This study extends previous empirical research on land preservation by considering an actual land preservation scheme, the agricultural land reserve in British Columbia, Canada. The reserve was established in 1973 to ensure that development did not occur on the province's most productive agricultural land. 'To ensure that local food production is maintained,' 'the economic importance of British Columbia's agricultural sector,' and 'to protect the environment' are the most important factors that underlie support for the reserve.

We report the spatio-temporal dynamics of land cover changes from 1954 to 2008 in a hilly mountainous area in the Italian northern Apennine, and ecological factors and processes associated with these dynamics. Land cover patches were mapped and analysed at three time periods (1954, 1980 and 2008). Changes over time were detected by analysing a combination of multitemporal source data from airborne images and from field surveys. Relationships between cover classes and environmental variables were analysed for the year 2008.

Botanical capacity plays a fundamental role in solving the grand challenges of the next century, including climate change, sustainability, food security, preservation of ecosystem services, conservation of threatened species, and control of invasive species. Yet critical components of botanical education, research, and management are lacking across government, academic, and private sectors.

The prevention of soil erosion is one of the most essential requirements for sustainable agriculture in developing countries. In recent years it is widely recognized that more site-specific approaches are needed to assess variations in erosion susceptibility in order to select the most suitable land management methods for individual hillslope sections. This study quantifies the influence of different land management methods on soil erosion by modelling soil loss for individual soil-landscape units on a hillslope in Southern Uganda.

Degraded lands are common in human-influenced tropical semiarid areas, and the potential for C sequestration through rehabilitation of these areas is substantial. In this study, we investigated changes in ecosystem C stocks (ECS) after establishing exclosures on degraded communal grazing lands, and identified easily measurable biophysical and management-related factors that can be used to predict ECS restoration in the highlands of Tigray, Ethiopia. We selected replicated (n = 3) 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-yr-old exclosures and paired each exclosure with an adjacent communal grazing land.

Organic and conventional farming practices differ in the use of several management strategies, including use of catch crops, green manure, and fertilization, which may influence soil properties, greenhouse gas emissions and productivity of agroecosystems. An 11-yr-old field experiment on a sandy loam soil in Denmark was used to compare several crop rotations with respect to a range of physical, chemical and biological characteristics related to carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) flows.

In recent years, infrastructure investments, especially construction of new roads and upgrading of existing ones, have accelerated in Turkey. Expropriation cases related to building plot and land have increased due to these investments. One subject causes conflict and leads to the prolongation of cases due to the misuse of building plot-land discrimination.

The incidence of natural disturbance in forests is increasing globally as a consequence of global warming. The concomitant large-scale transformation of landscapes can have profound social impacts and trigger political conflict that hampers resource management. This paper explores the link between landscape transformations and political conflict using the example of the bark beetle epidemic in Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany.

The various land management and planning policies that have been developed for the Tierra de Campos district of northwestern Spain over the past century have had major effects on wetland ecosystems of this area. To assist conservation planners in the future management of these habitats, this study outlines the changes that have occurred in these environments using data for the years 1900, 1956, 1984 and 2007. Multiple logistic regression models allowed the accurate projection of locations of wetlands that need to be restored or regenerated.

Freshwater ecosystems are warming globally from the direct effects of climate change on air temperature and hydrology and the indirect effects on near-stream vegetation. In fire-prone landscapes, vegetative change may be especially rapid and cause significant local stream temperature increases but the importance of these increases relative to broader changes associated with air temperature and hydrology are not well understood.