Expert judgements are potentially a valuable source of information in land degradation assessment, especially in areas where data paucity impedes the use of quantitative models. However, expert opinions are also much disputed because they are not tested for consistency, abstain from formal documentation, while their quantitative interpretation is inherently unidentifiable. This paper evaluates and formalizes the use of expert judgements to conduct a nationwide water erosion hazard assessment in Ethiopia.

Apart from a decrease in total perennial plant cover, degradation of North-African arid lands is not easy to qualify. Yet, simple and comprehensive yardsticks are necessary to assess degradation. We assigned components of competitive ability (C), stress tolerance (S) and ruderality (R) to 15 common perennials of Presaharian Tunisia. We used for that purpose phyto-ecological studies, data about life-form, grazing value and demography and circumstantial data.

The natural environment in Nicaragua has been damaged by rural development policies geared for the export of cash crops, by uneven land distribution and the near absence of concerns about the environmental effects of the prevailing model of development. The demands made by market forces for the export of primary materials have been reasons for land degradation in the big farms, and the need to survive a poverty stricken existence has forced the peasantry to damage the marginal and fragile land they worked.

Degradation of the dry semiarid ecosystems in the Mu Us Sandy Land of north central China was explored using high-resolution satellite images from 1978, 1987 and 1996. This study monitored both changes in grassland biomass production and reclamation activities to detect the nature and scale of land degradation since major economic reforms were introduced in 1978. The position of the high-resolution images within the vegetation cycles was inspected from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NDVI images at 10-day repetition and seasonal precipitation patterns.

Multitemporal 1 km NOAA/AVHRR Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maximum composite imagery was utilized in combination with rainfall, soil types, and field survey data on dominant rural activities to assess the risk of land degradation in southern Mauritania. Mauritania is one of eight continental West African Sahel countries that stretch from Chad to the northwestern Atlantic coast, and from the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert to the northern limit of the Sudanian climatic zone.

Shifting cultivation, locally known as jhum, is the predominant agricultural practice for most communities inhabiting the uplands of north-east India. The negative impacts of the practice on forest and biological resources, soil erosion and land degradation have been a serious concern for several decades now to administrators and planners as well as to the academic community. In the current context, the practice has undergone drastic changes and has become increasingly unviable, gradually leading to the marginalization of farmers practising it.

This study employs scale-dependence as an analytical approach to understanding effects of livestock grazing on rangeland degradation in northern Kenya. It used extensive datasets previously collected from 13 200 km2 rangelands where grazing pressure gradients of livestock (varied from none, light, moderate, heavy and very heavy grazing) in conjunction with seasonality across different ecological scales influenced plant responses and probably contributed to land degradation.

The vicious poverty–environmental spiral commonly exists due to the interconnectedness of the socioeconomic aspects of farmers and land degradation. The socioeconomic situation of farmers affects their capabilities to implement environmentally viable soil and water conservation measures. These situations include farm practices and attitudes toward rational use of resources. An observational study was conducted to have an insight of the perception of farmers about the danger of gully erosion and their willingness to adopt new improved soil and water conservation measures.

The origins and development of severe forms of erosion are traced in the communal villages located in a part of the dividing ridge between the Great Fish and Keiskamma rivers near Peddie town, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Progressive changes in land use and soil erosion distribution are reconstructed by analysing sequential aerial photographs of the area between 1938 and 1988. The distributions of the two phenomena are mapped and quantified at the different dates using PC ARC/INFO GIS. Observable soil erosion is confined to the communal lands at all the dates.

Arid and semi-arid regions are jeopardized by land degradation with serious consequences for the natural vegetation, plant biodiversity and sustainable use of the natural environment. This paper describes the major causes of land degradation in northern Kuwait and outlines factors that serve to maintain plant biodiversity in those affected areas that would normally be dominated by the perennial dwarf shrub Haloxylon salicornicum. A conceptual model is presented describing the four major stages of degradation in this community.

Fires are considered a potential threat to sustainable development for their direct impacts on ecosystems, their contribution to carbon emissions, and impacts on biodiversity. In 1997/98, Indonesia had the most severe fires worldwide, and smoke haze pollution recurs yearly. The fire-related policy problems are defined as smoke haze pollution, forest degradation and deforestation, and impacts on the rural sector. Some of the apparent major causes of the problems are identified. The estimate of area affected by fires in 1997/98 is revised from 9.7 million hectares to 11.7 million hectares.