The Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax is one of the most threatened steppe bird species in Europe, due mainly to agricultural intensification. Despite the relative importance of the Iberian population (approximately 50% of the global population) little is known about its dynamics and trends, especially in core distribution areas. This study evaluates the influences of meteorological factors and land management on the oscillations and medium-term trends of two Little Bustard populations in Central Spain.

The habitats of Sarracenia rubra subsp. wherryi (Wherry’s pitcher plant) and Symphyotrichum georgianum (Georgia aster) have been declining as a result of human population growth, poor land management, invasive exotic species, and fire prevention. Through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the Beattie Foundation measures have been taken to protect these species through a propagation and re-introduction program.

Over the past 20 years, water reform has moved to clarify water rights and responsibilities among users, separated water and land management, and introduced markets. Most recently, water policy has clearly recognised the need for environmental allocations to ensure sustainability. These reforms, especially the last, have created conflicts between stakeholder groups.

The pygmy rabbit (Brachylagus idahoensis), the world's smallest rabbit, has a limited distribution due to its year round dependence on sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) for food and shelter. Due to accelerating habitat loss from fragmentation, development, and fire, understanding the pygmy rabbit's ecology has become increasingly important. In 2010, we initiated a study of the status of a pygmy rabbit population and its habitat requirements on U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land near Woodruff in northeastern Utah.

This paper focuses on irrigation schemes under rotational water supply in arid and semiarid regions. It presents a methodology for developing plans for optimum allocation of land area and water, considering performance measures such as productivity, equity and adequacy. These irrigation schemes are characterized by limited water supply and heterogeneity in soils, crops, climate and water distribution network, etc.

Land management causes changes in forest structure and thus influences the composition and abundance of communities of forest-inhabiting bird species. However, it is unclear how these changes translate into local habitat suitability for certain bird species given that detailed knowledge on habitat use by forest bird species is still scarce. We have analyzed the habitat preferences of 37 breeding bird species in 19 lowland beech forests, each with an average size of 40 ha.

SummaryThe recognition that biodiversity conservation requires more than a system of reserves has led to the need to consider the outcomes of land management actions, such as timber harvesting, in the matrix land outside reserves. The design of harvesting systems can be guided by the natural disturbance regime, which in Tasmania's lowland wet eucalypt forests is infrequent, intense wildfire.

Oasification and desertification are basic geographical processes in arid areas, and both change the soil properties and quality. Recently, oasification has been obvious in the southern rim of the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, China, and agriculture is the main land-use type. In 2004, four experimental fields were established in the Cele Oasis, representing four typical land-use types of local farmers' tillage practices during oasification.

Market-based policy instruments are used in the design of land management programs to provide incentives to landholders to generate efficient ecological outcomes on private land. Despite the increased use of economic instruments, many landholders remain unwilling to participate in these programs.