Shifting cultivation, which long provided the subsistence requirements of a large number of people in the mountains of South and Southeast Asia under a situation of low population, has been shown to be an environmentally and economically unsuitable practice. Efforts have been made throughout the region to replace it with more productive and sustainable land-use systems. Experiences have been mixed.

Jiuzhaigou National Park (JNP) is a site of global conservation significance. Conservation policies in JNP include the implementation of two national reforestation programs to increase forest cover and the exclusion of local land-use. We use archaeological excavation, ethnographic interviews, remote sensing and vegetation surveys to examine the implications of these policies for non-forest, montane meadows. We find that Amdo Tibetan people cultivated the valley for >2,000� years, creating and maintaining meadows through land clearing, burning and grazing.

Leatherdale, J., Chanasyk, D. S. and Quideau, S. 2012. Soil water regimes of reclaimed upland slopes in the oil sands region of Alberta. Can. J. Soil Sci. 92: 117–129. Large oil sands deposits in the Athabasca oil sands region of Alberta, Canada, are recovered through surface mining, creating a large-scale disturbance. Reclamation requires reconstruction of soil profiles to return the land to equivalent land capability and support the required end land use. Soil water regimes must be understood to allow for planting of appropriate vegetation species.

The Alpine Convention emerged from the recognition of the Alpine countries that it is necessary to protect the natural and cultural values and to support the sustainable development of the Alpine area. Slovenia is one of the signatories of this important international contract, which links together8 countries, 5.971 communities and more than 13 million inhabitants. In the present article, some of the basic indicators for the Slovenian area ofthe Alpine Convention are presented and compared with the entire country.

A Compound Specific Stable Isotope (CSSI) sediment tracing approach is evaluated for the first time in an agricultural catchment setting against established geochemical fingerprinting techniques. The work demonstrates that novel CSSI techniques have the potential to provide important support for soil resource management policies and inform sediment risk assessment for the protection of aquatic habitats and water resources.

The complex interactions between human activity and natural processes determine non-linear dynamics in ecosystems that can difficult their management. Human settlements in arid lands contribute to the modification of disturbance regimes, including the introduction of new disturbances and the elimination of others. In consequence, they can alter the functional mechanisms that allow systems to overcome limiting factors, leading to desertification.

Biomass is being researched as a possible alternative to fossil sources of energy, in order to avoid externalities from fossil fuel use that affect the environment and the economy. Some biomass-based energy production systems may produce unwanted externalities in their own right, such as increasing the production pressure on the agricultural land base, resulting in a rise in prices of food commodities. Using marginal land for biomass production has been suggested as a solution. However, the definition of what constitutes marginal land is poorly understood.

Objective: The global obesity epidemic has been partially attributed to modern environments that encourage inactivity and overeating, yet few studies have examined specific features of the physical neighborhood environment that influence obesity. Using two different measurement methods, this study sought to identify and compare perceived and observed neighborhood indicators of obesity and a high-risk profile of being obese and inactive.

The study used a combination of ethno-social surveys and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to assess 651 pastoral households and their land use under agropastoral production systems in Ogun State, Nigeria. Yields of arable crops on agropastoralists' fields were generally low. Livestock productivity was similar on all parameters to levels in comparable contexts elsewhere across the West African subregion, but generally below possible potentials and on-farm research findings. Pastoral households' activities presently influence between 221 km2 and 523 km2 of land in Ogun State.

The impact of land use on carbon pools were investigated in three different land use types (forestland. arable land and grassland) in Katinger Watt area in Northern Germany. The area was once a sea-floor (tidal Hat) that was dyked in 1973. Relevant conditions for carbon turnover in the studied area were similar, thus the differences in carbon pool during soil genesis were attributed to different land use systems. Calculations were based on estimated above ground (ABG) and below ground (BGB) living plant biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) at depth 0-30 cm.

The aim of the research is to analyse the landscape structure changes from the end of the Soviet times in 1974–1986 until 2005 when market economy existed in Lithuania. The changes of landscape structure were observed in 100 sample areas (squares) each of them having 2.5 km2 area and distributed in different landscape types. The changes in sample areas (squares) with determination of land cover structure transformations were observed using topographic photos and ortophoto images at a scale 1:10 000.

Recently, extreme meteorological events have occurred frequently owing to climate change and its influence. Impacts of concentrated precipitation events include the damage caused by landslides. Many areas in Gangwondo (Korea) are located at high elevation and have large elevation differences; these areas are thus at high risk of landslides. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the landslide hazard of the province using representative concentration pathways (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 and to compare results.