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Displaying 1376 - 1380 of 1605Economic analysis of exploitation and regeneration in plantations with problematic site productivity
Although intensive managed plantations clearly increase the growth and yield of forests several papers refer to declining forest productivity. Therefore in this paper we study the impact of declining forest productivity on the land expectation value and the optimal rotation length. We start from the research by Lu and Chang (1996) and try to fill the gap between the stable site productivity (“best”) and the site mining (“worst”) cases. For that we extend the classical Faustmann model by availability of different recovering technologies.
Climate change and trade in agriculture
Agricultural productivity in both developing and developed countries will have to improve to achieve substantial increases in food production by 2050 while land and water resources become less abundant and the effects of climate change introduce much uncertainty. Already less resilient production areas will suffer the most, as temperatures will rise further in tropical and semi-tropical latitudes and water-scarce regions will face even drier conditions.
Minimising the harm to biodiversity of producing more food globally
Should farming and conservation policies aim broadly to separate land for nature and land for production (land sparing) or integrate production and conservation on the same land (wildlife-friendly farming)? Most studies that try to address this question suffer from flaws in sampling design, inappropriate metrics, and/or failure to measure biodiversity baselines. We discuss how these failings can be addressed, and what existing information tells us about the key debates on this topic. The evidence available suggests that trade-offs between biodiversity and yield are prevalent.
participatory soil quality assessment in Northern Ethiopia's Mai-Negus catchment
Local communities often have substantial knowledge related to trends in soil quality and the associated limiting factors. Despite this, soil quality (SQ) degradation is a critical problem in Ethiopia and there is little or insufficient scientific information documenting local community experience in assessing SQ. This paper presents experiences of local communities in diagnosis of SQ and assesses the contribution of local knowledge as a strategy for sustainable development decision making within the Mai-Negus catchment of northern Ethiopia.
Sequestering carbon in soils of agro-ecosystems
Soils of the world’s agroecosystems (croplands, grazing lands, rangelands) are depleted of their soil organic carbon (SOC) pool by 25–75% depending on climate, soil type, and historic management. The magnitude of loss may be 10 to 50tonsC/ha. Soils with severe depletion of their SOC pool have low agronomic yield and low use efficiency of added input.