The primary objective of this article is to review the evolution of urban land-use survey methodologies during the last century, with a special focus on the methodologies concerning field surveys that are conducted for urban planning purposes. Our review reveals, on the one hand, that there has been a steep decrease of interest in the further development of these methodologies over the last 50 years, and, on the other, that they have been seriously trivialized, as shown by the simplistic and empirical approach to land-use survey methodology in contemporary textbooks.

European agri-environmental schemes are being criticised for reinforcing rather than negating an opposition between agricultural production and environmental production, and for assuming instead of securing a public willingness to pay for agri-environmental change. This paper explores if a regionalisation of agri-environmental governance may contribute to overcome these criticisms. The paper empirically explores three regionalised agri-environmental schemes from Flanders, Belgium, with the use of 40 qualitative interviews with farmers and other relevant stakeholders.

Although still at incipient stages in most areas, agricultural land markets in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are growing rapidly. While the literature on the region’s land markets is expanding, there has been little attention thus far paid to the drivers of land rental prices. We know quite little about whether and how land markets and land contracts respond to meso-scale factors such as spatial variations in land abundance, or to micro-level factors, such as household land endowments.

This paper addresses the current research void on local community views of changes in ecosystem services associated with rapid land use transformation in the context of plantation-based forestry. This interview-based study, conducted in southern China, aims at assessing the perspectives of local communities of: 1) the effects of Eucalyptus industrial plantations on selected ecosystem services and on local development; and 2) opportunities for future community livelihood development, based on the relations with the government and with forest industry operating locally.

Urban green spaces and their role in the quality of life of residents have been studied across multiple disciplines, based on empirical measurements or qualitative studies – however, the relation, and its strength, between spatial indicators of urban green spaces and visitors’ perceptions of green spaces are less known.

This paper argues and provides empirical evidence that trade-offs and/or complementarities are
inherent in technological options that shape the adoption of and land-use decisions in production
systems involving multiple crops in Ethiopia. By applying a fractional response model to a
nationally representative sample of 1 469 households, this paper found that, while there are tradeoffs
in the land-use decisions regarding barley and potatoes, there are complementarities in the

Preliminary findings on the effects of land use in the Masinga Dam catchment, Kenya, on the storage capacity of the reservoir are presented. Remote sensing and GIS techniques, supplemented with ground reports, were used to determine areas most susceptible to erosion. A representative catchment was then chosen for rainy season monitoring of soil loss, river suspended sediments and discharge response to rainfall. In addition, Gerlach-type traps were used to evaluate erosion rates under different crop covers and slope gradients.

This paper analyses patterns of corruption and corruption risks related to community mineral beneficiation schemes (CMBSs) that distribute benefits funded by mineral revenues to communities. It analyses insights from existing scholarship on CMBSs, evidence from seven cases of corruption, and lessons from guidance documents on reducing corruption in the mining value chain. The aim of the paper is to stimulate debate and further research about the suitability of anti-corruption strategies for CMBSs.

Corruption in land administration has significant societal costs, and can have a major effect on the livelihoods of people worldwide. Corruption in this sector can reduce peoples’ access to land, and harm the livelihoods of small-scale producers, agricultural labourers, indigenous communities and landless rural and urban poor. Women, young people and ethnic minorities suffer most by having their access to land hindered by corruption.

FAO is pleased to announce the e-learning course on “Sustainable Land Management and Land Restoration”, which has been developed in collaboration with CIHEAM-Bari, WOCAT, ELD and University of Leeds.

The Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) produces new global spatial information, evidence-based analytics describing the human presence on the planet that is based mainly on two quantitative factors: (i) the spatial distribution (density) of built-up structures and (ii) the spatial distribution (density) of resident people. Both of the factors are observed in the long-term temporal domain and per unit area, in order to support the analysis of the trends and indicators for monitoring the implementation of the 2030 Development Agenda and the related thematic agreements.

Date: Mai 2018

Source: Farmlandgrab, IFRI

Par: Sina SCHLIMMER