The world’s mangroves 1980–2005 is a thematic study undertaken within the framework of the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005. It was led by FAO in collaboration with mangrove specialists throughout the world, and was co-funded by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). It builds on the 1980 assessment, on the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000 (FRA 2000) and 2005 (FRA 2005), and on an extensive literature search and correspondence with mangrove and fo rest resources assessment specialists.

Meeting Name: European Commission on Agriculture
Meeting symbol/code: ECA/39/15/Report
Session: Sess. 39

La publication de ce numéro d’Unasylva coïncide avec deux événements marquants pour les forêts. Les 196 Parties à la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques viennent de se réunir à la Conférence Paris climat 2015 en vue de négocier un accord qui soit en mesure de changer la donne en matière de changement climatique. Toujours à Paris, le Global Landscapes Forum 2015, Forum mondial sur les paysages, a été le théâtre de discussions de haut niveau portant sur la recherche et les politiques qui sous-tendent les questions d’utilisation des terres.

The purpose of this sheet is to provide comprehensive set of information on GIAHS Programme in a single document which summarizes all the core information uploaded in the website and written in the previously released sources.

The project objective is to recognize and promote multiple values of the rice-fish system for livelihoods, ecological and cultural preservation by evaluating policies, institutions and technological developments that impact on farmers’ practices of rice-fish system, and developing a network of demonstration sites and partners in provinces of Zhejiang and Guizhou, China.

Processes of land degradation and regeneration display fine scale heterogeneity often intimately linked with land use. Yet, examinations of the relationships between land use and land degradation often lack the resolution necessary to understand how local institutions differentially modulate feedback between individual farmers and the spatially heterogeneous effects of land use on soils. In this paper, we examine an historical example of a transition from agriculture to forest dominated land use (c. 1933–1941) in a highly degraded landscape on the Piedmont of South Carolina.

Severe land degradation has strongly affected both people’s livelihood and the environment in Cape Verde (Cabo Verde in Portuguese), a natural resource poor country. Despite the enormous investment in soil and water conservation measures (SWC or SLM), which are visible throughout the landscape, and the recognition of their benefits, their biophysical and socioeconomic impacts have been poorly assessed and scientifically documented.

The Sahel has been the focus of scientific interest in environmental-human dynamics and interactions. The objective of the present study is to contribute to the recent debate on the re-greening of Sahel. The paper examines the dynamics of barren land in the Sahel of Burkina Faso through analysis of remotely-sensed and rainfall data from 1975–2011. Discussions with farmers and land management staff have helped to understand the anthropogenic efforts toward soil restoration to enable the subsistence farming agriculture.

The socio-ecological system dominated by pastureland in the Asteroussia Mountains (Crete, Greece) was analyzed over a long time interval (1945–2010) to identify the most relevant system’s characteristics and changes. Vegetation cover and land-uses have been quantified by analyzing aerial photographs exploring the whole study period. Soil characteristics have been assessed by carrying out an extensive field survey for the last reference year (2010) and by estimating the average soil loss for the past period using the PESERA soil erosion model validated by field measurements.

As soil is the basis of all terrestrial ecosystems, degraded soil means lower fertility, reduced biodiversity and reduced human welfare. Therefore the focus of this paper is on elucidating the influence of land use and land cover (LULC) change on two important soil quality indicators that are fundamental to effective measures for ameliorating soil degradation; namely soil acidity and soil salinity in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia. First, Analysis of Variance was used to elucidate the effects of LULC categories on soil acidity and salinity.

This study assessed the change in some environmental parameters in the Plateau region of North-Central Nigeria (Barakinladi, Jos, and Kafachan environs) using the nexus of landcover change, land surface temperature, surface albedo, and topography. The study employed both remote sensing and statistical techniques for the period between 1986 and 2014 to analyze the dynamics between and within these environmental variables.

The poverty and environmental degradation vicious circle hypothesis considers the poor as agents and victims of environmentally degrading activities. Despite some studies, however, there still has not been a sufficient empirical examination of the poverty-environment nexus.