The development of synergies between efforts to mitigate land degradation and biological diversity decline can enhance effectiveness, speed up implementation and avoid potential conflicts. Due to the variable nature of these processes and to the variable characteristics of the areas where they occur, there is no general rule linking land degradation and biological diversity decline. Thus, a geographically limited approach focusing on drivers of change may provide a more appropriate base upon which synergies can be built. This exercise is undertaken for the case of northern Mediterranean.

Degradation of farmland caused by salinisation is a major environmental issue in Australia. To combat salinisation a community-based approach has been adopted. This paper reviews the nature and effectiveness of this approach, describing its rationale, strengths and weaknesses. The community-based approach is shown to have been highly successful in raising awareness and providing education about the problem of dryland salinity in Australia, and has encouraged group participation in managing the problem.

Soil erosion is considered to be one of the greatest environmental problems of sub-Saharan Africa. This paper investigates the advantages and disadvantages of modelling soil erosion at the continental scale and suggests an operational methodology for mapping and quantifying 10-daily water runoff and soil erosion over this scale using remote sensing data in a geographical information system framework.

The island of Sri Lanka is free from serious natural hazards such as volcanic activity and earthquakes resulting from climatic extremes, but there are impacts of many natural disasters, such as landslides, floods and droughts, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to human interventions. Some areas of Sri Lanka are also periodically subject to cyclones that occur due to climatic conditions and geographical locations.Land degradation denotes all natural or anthropogenic processes that diminish or impair productivity of land.

Land degradation in the Little Karoo is extensive. Overstocking of breeding ostriches on natural veld has been among the main causes of this. The National Department of Agriculture has set a general stocking rate of 60 ha LSU ⁻¹ as a guideline for livestock on natural veld in the Little Karoo, which equates to 22.8 ha ostrich ⁻¹.

Collective action, on communal grazing land, has evolved in the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia to mitigate the problems of feed shortage and land degradation due to overgrazing. The exercise is liked by farmers for improving the availability of natural pasture during the long dry season when other feed sources get depleted. However, large portions of the communal grazing lands are still managed under free grazing throughout the year.

Detecting soil degradation and recognizing its various types is a necessity to take the practical measures for combating it as well as conserving and keeping the agricultural soil healthy. The present study aims at monitoring soil degradation process within the last four decades in the middle part of Nile Delta. To fulfill this objective, Landsat ETM images and digital elevation model (DEM) are used to produce the physiographic map of the studied area at the landform level.

The island of Sri Lanka is free from serious natural hazards such as volcanic activity and earthquakes resulting from climatic extremes, but there are impacts of many natural disasters, such as landslides, floods and droughts, the intensity and frequency of which are increasing due to human interventions. Some areas of Sri Lanka are also periodically subject to cyclones that occur due to climatic conditions and geographical locations.Land degradation denotes all natural or anthropogenic processes that diminish or impair productivity of land.

Progress in combating aeolian desertification (land degradation resulting from wind erosion) has been achieved in an agro‐pastoral ecotone of northern China since the mid‐1980s. This paper reviews three common measures used to combat and control aeolian desertification in such regions. In addition, it introduces a case study on the recovery of a degraded semi‐arid ecosystem to provide regional lessons and support theoretical and practical approaches to desertification prevention and reversal on a global scale.

Land degradation cannot be judged independently of its spatial, temporal, economic, environmental and cultural context. Evaluations are therefore almost infinitely variable and very dynamic. These observations are examined in two contexts, first in two case studies. One, from the southern Levant, makes use of a long and well-documented history of environmental assessment that varied greatly between communities. The other, from contemporary Niger, shows finer scale differences among villagers.

There has been an increased interest in the use of vegetative barriers in acid-infertile upland management systems in Southeast Asia. This paper analyses the experimental designs and policies in early-1990s of using vetiver grass barriers (Vetiveria zizanioides L.) in microwatersheds with short-rotation tree plantations in Vinh Phu Province, Vietnam. Four different mixed tree-vetiver models on degraded Ferric-Plinthic Acrisols are discussed.