The state of the Arab environment stands at a pivotal juncture with numerous environmental problems both current and imminently threatening the region. Among the major challenges being faced are water scarcity, land degradation and desertification, inadequate waste management, coastal and marine environment degradation and air pollution.

This paper explores and evaluates the impact of a new form of large-scale agriculture which is becoming an increasing phenomenon in southern Burkina Faso. With severe ecological deterioration and food deficits, small-scale agriculture is usually seen as the key to economic prosperity, social solidarity and sustainable management of local resources. However, a set of new stakeholders, comprising politicians, entrepreneurs and employees, is promoting large-scale agribusiness as a relevant and viable alternative for agricultural development in the country.

Environmental degradation arising from the depletion of forest biodiversity and the resulting problems of soil erosion, water shortage, climate change and poverty, have become issues of global concern.

This report highlights the major biological factors that contribute to ecosystem resilience under the projected impacts of global climate change. It assesses the potential consequences for biodiversity of particular adaptation activities under the thematic areas of the Convention on Biological Diversity, provides methodological considerations when implementing these activities, and highlights research and knowledge gaps.

Results from this study show that the over-used but under-researched association between grazing and land degradation in the Kalahari has been oversimplified. In typical Kalahari conditions, the ecological changes that have been brought about by grazing cannot be linked with more fundamental changes in ecosystem function. Basic soil processes appear relatively unaffected by grazing pressure outside the sacrifice zone, and there is no evidence to suggest that the resilience of the system has been affected through soil degradation.

Land-use planning (LUP), an instrument of land governance, is often employed to protect land and humans against natural and human-induced hazards, strengthen the resilience of land systems, and secure their sustainability. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) underlines the critical role of appropriate local action to address the global threat of land degradation and desertification (LDD) and calls for the use of local and regional LUP to combat LDD and achieve land degradation neutrality. The paper explores the challenges of putting this call into practice.

Like in any other part of the country, land degradation resulting from water erosion and nutrient depletion is one of the most challenging problems for farmers in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia. Nevertheless, investments in land management to reduce land degradation and increase agricultural production by smallholder farmers have been limited. In addition, public and private sector organizations have never collaborated to stimulate (investments in) land improvement.

Wind erosion is a critical environmental problem that threatens mainly the arid and semi-arid regions of our planet. Usually this problem is associated with desertification, poverty and other environmental and socioeconomic problems. Wind erosion causes the loss of fertile topsoil, and has a negative effect on agricultural production and on human health. When conditions favorable for wind erosion are present, the process can cause large scale environmental disasters like the Dust Bowl in the USA in the 1930s.

Land degradation is a global issue on a par with climate change and loss of biodiversity, but its extent and severity are only roughly known and there is little detail on the immediate processes – let alone the drivers. Earth-observation methods enable monitoring of land resources in a consistent, physical way and on global scale by making use of vegetation activity and/or cover as proxies. A well-known spectral proxy is the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which is available in high temporal resolution time series since the early 1980s.

Water erosion is the most important degradation process of the 10 degradation processes distinguished by the European Union. The impact of rain drops on the soil surface causes splash of soil particles

Vegetation degradation and desertification occur in many semiarid ecosystems worldwide, particularly in the Western Mediterranean Basin. A peculiar semiarid Mediterranean land use system dominates the landscape of southern Portugal where cork oak (Quercus suber) is the main tree species.

Keywords: Rwanda; farm household typology; sustainable technology adoption; multivariate analysis;
land degradation; food security; bioeconomic model; crop simulation models; organic fertiliser; inorganic fertiliser; policy incentives