the excluded to voice their views, analysis and priorities on the future of food, farming, environment and human well being. Contributors were invited to describe the practice and underlying rationale of farmers and indigenous peoples’ alternatives to the modernization and industrialization of food, agriculture and land/water use. The views and analysis of small scale producers that are summarised in this report offer a deeper understanding of alternative movements in rural and urban areas. Contributors explain why keeping farmers and indigenous peoples on their land is of fundamental importance for the well being of society and nature throughout the world.

Uganda's 2,000-3,000 forest-based associations play an important role in the country's sustainable development. They include community groups made up of individuals (and often with a strong social focus) and industrial groups made up of enterprises (and often with a commercial focus). They span a number of different areas: forest production (both timber and non-timber forest products), primary and secondary processing, management, training and enterprise support and environmental services (such as ecotourism or carbon sequestration projects). This report surveys 62 different associations. It charts the reasons for their formation, the systems by which they govern their activities, the distribution of costs and benefits to members and the nature of external intervention and support. It draws out lessons about the types of association that contribute most to rural livelihoods and appropriate forms of support.

Uganda's 2,000-3,000 forest-based associations play an important role in the country's sustainable development. They include community groups made up of individuals (and often with a strong social focus) and industrial groups made up of enterprises (and often with a commercial focus). They span a number of different areas: forest production (both timber and non-timber forest products), primary and secondary processing, management, training and enterprise support and environmental services (such as ecotourism or carbon sequestration projects). This report surveys 62 different associations. It charts the reasons for their formation, the systems by which they govern their activities, the distribution of costs and benefits to members and the nature of external intervention and support. It draws out lessons about the types of association that contribute most to rural livelihoods and appropriate forms of support.

Ce rapport présente les résultats d’une conférence électronique sur “l’Avenir de l’alimentation et les petits producteurs”. Cette discussion virtuelle avait pour objectif premier d'impliquer les paysans indigènes et les petits agriculteurs familiaux, ainsi que les paysans sans-terre et les pêcheurs, tout comme leurs organisations représentatives. Il s’agissait de mettre l’accent sur les petits producteurs alimentaires – les femmes et les hommes qui produisent et cultivent des ressources agricoles et arboricoles, ainsi que sur les éleveurs de bétail, de poissons et d’autres organismes aquatiques. La conférence électronique a donc été conçue spécifiquement dans l’optique de permettre aux populations exclues d’exprimer leur point de vue, leur analyse de la situation et les priorités liées à l’avenir de l’alimentation, l’agriculture, l’environnement et le bien-être humain. Il était demandé aux participants de décrire les alternatives que “les pratiques et le savoir-faire des agriculteurs et des peuples indigènes” offrent à la modernisation et l’industrialisation du secteur de la production alimentaire, de l’agriculture et de l’utilisation des terres et de l’eau.

This paper presents the Indigenous Biocultural Heritage Register, an approach developed by Andean communities in Peru in order to protect their knowledge against biopiracy and gain legal rights relating over their knowledge. The main objective of the register is to ensure the conservation, protection and promotion of indigenous peoples’ knowledge systems for sustaining their livelihoods and traditional resource rights. The Indigenous Biocultural Heritage Register, based on traditional Andean science and technology, also uses modern tools for collecting, documenting, storing, and administering the contents of the register.

The South African timber industry has been dominated by a few large companies. Meanwhile poor rural people increasingly see tree growing and timber sales as a means of improving their livelihoods. Policy frameworks have begun to recognise this too. Yet emerging South African small tree growers still operate under conditions of economic marginalisation - they have to fight for land rights and fair deals for their products. Individual growers have seen the logic of collective action - with the result that many associations have sprung up to champion members' interests. This report surveys 10 associations with the purpose of understanding what led them to form, how they make decisions, how they share costs and benefits, and what external support would be most appropriate.