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.

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.

Indonesia has set the target that by the year 2020 its emissions of greenhouse gases will be reduced by 26 per cent relative to business-as-usual conditions. This article analyses the effectiveness of a subsidy to the use of land in forestry as a means of achieving this goal. The analysis uses a general equilibrium model of the Indonesian economy characterised by explicit treatment of land use, disaggregated by industry and by region.

The magnitude of the environmental and social consequences of soil erosion and land degradation in semiarid areas of the Mediterranean region has long been recognized and studied. This paper investigates the interrelationship between land use/cover (LULC) changes and land degradation using remotely sensed and ancillary data for southeastern Spain.

Smallholders in many tropical highlands cause serious environmental damage. The Cameron Highlands of Malaysia offer an excellent opportunity for studying how farmers interact with environment, changing markets, infrastructure development, indigenous peoples, and tourism, and how these shape innovation. Our surveys in 2002-2004, 2006 and 2007 show that farmers have intensified production and in doing so some have adopted less damaging practices. We assess trends and causation of changes; this offers opportunities for more proactive management.

By the year 2050, agriculture will have to provide the food and nutrition requirements of some 9 billion people. Moreover, to maintain that level of productivity indefinitely it must do so using environmentally sustainable production systems. This task will be profoundly complicated by the effects of climate change, increasing competition for water resources and loss of productive lands.

This paper analyses the land use/cover dynamics of land degradation through the interpretation of aerial photographs (1958 and 1980) and 2006 SPOT-5 satellite image of the Gerado catchment. Other, non-visual data were gathered from personal interview and focus group discussions conducted in 2010 and 2011 with local elders, farmers and development (agricultural extension) agents. The results identified the presence of cultivated and rural settlement land, shrubland, woodland, bare land, grassland, urban built up area and forest.

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.

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.

The erosion of soil from subsistence agricultures on lands with steep slopes and shallow soil is poorly documented, particularly in Brazil. This paper details the hydrological and soil loss responses to traditional agriculture (shifting agriculture) of a steeply sloped sector (32° incline) classified by FAO has having Regosol soil. This sector is in Guarapuava, Brazil and is covered by a shallow, clayed soil that originates from basalt rock. All measurements were carried out between May 2003 and April 2004.