Livestock systems globally are changing rapidly in response to human population growth, urbanization, and growing incomes. This paper discusses the linkages between burgeoning demand for livestock products, growth in livestock production, and the impacts this may have on natural resources, and how these may both affect and be affected by climate change in the coming decades. Water and land scarcity will increasingly have the potential to constrain food production growth, with adverse impacts on food security and human well-being.

Land use changes in East Africa have transformed land cover to farmlands, grazing lands, human settlements and urban centers at the expense of natural vegetation. These changes are associated with deforestation, biodiversity loss and land degradation. A synthesis of results of long term research by an interdisciplinary team reveals the linkages between land use change, biodiversity loss and land degradation. The results indicate that as native vegetation is lost, indigenous plant and animal biodiversity and plant cover are lost.

The dynamics of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon are complex. A growing debate considers the extent to which deforestation is a result of the expansion of the Brazilian soy industry. Most recent analyses suggest that deforestation is driven by the expansion of cattle ranching, rather than soy. Soy seems to be replacing previously deforested land and/or land previously under pasture.

In Colombia coffee production is facing risks due to an increase in the variability and amount of rainfall, which may alter hydrological cycles and negatively influence yield quality and quantity. Shade trees in coffee plantations, however, are known to produce ecological benefits, such as intercepting rainfall and lowering its velocity, resulting in a reduced net-rainfall and higher water infiltration.

This review has drawn on published research and the collective insights of a small team of experienced researchers to identify important trajectories in rice-based farming systems and to draw out the implications for agricultural research as a basis for discussion within ACIAR and the broader research community working on smallholder rice-based farming systems in MSEA.

Loggers, miners and rural communities all exploit forests in unsustainable ways in search of profits and means of subsistence. They are the primary actors in forest decline and their immediate motivations are the direct causes of deforestation and degradation. However, these motivations are determined, through complex causation chains, by deeper and much more fundamental forces: the underlying causes of deforestation. Effective action against forest decline requires an understanding of these underlying causes and their distant impacts on forests.

Rapid land transformation driven by large scale investments is one of the big trends defining this century. In a virtual briefing for the Global Donor Platform members CIAT agriculture expert Deborah Bossio dismisses the cry for more investments often heard in development circles. From her perspective a lack of investments is not the problem. The more pressing question is whether these large scale investments could be sustainable and socially inclusive. How are they going to play out in the end?