Understanding the local socioeconomic context is important for the design of appropriate conservation initiatives and associated monitoring strategies, especially in areas with high degrees of inequality, to ensure conservation interventions do not inadvertently further disadvantage vulnerable people. Typical assessments of wealth inequality in remote rural areas are constrained by limited engagement with a cash economy, complex family and tribal ties, and an absence of basic infrastructure.

This paper presents a macro-micro analysis of the impact of policy reforms in China on agricultural production, input use and soil quality change for a major rice-producing area, namely Jiangxi province. This is done in three steps. First, a quantitative assessment is made of the impact of market liberalization policies on the economic environment of farm households in Jiangxi province. Econometric analyses based on provincial, national and world market data are used to explain changes in rice and fertilizer prices in Jiangxi province over time.

Following centuries of deforestation, Ireland has undergone a substantial afforestation programme in the last 40 years. This paper presents the results of a case study undertaken to examine local response to afforestation. The study is set in Arigna, a region in northwestern Ireland that has traditionally depended on agriculture but has experienced relatively high rates of afforestation in recent decades.

Apart from the difficulty to attract new members, leakage of sales outside the cooperative is a major challenge for the coffee cooperatives in Rwanda. Local (independent) traders still constitute a major market for coffee producers. Yet, cooperatives also accept the produce from non-members and pay them the same price. Our objective in this paper is to analyse the importance of this phenomenon of double side-selling. We collected data from a sample of 170 coffee farmers. We use a probit model to analyse characteristics linked to cooperative membership and to study double side-selling.

Internal territorialisation or the formalisation of forest rights has led to increased state ownership in many countries, often ignoring traditional or customary tenure and land use. Because of its roots in a formal government process, the disjuncture between formal rights and local practices may be seen as unproblematic to policymakers, even though it harms the livelihoods of marginalised forest dwellers.

Bangladesh, with a forest cover estimated at 17.08% of all land surface area, has experienced massive degradation of its natural resources and a conside­rable change in its land cover. While deforestation in Bangladesh is obviously a complex issue, one important aspect emerges from previous research findings in explaining deforestation: industrialization. This study focuses on the causes of deforestation in Bangladesh, particularly in tropical moist deciduous Sal forests, using multi levels factor analysis framework.

Land activities contribute ~18% of total greenhouse gas emissions produced in Australia. To help reduce these emissions, the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) was implemented in 2011 to encourage land projects, which reduce the production of greenhouse gases and/or sequester carbon in the land. Prospective projects include savanna fire management and rangelands management, which have high relevance in northern Australia where Indigenous landholding is strong.