The frequency and extent of human‐induced land‐cover changes is escalating worldwide. Recurrent turnover of land‐cover types will affect ecosystems over and above major, one‐time changes (eg deforestation). Here, we show how a deeper appreciation of the temporal dynamics of land‐cover change is needed to understand its effects on ecosystems.

Chongqing Municipality, located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is one of China’s four largest megacities, comparable with Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin. In recent years, Chongqing and its surroundings have been experiencing severe environmental problems, such as urbanization, pollution, and deforestation, due to the rapid economic development of China’s inland region.

The assessment of freshwater resources in a drainage basin is not only dependent on its hydrologic parameters but also on the socio-economic system driving development in the watershed area; the socio-economic aspect, that is often neglected in hydrologic studies, is one of the novelties of this study. The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) presenting an integrated working methodology and (2) studying a local case of a North African watershed where scarce field data are available.

An unprecedented increase in oil palm developments may be underway in Papua New Guinea (PNG) through controversial “special agricultural and business leases” (SABLs) covering over two million hectares. Oil palm development can create societal benefits, but doubt has been raised about whether the SABL developers intend establishing plantations. Here, we examine the development objectives of these proposals through an assessment of their land suitability, developer experience and capacity, and sociolegal constraints.

Mountain ecosystems are, however, fragile and particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, deforestation and forest degradation, land-use change, land degradation and natural disasters.

China launched the “Returning Grazing Lands to Grasslands” project about a decade ago to restore severely degraded grasslands. Grassland grazing exclusion was one of the experimental approaches for achieving the grand goal. Here, we evaluate the long-term regional ecological effects of grassland grazing exclusion in the Xilingol region of Inner Mongolia, China. The dynamics of grassland communities over 8 years (2004–2011) were continuously monitored at 11 research sites dominated by temperate steppe ecosystems.

The soil erodibility factor of RUSLE is one of the important indicators of land degradation. It can be measured either directly under natural or simulated rainfall condition or indirectly estimated by empirical models. A geospatial variation of this factor is essential for prioritization of reclamation measures. However, geospatial upscaling of soil erodibility factor is very uncertain because of its dynamic nature and dependent on the parameters used in the model.

Scenario analysis constitutes a valuable deployment method for scientific models to inform environmental decision-making, particularly for evaluating land degradation mitigation options, which are rarely based on formal analysis. In this paper we demonstrate such an assessment using the PESERA–DESMICE modeling framework with various scenarios for 13 global land degradation hotspots.

Examples of sustainable land management (SLM) exist throughout the world. In many cases, SLM has largely evolved through local traditional practices and incremental experimentation rather than being adopted on the basis of scientific evidence. This means that SLM technologies are often only adopted across small areas. The DESIRE (DESertIfication mitigation and REmediation of degraded land) project combined local traditional knowledge on SLM with empirical evaluation of SLM technologies.

Indicator-based approaches are often used to monitor land degradation and desertification from the global to the very local scale. However, there is still little agreement on which indicators may best reflect both status and trends of these phenomena. In this study, various processes of land degradation and desertification have been analyzed in 17 study sites around the world using a wide set of biophysical and socioeconomic indicators.

Managing land sustainably is a huge challenge, especially under harsh climatic conditions such as those found in drylands. The socio-economic situation can also pose challenges, as dryland regions are often characterized by remoteness, marginality, low-productive farming, weak institutions, and even conflict. With threats from climate change, disputes over water, competing claims on land, and migration increasing worldwide, the demands for sustainable land management (SLM) measures will only increase in the future.

Until around 1995 it was challenging to make the scientific results of research projects publicly available except through presentations at meetings or conferences, or as papers in academic journals. Then it began to be clear that the Internet could become the main medium to publish and share new information with a much wider audience. The DESIRE Project (desertification mitigation and remediation of land—a global approach for local solutions) has built on expertise gained in previous projects to develop an innovative online ‘Harmonized Information System’ (HIS).