This paper evaluates an innovative two-tiered model of collaborative planning designed to increase participation of First Nations in resource and environmental planning in British Columbia, Canada. Like a one-tiered model, the two-tiered model engages stakeholders in face-to-face negotiations to develop a consensus plan. However, to finalize an agreement, recommendations from the first tier are then sent to a second tier of negotiations that includes only two parties – First Nations and the provincial government.

A monitoring program of pesticides was implemented in the "ZV1" vulnerable zone (Directive 91/676/EEC) in Portugal, in order to assess the impact of intensive horticulture practices on groundwater contamination. The monitoring network comprised 23 sampling points sampled every 3 months during a 2-year period.

Rapid conversion of rural land to exurban development and the ensuing impacts on natural resources have been well-documented, but information about exurban landowners is lacking. To address this knowledge gap, we surveyed exurban landowners in six Wyoming counties and documented demographic characteristics, motivations, knowledge, and attitudes about natural resources and land management. The overall response rate was 55.6%. Generally, respondents were of retirement age, had lived in Wyoming for about 13 yr, and were raised in areas with a population

Linkages between land management activities and stream water quality are reported for a 2480 ha catchment used for dairy farming, sheep-beef farming and forestry in Southland, New Zealand. Our approach was to reconcile measured loads of nutrients exported from the catchment with those estimated based on characterisation of farming practices within the catchment. The latter was based upon detailed surveys of farm practices and soil quality.

This special issue focuses on terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and their roles in determining current continental-scale budgets and future trends in biogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) for North America.

In this study, by using cellular analyze method according to ecological criteria, the determination of agricultural land suitability of Research and Practice Farm of Ankara University Agrucultural Faculty Farm and Haymana Research Farm of Central Research Institute for Field Crops lands, which are in Ankara province and Haymana district, was aimed. For this aim, by using Geographical Information Systems(GIS) techniques, the data layers such as some soil properties, topography and irrigation was examined for each land criterion to determine the weighted scale.

How can ecologists be more effective in supporting ecologically informed rural land-use planning and policy? Improved decision making about rural lands requires careful consideration of how ecological information and analyses can inform specific planning and policy needs. We provide a brief overview of rural land-use planning, including recently developed approaches to conservation.

Vegetation change and anthropogenic development are altering ecosystems and decreasing biodiversity. Successful management of ecosystems threatened by multiple stressors requires development of ecosystem conservation plans rather than single species plans. We selected the big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.) ecosystem to demonstrate this approach. The area occupied by the sagebrush ecosystem is declining and becoming increasingly fragmented at an alarming rate because of conifer encroachment, exotic annual grass invasion, and anthropogenic development.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is influenced by land use and management. Here, the carbon (CO₂-C) budgets of a managed forest (spruce), a grass site and a crop site (crop rotation) have been compared to examine the effects of different management practices on net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and net biome productivity (NBP). This approach enables a more comprehensive carbon budgeting as it takes into account carbon exports and imports for particular land uses.

Determining soil nutrient distribution is critical to identify sites which are at risk of N and P loading. Equally important are determining factors that influence such distribution (e.g. land use, land management, topography, etc.). In this research, soil nutrient distribution and its influencing factors were studied in a small-scaled watershed in the purple soil region of Sichuan Province, China. The watershed is 1.3km² with a complex land management system including agriculture and forestry.