Understanding pasture degradation processes is the key for sustainable land management in the tropical mountain rainforest region of the South Ecuadorian Andes. We estimated the stocks of total carbon and nutrients, microbial biomass and different P fractions along a gradient of land-uses that is typical of the eastern escarpment of the Cordillera Real i.e., old-growth evergreen lower montane forest, active pastures (17 and 50 years-old), abandoned pastures 10 and 20 years old with bracken fern or successional vegetation.

Demands are increasing for scientific research to be explicitly and demonstrably policy relevant. Research funders are requiring greater returns on their investments and scientists are expected to demonstrate clearly how their research can inform policy and regulation to deliver positive consequences for societal, economic and environmental wellbeing.

In Ethiopia, farmers’ adoption and continued use of introduced land management technologies have not been widespread to reduce soil erosion and soil fertility depletion to an acceptable level. An important set of factors in farmers’ use of improved agricultural technologies is generally known to be their possession of livelihood assets. This study examines the influence of ownership of livelihood assets in farmers’ decisions to use cattle manure as land improvement technology, which is currently being promoted by Ethiopia’s agricultural extension system.

Agroforestry offers proven strategies as an environmentally benign and ecologically sustainable land management practice to promote ecosystem services. In this literature review, we systematically consider the agroforestry and ecosystem services literature with the aim to identify and catalogue the knowledge field and provide the first systematic synthesis of ecosystem services research in relation to European agroforestry. We reviewed 71 scientific publications from studies conducted in farmland and forest ecosystems with various types of agroforestry management.

This study analysed long-term land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) in a highland watershed covering an area of about 154 km² in the Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia. Two sets of panchromatic aerial photographs (1957 and 1982) and a Landsat TM image (2001) were the main input data from which three land-use and land-cover maps were produced by employing geographical information systems/remote sensing techniques. These data were complemented by some socio-economic data that were generated by using household survey, key-informant interview and group discussion methods.

Phytoremediation could be a sustainable remediation alternative for conventional remediation technologies. However, its implementation on a commercial scale remains disappointing. To emphasize its sustainability, this paper examines whether and how the potential economic benefit of CO₂ abatement for different crops used for phytoremediation or sustainable land management purposes could promote phytotechnologies. Our analysis is based on a case study in the Campine region, where agricultural soils are contaminated with mainly cadmium.

Since the 1930s there has been worldwide concern about the effects and impacts of land degradation. After the problems experienced in the Dust Bowl in the USA, much attention was paid to soil and water conservation in both developed and developing countries. Initially Governments stimulated the establishment of physical control measures, such as terraces, check dams and reforestation. This was achieved through top-down regulations, and Forestry Departments were often in charge of the implementation.

Sustainable land management requires scientists to provide reliable data on diversity distribution patterns. Resource restrictions limit the affordable sampling effort, both with respect to number of survey sites and amount of effort per site. We compared different levels of survey effort in a case study in Central Romania, varying the number of repeats per site and number of survey sites. Target taxa were plants, birds and butterflies. For plants, we surveyed three 10 m²plots and ten plots of 1 m²at each site.

Numerous studies underline the importance of immaterial benefits provided by ecosystems and especially by cultural landscapes, which are shaped by intimate human–nature interactions. However, due to methodological challenges, cultural ecosystem services are rarely fully considered in ecosystem services assessments. This study performs a spatially explicit participatory mapping of the complete range of cultural ecosystem services and several disservices perceived by people living in a cultural landscape in Eastern Germany.

Ecosystem services have been extensively studied in terms of their production, spatial extent, and valuation. Human reliance on ecosystem services is a function of the capacity of ecosystems to supply these services and the societal demand for these benefits. Considerably more attention has been placed on the supply of services compared with their demand. Sustainable land management depends on reconciling supply of and demand for ecosystem services among different stakeholders. The emphasis is now shifting from the supply to the attaining of a balance between supply and demand.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of existing policies, programmes and legislation in promoting sustainable land management and livelihoods in mid‐central Botswana. The paper is based on data from the survey of relevant literature, analysis of policy and legal documents, field observations and a series of stakeholder workshops held in the villages of Mopipi, Mokobaxane and Rakops in Boteti Sub‐District between 2008 and 2009.