The preservation of soils which provide many important services to society is a pressing global issue. This is particularly the case in countries like Tanzania, which will experience rapid population growth over coming decades. The country is also currently experiencing rapid land-use change and increasing intensification of its agricultural systems to ensure sufficient food production. However, little is known regarding what the long term effects of this land use change will be, especially concerning soil quality.

Over the past few decades urbanization and population growth have been the main trend all over the world, which brings the increase of economic benefits (EB) and the decrease of cropland. Cropland protection policies play an important role in the urbanization progress. In this study, we assess the trade-offs between EB and ecosystem services value (ESV) under three cropland protection policy scenarios using the LAND System Cellular Automata for Potential Effects (LANDSCAPE) model.

Land acquisition often involves power and displacement and can be carried out on a large scale. There are many forms of land acquisition, including for environmental and conservation purposes as well as for production activities. While green grabbing has joined land grabbing as an environmental justice issue of concern, it is not necessarily the case that all green land acquisition is large scale, done by powerful outsiders, or leads to displacement and exclusion.