It was a busy seven years in Bern. This spring, the Global Land Programme, an international network of land system specialists, moved its coordination office from CDE to the University of Maryland in the US. We wanted to know from the key people behind the scenes: What were the highlights? What challenges went unsolved? And what opportunities are opened up thanks to the new GLP headquarters?

Roads, rails, ports – projects aimed at launching or expanding transit routes from Asia to Europe are mounting. In the middle of it all are the countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus. What do the mega-infrastructure projects mean for the local populations? This question was studied in a CDE pilot project on Georgia's west-east axis.

Switzerland imports 96% of its fish. Given their environmental and socio-economic effects, existing measures are insufficient to ensure sustainable fisheries production – especially in terms of social dimensions such as labour and human rights. Our new project aims to chart a path forward towards more sustainable fish imports.

The government of Laos has committed to a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth strategy. In practice, however, problems implementing this strategy abound. Export-oriented land investments, for example, still often have undesired environmental and social impacts. A new project aims to improve the sustainability of land management and governance in Laos by means of enhanced knowledge, capacities, and processes in both government and the private sector that promote quality investments and climate-resilient practices.

When it comes to fighting poverty, the prescription of most economists is growth. This means growth of agriculture in many low-income countries where production of food and commodity crops is the biggest employer. But there are risks – especially for local populations marginalized by rising commercial activity or incorporated into it on adverse terms. Based on evidence from the coffee heartlands of Rwanda and Laos, this policy brief highlights tools for measuring the impacts of agricultural growth on poverty in rural areas. And it emphasizes the oft-overlooked importance of labour dynamics in such settings.

Cities have become one of the main settings for addressing rising resource use and growing inequality. Commons initiatives can play an important role here – and also be a way of countering the rising costs of rent, believes Jean-David Gerber, Professor at the University of Bern’s Institute of Geography and CDE member. In a new research project with CDE, he investigates such forms of organization in both Switzerland and Ghana.