Rangelands, Drylands & Pastoralism

Mediterranean regions are likely to be the most vulnerable areas to wildfires in Europe. In this context, land-use change has promoted land abandonment and the consequent accumulation of biomass (fuel) in (progressively less managed) forests and (non-forest) natural land, causing higher fire density and severity, economic damage, and land degradation.

The presentation discusses the application of the Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) approach to enhance rangeland governance under constraining land tenure systems in the South of Tunisia.

Au Niger comme dans tous les pays du Sahel, le pastoralisme fait face à des défis majeurs. La transhumance transfrontalière – pratique séculaire caractérisant le pastoralisme dans toute l’Afrique au sud du Sahara et dont les bienfaits ne sont plus à démontrer – est dangereusement menacée.

Slash-and-burn is a farming practice of the indigenous communities in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. The traditional land-tenure system is based on a customary oral tradition. However, the government’s persistent denial of land rights has fueled the indigenous conflicts in the last few decades.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is related to the use of fire to remove natural vegetation and install crop cultures or pastures. In this study, we evaluated the relation between deforestation, land-use and land-cover (LULC) drivers and fire emissions in the Apyterewa Indigenous Land, Eastern Brazilian Amazon.

Woodlands, which are part of the landscape and an important source of livelihood for smallholders living in the environmentally vulnerable Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia, are experiencing rapid changes. Detecting and monitoring these changes is essential for better management of the resources and the benefits they provide to people.

Background and Objectives: Plantation forests remain a highly contested element of rural development. Successive reviews of large-scale plantations established under land concessions identify predominantly negative impacts on local farmers’ livelihoods.

In Colombia, one-third of the land is devoted to cattle farming, which is one of the main drivers of deforestation, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, and emissions of greenhouses gases. To mitigate the environmental impacts of cattle farming, agroforestry practices have been extensively promoted with mixed results.

Background and Objectives: Plantation forests remain a highly contested element of rural development. Successive reviews of large-scale plantations established under land concessions identify predominantly negative impacts on local farmers’ livelihoods.

Forming a backbone of the wood supply in Vietnam, approximately 50% of plantation areas are managed by individual households. Of the planted species, the Acacia (Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Benth. × Acacia mangium Willd) hybrid is one of the most preferred by timber growers. Yet, information on the potential of this timber species for rural livelihoods is lacking.

Shaded perennial agroforestry systems (AFS) are regarded as desirable land-use practices that improve soil carbon sequestration.

Forest plantations have expanded rapidly in response to financial support from the state and local governments and have had significant positive impacts on rural livelihoods and development in Vietnam, since the late 1980s.