The amount of habitat in a landscape is an important metric for evaluating the effects of land cover on biodiversity, yet it fails to capture complex temporal dimensions of resource availability that could be consequential for species population dynamics. Here, we use a spatially-explicit predator–prey metapopulation model to test the effect of different spatiotemporal resource patterns on insect predators and their prey. We examined population responses in model landscapes that varied in both the amount and temporal variability of basal vegetation.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important indicator of soil quality and directly determines soil fertility. Hence, understanding its spatial distribution and controlling factors is necessary for efficient and sustainable soil nutrient management. In this study, machine learning algorithms including artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), cubist regression, random forests (RF), and multiple linear regression (MLR) were chosen for advancing the prediction of SOC.

By signing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, the Netherlands also envisions a sustainably managed Netherlands in 2030. This requires sustainable transitions in the fields of agriculture, energy production and climate policy. We describe how the soil plays an essential role in these transitions. If we use the soil more sustainably, the soil can be the key to achieving many of the social challenges such as climate change (SDG 13), food security (SDG 2), energy (SDG 7) and biodiversity restoration (SDG 15).

Few longitudinal studies link agricultural biodiversity, land use and food access in rural landscapes. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that, in a context of economic change, cash crop expansion is associated with deforestation, reduced agrobiodiversity and changes in food access. For this purpose, we analysed data collected from the same 53 upland and floodplain mestizo households in Ucayali, Peru, in 2000 and 2015. We found an emerging transition towards less diversified food access coupled with loss of forest cover and reduced agricultural biodiversity.

Soils perform more functions than primary productivity. Examples of these functions are the recycling of nutrients, the regulation and purification of water, the regulation of the climate, and supporting biodiversity. These abilities are generally referred to as the soil quality. Soil management that favors primary productivity may have positive and negative impacts on the other functions, and vice versa, depending on soil and climatic conditions. All these functions are under pressure, particularly in intensive agriculture.

With a diameter of only 5 to 11 millimetres on average, it is fascinating to think how soybean is currently affecting – and affected by – changes in economy, environment and society, both at the global and at the local level. Bearing in mind the main objective of the Trade Hub project and the specific contribution of Work Package 4, the present Scoping Study analyses the evolution of the ‘geopolitics’ of international trade flows, dissecting social, institutional, economic and environmental outcomes along the value chain of this commodity.

The standard System of National Accounts (SNA) omits the costs of the environmental inputs from nature and the environmental fixed asset degradation from the national/sub-national natural working landscapes. The United Nations Statistic Division (UNSD) is currently drafting the standardization of the Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (EEA), as part of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA).

This Handbook provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the role that Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Advisors can play in the creation of reliable, coherent, and transparent “enabling environments” in the range of areas related to investment in agriculture and food systems. It does so through guidance notes, examples of good practices, and very practical indications, and sets out key stages of processes and mechanisms for MPs and advisors to consider while promoting responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.

Land lies at the very foundation of our society and social life; it plays a central role in the livelihoods and cultural identities of communities across the globe, and contains the resources that underpin our now globalised world. However, partly because of this, it is often at the heart of social and political conflicts. Increasing demand for food, energy and other primary products is driving agribusinesses, mining companies and speculative investors in a quest for new land to acquire and exploit.

A study commissioned by IIED. With less than 20 percent of landholdings in Uganda currently registered;land governance is at the forefront of a profound change as customary land is demarcated and registered. A key challenge is to ensure the equitability of this process involving gender and social equality;the protection of the poor and vulnerable comprising children and the disabled;and the environment.

Aiming to store water in wet seasons and outflow water in dry seasons, and improve reservoirs’ performance, are of great importance. Given the developmental disparities across regions and uneven precipitation within one year, water transfer could be an efficient solution.

The rapid urban and industrial development in China has put pressure on the limited cultivated land resources. In ecologically fragile areas, such as the Dongting Lake Eco-economic Zone, land pollution and waste emissions from agricultural production cause irreversible damage to cultivated land. Thus, a method to assess the sustainability of cultivated land use efficiency (CLUE) is explored. Using the panel data of 25 districts in the province from 2007 to 2017, this study incorporates agricultural non-point source pollution and carbon emissions into undesirable outputs of cultivated land.