Rangelands, Drylands & Pastoralism

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.

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.

Plantations support local economies and rural livelihoods in many mountainous regions, where poverty and a fragile environment are often interlinked. Managing plantations sustainably and alleviating poverty is a major challenge. This study reports on the findings of a household livelihood survey in the central mountainous region of Hainan Island, a global biodiversity hotspot.

In this paper, we explore how diverse community networks in Brazil have locally advanced seed production and institutional systems to enhance a restoration economy.

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.

Deforestation and biodiversity loss in agroecosystems are generally the result of rational choices, not of a lack of awareness or knowledge. Despite both scientific evidence and traditional knowledge that supports the value of diverse production systems for ecosystem services and resilience, a trend of agroecosystem intensification is apparent across tropical regions.

Existing guidelines and best-practices documents do not satisfy, at present, the need for guiding implementation of Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) based on core principles.