In recent years, numerous articles have addressed management strategies aimed at assisting forests to adapt to climate change. However, these seldom take into account the practical and economic implications of implementing these strategies, notably, supply of forest plants and seed.

Landscape approaches to integrated land management have recently gained considerable attention in the scientific literature and international fora. The approach is gaining increasing support at governmental and intergovernmental levels, as well as being embraced by a host of international research and development agencies. In an attempt to determine whether, and how, these approaches compare with previous conservation and development paradigms, we reviewed the implementation of integrated landscape approaches across the tropics.

Water scarcity is among the contemporary problems of our time across the globe. The problem is worsened by policy failures to enforce water governance and watershed conservation. Consequently, it has curtailed the capacity of watersheds to release hydrological services, water in particular. We carried out this study to explore approaches for watershed conservation and investigate water governance challenges in Pangani River Basin, Tanzania. We collected data by using structured questionnaires and meetings with different actors in the study area.

Dachas (collective gardens with summer houses in post-Soviet countries) is one of the most common features of peri-urban landscapes within the region that is the erstwhile USSR, with dacha conglomerates constituting half of the areas in the exurbs of major cities. In Belarus, Russia and Ukraine dachas largely preserved their original form and function. Arguably, they are at the turning point now, and can be further transformed sustainably if appropriate incentive structures will be created within national governance systems.

Most stakeholder-based research concerning agri-environmental schemes (AES) derives from work engaging with farmers and land managers. Consequently, the voices and opinions of other actors involved in AES tends to be unrepresented in the wider literature. One group of actors that seem particularly overlooked in this respect are private (independent) farm advisors (i.e., the consultants contracted by farmers and land managers to advise-on AES and agronomic matters).

Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly promoted to support sustainable and resilient urban planning. However, design and planning urban NBS targeted at the needs of the local context require knowledge about the causal relationships between NBS, ecosystem services (ES) and urban challenges (UC) This paper aims at contributing to this knowledge, by systematically identifying nexuses (i.e. qualitative links) between UC, ES and NBS, and describing plausible causal relationships.

In Northern, Eastern and Central European countries, peat soils drained for agriculture are a considerable source of greenhouse gas emissions. Since emissions from this source have high mitigation potential, they will likely be a focus of the European Union’s future climate goals. We describe and compare the similarities and differences in the socioeconomic and ecological business environment that policy makers, planners and farmers are confronted with when developing tailored proposals for low emission land use alternatives on peat land.

Sustainable land management is essential to meeting the global challenge of securing soil and water resources that can support an ever increasing population. In Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, population growth is forecast to increase from 1.5 to 2.5 million by 2040 which will put immense pressure on the region's soil resources.

Since, the Common Agricultural Policies (CAP) reform in 2003, many efforts have been made at the European level to promote a more environmentally friendly agriculture. In order to oblige farmers to manage their land sustainably, the GAEC (Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions) were introduced as part of the Cross Compliance mechanism. Among the standards indicated, the protection of soils against erosion and the maintenance of soil organic matter and soil structure were two pillars to protect and enhance the soil quality and functions.

Processes of globalization have generated new opportunities for smallholders to participate in profitable global agro-commodity markets. This participation however is increasingly being shaped by differentiated capabilities to comply with emerging public and private quality and safety standards. The dynamics within Indonesia’s oil palm sector illustrate well the types of competitive challenges smallholders face in their integration into global agro-commodity chains.

Agriculture in many industrialized countries is subject to a wide range of policy interventions that seek to achieve ambitious climate, energy and environment-related objectives. Increasing support for the generation of climate-friendly, renewable energy in agriculture, however, may lead to potential conflicts with agri-environmental policies aimed at land use extensification and landscape preservation.

This study examined the trends, driving factors, and implications of land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics over the past 35 years (1982–2017) in three watersheds of the drought-prone areas that represent different agro-ecologies of Upper Blue Nile basin, Ethiopia: Guder (highland), Aba Gerima (midland), and Debatie (lowland). The changes in LULC were analyzed by integrating field observations, remote-sensing data (aerial photographs [1: 50,000 scale] and very high resolution [0.5–3.2 m] satellite images), and geographic information systems.