Small-scale farmers in north-central Namibia face numerous challenges, ranging from low crop yields, high rainfall variability and land degradation which is threatening the long-term productivity of the land, to social changes that are reducing the work force available for farming. This paper aims to assess existing land use practices (LUPs) and to determine their relationship to ecosystem services (ES). As agriculture (crop and livestock farming) is the dominant land use in northern Namibia, it is the main driver influencing environmental services and will be in the focus here. We suggest

Communal land is one of the land tenure systems in Namibia, the other being freehold land tenure system. At independence in 1990,Namibia resolved to retain communal land on the basis that majority of the population derived their livelihoods from communal land.Notwithstanding the increasing urban population in the country since independence, the majority of the Namibian population still lives in the communal areas, and many of the urban-based population continue to have close relations in rural areas.

Tenure risk – or the risk of dispute between investors and local people over land or natural resource claims – is endemic in emerging markets. There are hundreds of recorded incidents of tenure disputes creating delays, violence, project cancellation and even bankruptcy at a corporate level. These tenure disputes create lose-lose outcomes for investors, local people and national governments while robbing emerging markets of the developmental benefits of responsible land investments.

New research by the Quantifying Tenure Risk (QTR) initiative has revealed that land disputes can cause losses of up to $101 million across a range of agricultural projects in Africa, while at the same time causing significant harm and stress to local communities who have a claim to the land.

In response, the initiative has developed a new publicly available economic modelling tool to accurately determine the potential cost of a dispute in a bid to help companies avoid harmful investments. 

Growing numbers of policies and programmes aim to integrate small-scale rural producers into agricultural value chains. But significant questions remain over how best to: recognise the possibly divergent visions, interests and constraints of various actors; address often substantial power imbalances; and ultimately promote agency among rural producers and their communities – that is, their ability to choose, act and influence realities around them.

In the context of Knowledge for Climate programme, an expert pool was requested from Theme 6 (high quality climate projections) to provide data and information to study the future impacts of climate change on the agricultural land-use patterns in the Netherlands. More specifically, a number of questions were posed in regard to: 1) representing and explaining the spatial distribution of different types of farming; and 2) simulating with Land Use Scanner the future developments of agricultural land-use while taking into account effects of climate change and changes in (agricultural) policy.

Het beleid van de agrarische sector is gericht op het versterken van de marktpositie, concurrentiekracht, innovatievermogen en duurzaamheid. De vraag is in welke mate de realisatie van beleidsdoelen afhankelijk is van het tempo van schaalvergroting in de grondgeboden agrarische sectoren

In de provincie Limburg is er steeds meer discussie tussen overheden, de landbouwsector en maatschappelijke organisaties over de inrichting van het landelijk gebied in relatie tot de landbouwproductieruimte en andere maatschappelijke gewenste opgaven (groene, blauwe, maar ook rode opgaven). De provincie Limburg wilde graag door uitvoering van een strategisch onderzoek inzicht en ondersteuning in de vraag welke maatregelen en instrumenten ontbreken c.q.

In het gebied Emst-zuid, gelegen op de oostelijke Veluwerand, zijn allerlei ruimtelijke ontwikkelingen gaande op het gebied van natuur- en landschapsontwikkeling (realisatie EHS-Wisselse Poort), uitbreiding recreatieve voorzieningen, landbouw en kavelruil, beheer historische beken, ontwikkelen aantrekkelijk woongebied voor bewoners, herinrichting van het watersysteem e.a. Voor Gelders Landschap zijn hier in het verleden veel voormalige landbouwgronden verworven voor natuurontwikkeling. Geldersch Landschap heeft hier ook de regierol voor de gebiedsontwikkeling.