Rangelands, Drylands & Pastoralism

This paper analyzes frontier dynamics of land dispossessions in Ethiopia’s pastoral lowland regions. Through a case study of two sedentarization schemes in South Omo Valley, we illustrate how politics of coercive sedentarization are legitimated in the ‘civilizing’ impetus of ‘improvement schemes’ for ‘backward’ pastoralists.

Damage to crops from wildlife interference is a common threat to food security among rural communities in or near Game Management Areas (GMAs) in Zambia. This study uses a two-stage model and cross-sectional data from a survey of 2769 households to determine the impact of land use planning on the probability and extent of wildlife-inflicted crop damage.

Command-and-control policies are often criticized as insufficient to tackle tropical deforestation.

Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest (AHB), a USDA NIFA-funded consortium of university and industry partners, identified southwestern Washington as a potential location for a regional bioproducts industry using poplar trees (Populus spp.) as the feedstock.

Food crises and ecologization have given rise to a Belgian dynamic that does not behave according to the conventional tripod of agroecology: practitioners, social movement, and scientists.

Recent estimates show that one third of the world’s land and water resources are highly or moderately degraded. Global economic losses from land degradation (LD) are as high as USD $10.6 trillion annually.

Landscape fragmentation typical of the Mediterranean region is the result of long-term settlement history and continuous socioeconomic interactions among countries.

Inadequate land management and agricultural activities have largely resulted in land degradation in Burkina Faso. The nationwide governmental and institutional driven implementation and adoption of soil and water conservation measures (SWCM) since the early 1960s, however, is expected to successively slow down the degradation process and to increase the agricultural output.

Overuse of chemical fertilizer has led to severe land degradation and environmental pollution in China. Switching to organic fertilizer may improve soil quality and reduce pollution, which is meaningful to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture.

Important among global issues is the trilemma of abrupt climate change, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. Despite the increasing use of fossil fuel, about one third of global C emissions come from tropical deforestation and indiscriminate use of agricultural practices. Global food insecurity, affecting one in seven persons, aggravates environmental degradation.

To achieve sustainable rural development, it is necessary to simultaneously protect ecologically important land and efficiently use existing agricultural land. Land use functions (LUFs) are widely used to assess regional sustainable development. Guyuan is located in a typical hilly and gully region of western China, with ecologically fragile land.