This paper seeks to answer a number of basic questions. First of all just what are land tenure rights and water rights? Second, how do the respective regimes compare? Third what linkages, if any, are there between land tenure rights and water rights and, if there are none, does this matter, either in general or as regards specific aspects of the interface? A key objective of the paper is to examine which aspects of the rights interface merit further research. In comparing the two regimes a final subsidiary objective of this paper is to try and identify which areas, if any, in one sector can shed light on areas for future research in the other.

Estimates of groundwater recharge and discharge rates are needed at many different scales for many different purposes. These include such tasks as evaluating landslide risks, managing groundwater resources, locating nuclear waste repositories, and estimating global budgets of water and greenhouse gasses. Groundwater Fluxes Across Interfaces focuses on scientific challenges in (1) the spatial and temporal variability of recharge and discharge, (2) how information at one scale can be used at another, and (3) the effects of groundwater on climate and vice versa.

Based on information gathered mainly through national surveys, the study provides an overview of the main legal instruments governing the management of animal genetic resources at the national level. Relevant international and regional regulatory frameworks are also examined. As the policy debate on the management of animal genetic resources evolves in various fora, and as FAO develops the Global Strategy for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources, the discussion on legal issues will take centre stage. The study aims to contribute to such discussion through a general assessment of the status of national regulatory frameworks and general recommendations for national legislation development

The University of Milan’s SHuS (Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Sustainability and Human Security: Co-operation and Governance agendas) offers a collection of high standard contributions and testimonies of good practice analyzing the complex subjects of access to rights and resources worldwide. This to a world looking to the future and projecting its goals of sustainable development. The thirty three contributors took part in the Milan University sessions of the International Conference dedicated to Land, Water and Resources Rights, organized by the Editor under the auspices of the EU-Joint Research Centre Expo 2015 and the City of Milan Scientific Committee for Expo 2015. With no claims to being exhaustive, the multi-disciplinary approach and the inter-disciplinary perspectives adopted to the topics are enforced by suggestions for political and legal approaches that a regional structure like the EU should be adopting to prevent legitimization leading to severe forms of injustice against communities and individuals. SHuS has chosen open access to this e-book in order to create a seamless connection between scientific communities and the wider civil society. Thus it underscores one of the priorities of the Centre by ensuring the greatest possible impact of much needed multifaceted scientific approaches to society and the problems afflicting it.

Collective Action is now recognized as central to addressing the water governance challenge of delivering sustainable development and global environmental benefits. This book examines concepts and practices of collective action that have emerged in recent decades globally. Building on a Foucauldian conception of power, it provides an overview of collective action challenges involved in the sustainable management and development of global freshwater resources through case studies from Africa, South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. The case studies link community-based management of water resources with national decision-making landscapes, transboundary water governance, and global policy discussion on sustainable development, justice and water security. Power and politics are placed at the centre of collective action and water governance discourse, while addressing three core questions: how is collective action shaped by existing power structures and relationships at different scales? What are the kinds of tools and approaches that various actors can take and adopt towards more deliberative processes for collective action? And what are the anticipated outcomes for development processes, the environment and the global resource base of achieving collective action across scales?

Southern Africa is well-blessed with a diverse and vibrant human population and a wealth of natural capital. The key challenge for sustainable development is to grow society?s capacity to use this natural capital to meet the needs of the region?s human population, especially the poor, in ways that sustain environmental life-support systems. Collaborating across disciplines, the authors explore the underpinning principles and the potential of sustainability science in a number of case studies.