Protected areas (PAs) are designated to safeguard specific areas with natural and cultural values. Importantly, appropriate management is vital for PAs to achieve their conservation goals. Therefore, the management staff is essential for guaranteeing the successful management of PAs and delivering outstanding organizational performance. In China, staff faces many difficulties when conducting conservation activities because of an inefficient management system, and the lack of relevant laws and regulations.

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) are the leading contributors to the decline and loss of ecosystem services in the world. The present study covered the Central Rift Valley lakes basin in Ethiopia, focusing on the valley floor and the East and West escarpments, to analyze changes in LULC and to estimate associated losses in ecosystem service values (ESVs). Covering both upstream and downstream areas in the basin, the study addressed major gaps in existing studies by connecting the sources and sinks of material (e.g., sediment and water) in source-to-lake systems.

Tension and conflict are endemic to any upgrading initiative (including basic infrastructure provision) requiring private land contributions, whether in the form of voluntary donations or compensated land acquisitions. In informal urban contexts, practitioners must first identify well-suited land for public infrastructure, both spatially and with careful consideration for safeguarding claimed rights and preventing conflicts.

Ethiopia has embarked on one of the largest digitalization programs for rural land registration in Africa. The program is called the national rural land administration information system (NRLAIS). Over the past couple of years, NRLAIS was rolled-out and made operational in over 180 woredas (districts). There is, however, limited empirical evidence on whether and to what extent NRLAIS has been successful. This study explores the factors that influence the acceptance and actual use of NRLAIS to gauge its operational success in Ethiopia.

Progressing climate change has been increasingly threatening the agricultural sector by compromising the resilience of ecosystems and endangering food security worldwide. Altering patterns of major climatic parameters require the perspectives of agricultural production to be assessed in a holistic way to understand the interactions of climatic and non-climatic factors on crop yield.

Understanding the evolution of land use/land cover change (LULCC) and how it shapes current and future ecosystem services (ES) supply potential remains critical in sustainable natural resource management. Community perception of historic LULCC was reconciled with previous study via remote sensing/geographical information systems using recall data in the Budongo–Bugoma landscape in Uganda. Then, a CA-Markovian prediction model of a LULC situation in 2040 under business as usual (BAU) and forest restoration scenarios was constructed.

At present, abandoned cropland has become a common phenomenon spreading to countries around the world. China has seen widespread abandoned cropland in recent years. However, there are extremely few empirical studies of cropland abandonment and influencing factors nationwide. In this study, survey data from 8071 farmer households in 14 Chinese provinces were used to analyze the degree of cropland abandonment in China and its spatial distribution.

Most land consolidation projects envisage reducing fragmentation and aim at increasing productivity, land use efficiency, and competitiveness of rural areas. However, recent insights suggest that social aspects are crucial as well. Hence, a critical assessment of the conditions under which land consolidation can be socially beneficial is necessary. This article aims to identify values and qualitative indicators to measure social preferences and to assess whether one can optimize decision support tools for land consolidation projects with such indicators.

Globally, nations are targeting to achieve the “Green Deal 2030” and “Biodiversity Strategy 2030” to protect and conserve forest ecosystems. Forest land rights that define the nature of forest use have been rendered useless in many developing countries. Uganda is an African country endowed with tropical rainforests. Forests and other protected areas continue to decline due to deforestation and forest degradation in Uganda. Moreover, Uganda is an example of a country with a high allocation of virgin forest land to investors for development projects including agriculture.

The level of service-industry development has become an important symbol of the competitiveness and influence of cities. The study of the dynamic evolution characteristics and patterns of urban service-industry land use, the driving factors and their interactions is helpful to provide a basis for decision making in policy design and land use planning for the development of service economies. In this study we have conducted an empirical study of China, based on the methods of spatial cold- and hot-spot analysis, Tapio’s decoupling model, and GeoDetector.

Tigers play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Unfortunately, tigers are threatened by poaching, human–wildlife conflict, habitat loss, and more. In response to these threats, the conservation community pledged to double the worldwide wild tiger population by 2022 (known as TX2) at the “Tiger Summit” in St. Petersburg in 2010, and to track the progress of Tiger Range Countries. Between 2010 and 2022, the Global Tiger Recovery Programme was implemented. To accomplish this TX2 goal, each Tiger Range Country developed a National Tiger Action Plan (NTAP).

The agricultural sector is facing the challenge of climate change, which is increasing difficulties to the activity and the economic sustainability of the primary sector, also affecting farmers’ revenues. There is a growing need to support policy makers’ decisions and help them develop cross-sectional strategies to support farmers. To this aim and to collect useful information for policy makers and stakeholders for the development of efficient strategies for the management of dryland farming, the paper examines how this issue has been analysed in the literature.