Security of land tenure for the urban poor is now a major problem for developing cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This book presents and analyzes the main conclusions of a comparative research programme on land tenure issues. It looks at how solutions can be found and implemented to respond to the demands and needs of the majority of squatters and informal settlements, and analyzes how urban stakeholders, with different social, legal and economic constraints, find innovative and flexible solutions. The book is intended to fill a gap in the literature on comparative research on tenure policies and should be useful to researchers and professionals involved in defining and instigating tenure upgrading policies and programmes.

Farmers, who own or rent most of the private land in America, hold the key not only to the nation's food supply, but also to managing community growth, maintaining an attractive landscape, and protecting water and wildlife resources. While the issue of protecting farmland and open space is not new, the intensity of the challenge has increased. Farmers are harder pressed to make a living, and rural and suburban communities are struggling to accommodate increasing populations and the development that comes with them. Holding Our Ground can help landowners and communities devise and implement effective strategies for protecting farmland. The book: discusses the reasons for protecting farmland and how to make those reasons widely known and understood describes the business of farming, federal government farm programs, and the role of land in farmers's decisions analyzes federal, state, and local farmland protection efforts and techniques explores a variety of land protection options including purchase of development rights; transfer of development rights; private land trusts; and financial, tax, and estate planning reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the farmland protection tools available The authors describe the many challenges involved in protecting farmland and explain how to create a package of techniques that can meet those challenges. In addition, they offer appendixes with model zoning ordinances, nuisance disclaimers, conservation easements, and other documents that individuals and communities need to carry out the programs discussed. Holding Our Ground provides citizens, elected officials, planners, and landowners with a solid basis for understanding the issues behind farmland protection, and will be an invaluable resource in developing techniques and programs for achieving long-term protection goals.

Security of land tenure for the urban poor is now a major problem for developing cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This book presents and analyzes the main conclusions of a comparative research programme on land tenure issues. It looks at how solutions can be found and implemented to respond to the demands and needs of the majority of squatters and informal settlements, and analyzes how urban stakeholders, with different social, legal and economic constraints, find innovative and flexible solutions. The book is intended to fill a gap in the literature on comparative research on tenure policies and should be useful to researchers and professionals involved in defining and instigating tenure upgrading policies and programmes.

A massacre along the Rio Grande draws Bishop and his SAINT team to the border with Mexico. Their investigation soon reveals a local conflict that challenges the Texan’s moral compass while testing the Alliance’s commitment to individual freedoms. Butter finds himself at the center of the dilemma, torn between a woman who desperately needs his help and the loyalty he feels toward Bishop and the team. Lured by a girl who has captured his heart, Butter becomes a pawn in a high stakes political game in which he is accused of murder and sentenced to death. Bishop and Terri must find a way to save their friend without pulling the Alliance into a conflict it cannot win.

Breaking the Ice is a comparative study of the movement for native land claims and indigenous rights in Alaska and the Western Arctic, and the resulting transformation in domestic politics as the indigenous peoples of the North gained an increasingly prominent role in the governance of their homeland. This work is based on field research conducted by the author during his nine-year residency in the Western Arctic. Zellen discusses the major conflicts facing Alaskan Natives, from the struggle to regain control over their land claims to the Native alienation from the corporate structure and culture and the resulting resurgence in tribalism. He shows that while the forces of modernism and traditionalism continued to clash, these conflicts were mediated by the structures of co-management, corporate development, and self-government created by the region's comprehensive land claims settlements. Breaking the Ice gives testimony to the achievements of Alaskan Natives through peaceful negotiation, and argues that the age of land claims has transmuted this same tribal force into something else altogether in the North: a peaceful force to spawn the emergence of new structures of Aboriginal self-governance.

Will Settles is an aerospace scientist who finds himself in such a situation, that he has to ask himself, How on earth did I get myself here? By here he means literally on the moon. His story begins with Will on his knees in full space gear with the second love of his life P.J. in his arms. P.J. is badly injured. He asked himself this question and begins to flash back on the events that took place on earth that truly got him on the moon with the woman of his dreams, who herself, is a world renowned astrophysicist .

Appalachia first entered the American consciousness as a distinct region in the decades following the Civil War. The place and its people have long been seen as backwards and 'other' because of their perceived geographical, social, and economic isolation.