Drawing on experience in Europe and wider literature, this paper offers some critical reflections on how—and under what conditions—the EU might support the development of innovative participatory approaches for the management of agricultural biodiversity in Europe.

The recent spike in food prices has led to a renewal of interest in agricultural issues and in the long-term drivers of food prices. Urbanization has been mentioned as one possible cause of higher food prices.

Rapid increases in food prices in 2007 and the first half of 2008 attracted high-level policy attention. During the course of 2008, the United Nations organized an inter-agency High-Level Taskforce on the Global Food Security Crisis and issued a Comprehensive Framework for Action.

This multimedia publication is aimed at policy makers, students, civil society groups, and development communication specialists. The book describes the way co-inquirers worked together in the drylands of Southern India to produce social and ecological knowledge for sustainability, autonomy and equity. Their collective and empowering experience is vividly captured by marginalised women farmers who are also village level film makers - The Community Media Trust of the Deccan Development Society (DDS). Twelve videos make up the four DVD set accompanying the publication.

This paper presents the findings of a study of the impact of Guinean pastoral legislation carried out on behalf of IIED as part of its sub-regional “Making Decentralisation Work” programme. Experience in Guinea shows that grassroots ownership of the pastoral legislation is essential if it is to be applied effectively. In order to meet this challenge herders’ organisations need to be more aware of and engage with the issues involved in natural resource management and ongoing processes of decentralisation. The evaluation of the experience in Guinea indicates that formulating legislation or translating it into national languages is not enough to ensure its dissemination and appropriation by local communities.

This issue describes the multiple linkages between rural and urban areas, with papers drawn from 13 nations. A large and growing proportion of rural households have urban components to their livelihoods, while most rural households rely on urban areas for access to markets and services. Many urban households have rural components to their livelihoods and retain strong links with rural areas, while some keep part of their asset base in rural areas.

Small-scale family farming which has supported West Africans for thousands of years may be newly vulnerable under conditions of open, competitive global markets and processes of globalisation which transfer economic advantage to the rich nations. Since the early 1960s, long-term data series have evolved relating to many critical parameters of development. The purpose of this study is to examine some of the series relating to agriculture, with a view to exposing major strengths (or weaknesses) of the family farming sector, i.e. smallholder farming and livestock keeping systems. Knowledge of the evolution of these systems will help identify appropriate policies for the future.