In the Brazilian Amazon, private land accounts for the majority of remaining native vegetation. Understanding how land‐use change affects the composition and distribution of biodiversity in farmlands is critical for improving conservation strategies in the face of rapid agricultural expansion. Working across an area exceeding 3 million ha in the southwestern state of Rondônia, we assessed how the extent and configuration of remnant forest in replicate 10,000‐ha landscapes has affected the occurrence of a suite of Amazonian mammals and birds.

Cloud forest in the Central Highlands of Guatemala provides important ecosystem services for the Q’eqchi’ Maya but has been disappearing at an increasing rate in recent decades. This research documents changes in cloud forest cover, explores some contributing factors to deforestation, and considers forest preservation and food security implications for Q’eqchi’ communities. We used a transdisciplinary framework that synthesized remote sensing/GIS analysis of land cover change, focus group dialogs, and surveys.

Soil erosion by water is considered a major cause for land degradation in Jordan, where 0.14 cm of productive top soil is eroded annually. This investigation is intended to estimate the annual soil loss in Wadi Kerak watershed, and to examine the spatial patterns of soil loss and intensity, as an essential procedure for proper planning of conservation measures. To achieve these objectives, the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) model has been applied in a geographical information system framework.

KEY MESSAGE : We compiled 2,458 biomass equations from 168 destructive sampling studies in Indonesia. Unpublished academic theses contributed the largest share of the biomass equations. The availability of the biomass equations was skewed to certain regions, forest types, and species. Further research is necessary to fill the data gaps in emission factors and to enhance the implementation of climate change mitigation projects and programs.

This article studies the influence of local knowledge on the impact of science on institutional change in ecological and environmental management.

Understanding cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) dynamics in the Northern Great Basin rangelands, USA, is necessary to effectively manage the region's lands. This study's goal was to map and monitor cheatgrass performance to identify where and when cheatgrass dieoff occurred in the Northern Great Basin and to discover how this phenomenon was affected by climatic, topographic, and edaphic variables. We also examined how fire affected cheatgrass performance.

Meat production in South Africa is on an increasing trend. In South Africa rising wealth, urbanisation and a growing middle class means South Africans are eating more processed and high-protein foods, especially meat and dairy products. These foods are more land- and water-intensive than fruit, vegetable and grain crops, and further stress existing resources. Traditional agricultural farms cannot keep up with the increasing demand for animal products and these farms are being replaced with concentrated animal feeding operations.

Land degradation mainly in the form of soil and nutrient depletion is the prominent problem that the Ethiopian agriculture is facing. Due to this, farmers should be aware of this problem and the necessity of implementing conservation measures. Hence, this study assesses farm households’ willingness to participate in soil conservation practice through a Contingent Valuation method in one of the most degraded parts of the country.

On the basis of legislative norms concerning land and nature management in Russia and scientific concepts of soil and land, new definitions of these basic concepts are suggested. Soils and lands are considered as separate components of the environment, each performing their own ecological functions. The definitions for land degradation and soil degradation are given.

Approaches to evaluation of the degree of soil degradation and the related normative documents applied by specialists from state institutes for land management of the former Soviet Union in the course of largeand medium-scale soil surveys in the 1960s–1990s are analyzed. It is shown that the types and rates of soil degradation were specified without proper consideration for the taxonomic position of particular soils.

Desertification is one of the major obstacles to the development and utilization of oases in arid and semi-arid regions of China. Revegetation of oases is an effective means of protecting oases from sand invasion (the main cause of desertification) and enhancing the ecological stability of oasis. In order to assess the effects of revegetated plant communities, 21-year-old Haloxylon ammodendron shrubland (Shrubland), 28-year-old Populus simonii Carr. land (Poplar land) and 33-year-old Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv land (Pine land) were selected as study objects.

CONTEXT: We studied the influence of human activities and climate change on water quantity and quality. Human activities included methods of agricultural policy, i.e. land use and management practices. OBJECTIVES: Finland started to follow EU’s agricultural policy in 1995. In this study our main objective was to find out whether the original targets of the Finnish Agri-Environmental Programme (FAEP) were achieved. METHODS: We analyzed trends in discharge, water quality and climate parameters in 37 years long time-series in two catchments.