Ongoing land degradation in Ethiopia requires urgent action, and has been addressed at different levels of society, including widespread soil and water conservation activities, and the introduction of technologies which integrate local knowledge and farmer's initiatives. This comment, drawing on extensive research on soil erosion processes in Ethiopia since 1994, in intense cooperation with farmers and local authorities, challenges the conclusions of a paper published in this journal on environmental rehabilitation and rapid agricultural intensification for food self-sufficiency in Ethiopia (Keeley & Scoones 2000). In our view, this paper firstly underestimates the importance of environmental degradation and apparently rejects current conservation techniques and policy, and secondly makes an artificial contradiction between environmental rehabilitation policy and a participatory approach. In our experience, and in line with studies reviewed elsewhere, natural resources conservation in Ethiopia is directed towards an integration of food self-sufficiency with conservation/restoration of the environment, and frequently follows a participatory approach.

State/civil society interaction in Botswana displays patterns characterised by mutual criticism in each other's presence, the willingness of state officials to meet and exchange views with non-state leaders, and the media's role of reminding the contestants to meet and exchange views. The Botswana political culture compels/constrains contestants to meet and exchange views rather than to disengage and resort to the trading of unpleasant remarks in the media and to industrial action on the street. The theoretical implication is that political culture vitally shapes state/civil society interaction and should not be ignored by researchers who seek to define/characterise strong/weak civil societies.

The Mano River basin area has become a conflict zone, in which state failure and violence in Liberia has spread to Sierra Leone and the forest region of Guinea. This article traces the origins of the conflicts to governance failures in all three states, and analyses their incorporation into a single conflict system, orchestrated especially through the entrepreneurial abilities and ambitions of Charles Taylor. Peace settlements negotiated to end the violence in Liberia and Sierra Leone failed, both because of the misconceived power-sharing formula that they embodied, and because they failed to take account of the complex linkages between conflicts across the basin area. The way forward lies in a multilevel basin-wide approach, which seeks to move beyond the failed formula of attempting to reconstitute state power, in favour of constructing institutions of accountable democratic governance at multiple levels from the local level to the regional level and beyond.

We appreciate the opportunity to engage with Nyssen et al.'s (2004, this issue) response to our earlier JMAS paper (Keeley & Scoones 2000). While they make a number of important points – many of which we agree with – we feel, however, that they fundamentally misrepresent our paper, and miss the central argument. This may be due to lack of clarity on our part, so, to kick off our response, it is perhaps worth reiterating the key points of the original piece.