The independent island nations of the South Pacific have a rich and threatened terrestrial biota. Despite considerable investment of resources into conservation over the last three decades, biodiversity is dwindling and protected area systems remain inadequate. This lack of success is caused by important differences in cultural, economic, landownership, and social factors in developing Pacific Island countries, compared to developed nations that often fund conservation programs and plans.

The 1998 ice storm caused damage to forests across much of eastern North America. One of the information needs expressed by landowners and the broader forest community in eastern Ontario was an assessment of the effect of past management on degree of damage in hardwood stands. Ice storm damage was assessed in managed and unmanaged permanent sample plots established prior to the ice storm. In addition, 1587 temporary sample plots established after the 1998 ice storm were used to examine the effect of basal area, stand composition, stand location and tree size on degree of ice damage.

Birds can be used as indicators to monitor success of programs encouraging prairie landowners to increase biodiversity. Using a case study from Alberta, Canada, this paper compares bird diversity measures at the farm scale and examines their consistency across different habitat types to test for design, output, and end use validation. Based on 2005 point count data (two types) from 178 sites at 22 farms, we calculated bird species richness, abundance, Shannon index, and Inverse Simpson index.

Aquaculture continues to diversify and develop rapidly in Bangladesh. A major change has taken place in parts of Bangladesh due to the growth of floodplain aquaculture (FPA) projects. FPA involves the enclosure by the landholders of parts of the floodplain through the creation of embankments and sluice gates. The enclosed water body is stocked with fish seed and the benefits are distributed amongst those who own land in the impounded area.

The Socio Bosque program is a national conservation agreement scheme of the government of Ecuador. Socio Bosque consists of the transfer of a direct monetary incentive per hectare of native forest and other native ecosystems to individual landowners and local and indigenous communities who protect these ecosystems, through voluntary conservation agreements that are monitored on a regular basis for compliance. Two years after its creation, the program now includes more than half a million hectares of natural ecosystems and has over 60,000 beneficiaries.

Land ownership does not prevent vulnerability in less developed countries' agriculture and it is demonstrated that land assets do not necessarily imply livelihoods security in areas where irrigation water is scarce and in irregular supply. To capture both the vulnerability and risks that farmers are involuntarily taking in farming, irrigation deficits applied in cash crops cultivation in an irrigation system in the south of India are calculated.