One of the clearly stated intentions of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is to bring both “western scientific” and “indigenous and local” knowledge systems within synthetic global, regional, and thematic assessments. A major challenge will be how to use, and quality‐assure, information derived from different knowledge systems.

Baseline surveys of reptiles, birds and small mammals that occur in Dune Mallee woodlands in the Lower Murray Darling catchment of south-western New South Wales were conducted at 60 sites between October 2007 and March 2008. These surveys comprise the first round of a catchmentwide monitoring programme to obtain a measure of the distribution and abundance of 21 priority threatened fauna species that inhabit Dune Mallee Woodlands. A total of 127 fauna species were recorded, which included 19 of the possible 21 threatened fauna species.

In this study from Khun Samun Watershed in northern Thailand we investigate land use and soil carbon relationships in 99 sloping upland soils that pertain to soil degradation/conservation and carbon storage/loss. Approximately 35% of the variability in total soil carbon could be explained by the available quantitative and semi-quantitative information, primarily clay content and CEC, and to a lesser degree by factors concerning land management.

Farming activities are major drivers of the landscape-related ecological patterning because of their multiple influences on both non-arable and arable landscape elements and mosaics. Uncertainties still remain about the way individual farmer decisions and the aggregation of their activities in space contribute to these mosaics at local landscape scales, therefore about possible levers of action in farms for ensuring sustainable landscapes. The general objective of the present study was to give an assessment of the way farms contribute to crop-mosaic patterning at local landscape scales.

1. The presence of predators may lead to conflict between different stakeholders. Finding ways to resolve such conflicts is a challenge to all involved. 2. Within the UK a long and, at times, acrimonious conflict has developed around the conservation of hen harriers Circus cyaneus on moorland managed for red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. This paper follows our original forum article and the replies from colleagues in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT). 3.

The discharge of agriculture irrigation runoff containing large amounts of suspended particles resulted in a high sediment accumulation rate (0.3–1.0cmyr⁻¹) in the receiving wetland upstream of Lake Xingkai, Northeast of China and may create negative ecological impacts to the wetland system, particularly the vegetation community.

A major limitation to efficient forage-based livestock production in Appalachia is asynchrony of forage availability and quality with nutritional requirements of the grazer. Producers require dependable plant resources and management practices that improve the seasonal distribution and persistence of high quality herbage, sustainability and environmental integrity of the agricultural landscape.

The potential of veterinary antibiotics (VAs) to impact human and environmental health requires the development and evaluation of land management practices that mitigate VA loss from manure-treated agroecosystems. Vegetative buffer strips (VBS) are postulated to be one management tool that can reduce VA transport to surface water resources.

Faced with a changing economic environment (poor functioning of the groundnut sector, economic liberalization, etc.), rural households seek first and foremost to secure food for their families by diversifying their production and their economic activities in the village and in urban centres through temporary migration. In this context, the farm seen as an institution cannot be considered as a company in the sense of the classical economic theory. It corresponds more to a system of activities whose operation takes into account both market and family objectives.