The following report outlines the results of focus group discussions that were conducted to help researchers learn what it is about wetlands, wetland services, and wetland characteristics that matter to people. The participants were asked questions in the areas of natural resources, their prior knowledge of wetlands, wetland types, public policies relating to wetlands, and wetland functions. The focus group discussions reported here were the first set of qualitative discussions in the research project.

Alabama is experiencing significant pressure to convert agricultural land to urban uses. The dominant pattern of urbanization has been the conversion of agricultural land to residential and commercial uses. This paper examined regional, state, and local land use trends and developed a tool for identifying the determinants and impacts of past and proposed land use change in north Alabama using selected cities and towns in Madison County.

A discrete choice model and site-specific data are used to analyze land use choices between crop production and pasture in the Corn Belt. The results show that conversion probabilities depend on relative returns, land quality, and government policy. In general it is found that landowners are less inclined to remove land from crop production than to convert land to crop production.

To comply with the requirements of the EU Directive 2009/28/EC for using renewable energy sources (RES) in Latvia, the agricultural industry has to become a significant supplier of resources to energy producers and consumers. An increase in the area sown with maize is forecasted by exploiting the unused agricultural land to expand biogas production. The agricultural area has decreased by 2% in Latvia over the recent decade, and 16% of its total agricultural area are not exploited anymore.

This study tests cropland contract hypotheses utilizing a landlord data set. Ordered probit and classical regression models are estimated and presented identifying factors that affect the contract type selection and terms. Results suggest credit constraints are a viable land-leasing hypothesis. Risk aversion, managerial ability, and social capital are also supported.

Tax provisions for land care are often justified as corrections for externalities. It is argued in this paper that land care provisions can be justified independently of an externality correction objective, since land care provisions can be viewed as a partial correction of the failure of the depreciation provisions in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 to recognise that items other than plant and articles devalue through use. This argument only applies to depreciation over the effective life of the asset and not to the provision of accelerated depreciation.

The article is devoted to actual problems of development of the land market. The article describes the theoretical basis, theessence, content and peculiarities of formation of market relations on the ground. Given the definitions of the land market a variety ofscientists economists-classics, research scientists, lawyers farmers, theorists and practitioners of domestic, agrarian reform.The authors examined theoretical features of development of land relations in the formation of the land market.

Agricultural land is being converted into rural residences at an unprecedented rate in the Inter-mountain West. Survey data have been collected for Sublette County, Wyoming concerning preferences for private land use and land use control. Selected land use controls include zoning, purchase of development rights and cluster development. Local in-migration appears to be driven by the pursuit of open space and environment amenities. Logit models are estimated for public and private choice co-variates.

The North China Plain is the country's granary: most of wheat and maize is supplied by this region in the northeast of China. Intensity of agricultural production has risen sharply in the last decades and the negative environmental effects like water scarcity, salinization and nitrate contamination have been widely acknowledged. In the wake of the country's rapid economic development it becomes at the same time more and more urgent to narrow the gap between the well-being of the urban and rural population.

The South African government initiated the land reform program in 1994, which is facilitated by the Department of Land Affairs. The land reform programme has three divisions, namely redistribution, restitution and land tenure. The main objectives of land reform since its inception are poverty alleviation, justice, food security, rural transformation, economic growth and to readdress the landless, the poor, women, the disposed and the previously disadvantaged to acquire land. The question can be asked: Has land reform achieved its goals in the past 10 years since its inception?

Invasive weeds are a large problem on large tracts of rangeland in North America. Biological methods of control have been instituted, but many information gaps remain. An investment model approach is used to demonstrate some of the potentially key pieces of biological data that are required for an analysis. This model is applied to the control of leafy spurge on rangeland. The results of control are very dependent on the rate of spread and control by the biological control agent, the initial density of the weed, and the recovery of the forage (grass) after the weed has been controlled.