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Emerging from Below? Understanding the Livelihood Trajectories of Smallholder Livestock Farmers in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Peer-reviewed publication
February, 2021
United States of America
South Africa
Southern Africa

In the context of current agrarian reform efforts in South Africa, this paper analyses the livelihood trajectories of ‘emergent’ farmers in Eastern Cape Province. We apply a rural livelihoods framework to 60 emergent cattle farmers to understand the different capitals they have drawn upon in transitioning to their current class positions and associated vulnerability. The analysis shows that, for the majority of farmers, no real ‘transition’ from subsistence farming has occurred.

Identifying economic and societal drivers of engagement in agri-environmental schemes for English dairy producers

Peer-reviewed publication
January, 2021
United States of America

Livestock production is under increasing scrutiny regarding its impacts on the environment and its wider role in climate change. Consequently, there are a growing number of private agri-environmental schemes (AES) now operating alongside public AES that offer farmers economic rewards to maintain and enhance the environment. This study focused exclusively on a small number of commercial dairy producers located in the North West of England who were all suppliers of a global food producer and members of the producer’s own private AES.

Analyzing Regional Geographic Challenges: The Resilience of Chinese Vineyards to Land Degradation Using a Societal and Biophysical Approach

Peer-reviewed publication
January, 2021
China

Land degradation, especially soil erosion, is a societal issue that affects vineyards worldwide, but there are no current investigations that inform specifically about soil erosion rates in Chinese vineyards. In this review, we analyze this problem and the need to avoid irreversible damage to soil and their use from a regional point of view. Information about soil erosion in vineyards has often failed to reach farmers, and we can affirm that to this time, soil erosion in Chinese vineyards has been more of a scientific hypothesis than an agronomic or environmental concern.

Transition to Smart and Regenerative Urban Places (SRUP): Contributions to a New Conceptual Framework

Peer-reviewed publication
January, 2021
Global

Modern urbanism is called to face current challenges ranging from intensive demographic growth, economic and social stagnation to resources salvation and climate changes. Under the broader scope of sustainability, we argue that the transition to a holistic perspective of smart and regenerative planning and design is the way to face and yet to prevent these urban challenges. In doing so, we adopt systematic thinking to study the complexity of urban metabolisms at an urban place scale, emphasizing the ongoing coevolution of social-cultural-technological and ecological processes.

Soil Degradation and Socioeconomic Systems’ Complexity: Uncovering the Latent Nexus

Peer-reviewed publication
January, 2021
Global

Understanding Soil Degradation Processes (SDPs) is a fundamental issue for humankind. Soil degradation involves complex processes that are influenced by a multifaceted ensemble of socioeconomic and ecological factors at vastly different spatial scales. Desertification risk (the ultimate outcome of soil degradation, seen as an irreversible process of natural resource destruction) and socioeconomic trends have been recently analyzed assuming “resilience thinking” as an appropriate interpretative paradigm.

Rural land tenure resilience in postwar Syria: Implications for restitution and stabilization

Journal Articles & Books
December, 2020
Syrian Arab Republic

The impending close to the war in Syria brings to the fore the prospect of approximately 13 million forcibly displaced people considering returns to places of origin in the country. However the reattachment of people to their housing, land and property (HLP) faces a daunting set of challenges—the prospect of demographic change, the application of expropriation laws, confiscations and political agendas.

Climate security in the Central American Dry Corridor

December, 2020
Fiji

The evidence on conflicts around the world since the turn of the century points to a simple conclusion: conflicts, grievances and insecurities are increasingly being affected by changing climates, environmental degradation, food insecurity, and the struggle to control a finite pool of natural resources. This paper aims to understand the linkages between climate, conflict, agriculture, and