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This research examines the form, social function, and policy implications of customary marine tenure (CMT) in Ngarchelong, a rural and fishery-dependent state in the Republic of Palau. Using ethnography, we find that CMT in Ngarchelong persists in a state of legal pluralism, expanding the normative space for asserting and contesting fishing privileges. Flexible administration of CMT provides benefits to the resident community, including material support from nonresidents and the strengthening of social bonds and networks. A fishery permit system under consideration would redefine fishery access as a privilege granted by government, thereby potentially impacting the social benefits supported by the community’s administration of CMT. With applications beyond Palau, we discuss an alternative management approach that could better harmonize fishery policy with local social context, thereby preserving the social functions of contemporary CMT.

Secondary succession in tropical deciduous forest is often characterized by vegetative reproduction, or coppicing. Coppicing is also observed in forest sites that are disturbed by farming activity. This observation raises questions about the role of established management practices in determining the succession of vegetation on farmsites once they are abandoned to fallow. To what extent is the coppicing succession the result of specific aspects of swidden farming technology and management? And what variations in coppice successions occur in swidden sites following deviations from the standard farming practice? In research on swidden farming among the Susu of Sierra Leone, I examined the successional pathway in an age series of forest fallow sites. I show that the standard pattern of minimal cultivation favors the coppicing of felled trees in the subsequent fallow periods. By contrast, deviation from this pattern results in stump deaths and favors the invasion of fallow sites by grasses and vegetatively reproducing pioneer trees from the savanna. Variations in the environmental outcome of disturbance to plant communities, then, are the result of interactions between processes of tropical tree reproduction and the agricultural practices of local farmers.

The collapse of the Classic Maya state is investigated from an ecological perspective. Settlement and palynological data from the Maya center of Copan, Honduras, are presented which indicate that substantial clearing of the upland pine forest had occurred prior to and during the abandonment of that urban center. A comparative use- rate analysis suggests that the increased clearing of pine was primarily caused by demands for domestic fuel wood by an expanding urban population. This forest mismanagement is directly linked to accelerated erosion rates which are considered primary elements in the collapse of the Maya state.

Usufruct rights to trees (Ekwar) in the Turkana silvo-pastoral system are an important aspect of natural resource management, particularly in the drier central parts of Kenya. Originating from a participatory forestry extension program, a survey was carried out that showed the extent and duration, often in excess of one generation, of occupancy of a person's Ekwar. Such rights center around the dry season fodder resources, especially of Acacia tortilis. However they are not definite and are linked to risk-spreading by flexibility in livestock management and the need that they be maintained through efficient usage and social linkages. Hitherto, such natural resource management systems have all but been ignored in the development process in favor of the “tragedy of the commons” paradigm. Likewise, pastoral development has tended to emphasize range and water, while trees are not given the attention they deserve. This endangers the resilience of the system, and it is therefore important that development works with, not against, such environmentally-sound practices to try to make them more sustainable in the long term.

Since the 1980s, forest plantations have expanded globally in response to commercial demand for wood products. Research has focused mainly on the economic and environmental impacts (carbon reduction) of the forestry industry. However, our research focuses on the social impact of large-scale forestry plantations, particularly the effect of the expansion of tree plantations on local communities. We evaluate the positive (employment and income) and negative (poverty and income inequality) externalities of the expansion of the forestry industry in Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations located in six regions of Southern Chile, where 73% of the rural Indigenous people live, over the period 1997–2015. Our findings show that the forestry industry’s expansion has not reduced unemployment or improved incomes for the Indigenous or non-Indigenous population. On the contrary, it has increased poverty and inequality between them.

This paper inquires into the reasons for the comparatively lower fertility and population growth among the Maasai (than among other Kenyan communities, particularly cultivators). It hypothesizes that a number of factors including male elder control of society, sexually transmitted diseases, seasonal food shortages, and general environmental health hazards all act together to suppress fertility. This situation must certainly change with further socioeconomic progress.