Rangelands, Drylands & Pastoralism

Agricultural terraces provide farmers in hilly landscapes with effective ways to increase the area available for crops. They mitigate the risks of soil erosion and promote crop productivity by slowing surface water runoff and retaining moisture. As in other parts of the world, terraces have been constructed and used in the Mediterranean for millennia.

Amid the epoch of global overpopulation, the agroforestry system can intervene as a novel practice that can safeguard agricultural sustainability, provide a means of livelihood, yield ecological benefits, and contribute to household food security.

Spatial conservation prioritization does not necessarily lead to effective conservation plans, and good plans do not necessarily lead to action. These “science-action” gaps are pernicious and need to be narrowed, especially if the international goal of conserving 30% of the planet by 2030 is to be realized.

Ecological security pattern (ESP) can bridge the paradox between ecological conservation and socioeconomic development. Although various methods have been applied to establish ESP successfully, improving its scientificity and reliability for regional sustainability are still great challenges.

Identification of spatiotemporal changes in ecosystem service value and their drivers is the basis for ecosystem services management and decision making. This research selects Fujiang River Basin (FJRB) as the area of study, using the equivalent factor method to estimate the ecosystem service value (ESV) variation and characteristics of its spatial distribution.

Landslides are one of the most significant natural hazards worldwide. They can have far-reaching negative impacts on societies in different socio-economic sectors as well as on the landscape. Among the different types and processes that can also affect infrastructure and land use planning, slow-moving landslides are often underestimated.

Is digitalization conducive to promoting carbon reduction in cultivated land use while empowering high-quality socio-economic development and intelligent territorial spatial planning?

North Korea experienced a catastrophic famine in the mid-1990s that resulted in millions of deaths. This study aims to build an agent-based model to understand the risk of land degradation and famine in North Korea and explore potential solutions to mitigate this risk.

Agent-based models (ABMs) are particularly suited for simulating the behaviour of agricultural agents in response to land use (LU) policy. However, there is no evidence of their widespread use by policymakers. Here, we carry out a review of LU ABMs to understand how farmers’ decision-making has been modelled.

As a key part of the forest ecosystem, soil microorganisms play extremely important roles in maintaining the ecological environment and the security of water quality in reservoir areas.

In order to support livelihoods, enhance food security, restore ecosystem services, and reduce pressure on forests, degraded land can be restored by utilising alternative land-use systems (ALUS), such as silviculture, silvipasture, and hortipasture techniques. ALUS significantly modify the dynamics of soil nutrients in both the surface and subsurface layers.

Mangrove forest in Lubuk Kertang Village, West Brandan sub-district has been converted around 20 ha annually (1996–2016) into various non-forest land use. Rehabilitation can be a solution to restore the condition of the ecosystem so that it can resume its ecological and economic functions.