In European mountain areas, shrub encroachment resulting from farmland abandonment is most often managed by mechanical operations such as roller chopping or controlled burning, which have proved to be ineffective and unsustainable. Recent agroecological findings highlight the potential impact of grazing on long-term shrub dynamics. We thus explored the potential contribution of livestock farms to the management of shrub encroachment.

This contribution discusses assets and limits of the local/territorial level as a core level to improve the sustainability of agriculture. The focus is on the issue of rural landscape maintenance through farming. Some possible institutional solutions to overcome the difficulties of family farms are examined. New institutional settings such as the "local group", constituting an interface for the negotiation among different local stakeholders, seem to effectively facilitate the stipulation of local contracts for landscape management.

Substituting fossil fuels has been a prominent issue in the EU in recent years. Energy security, agricultural and environmental considerations have all played a part in the development of alternative fuels and in the creation of incentives promoting their use. The system, like big systems in general, cannot react to new developments quickly and it seems there are elements that we should seriously consider removing or replacing to avoid adverse effects.

This study examined access of rural women to forest resources and its impact on rural household welfare in North Central Nigeria. Three states out of 6 states in the study area were purposively selected to cover 3 ethnic groups. A state was selected to cover at least one ethnic group. 4 villages were randomly selected in each state to make a total of 12 sample villages. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire from 20 randomly selected rural women in each sample village to make a total of 240 respondents.

The paper aims to identify the rationality of peasant communities and their contribution to rural development in Kampong Thom province. To do so, an interdisciplinary analytical framework addresses the dynamics of land use and land tenure, the strategies of labor force allocation as well as the determinants of land and labor agricultural productivities amongst peasant communities. It rests on details field surveys in two communes located in very distinct agro-ecological settings of Kampong Thom province.

SUMMARYParticipatory forest management in China has been a dynamic and evolving process towards sustainable forest management, gradually integrating forest management with rural development by enhancing community participation and benefits derived from forest management. Participatory forest management has been increasingly supported by fiscal policy, land tenure reforms, management models and capacity building initiatives. It has also become an important discourse for sustainable forest management (SFM) in China.

The implementation and effective management of watershed-development projects is recognised as a strategy for rural development throughout the developing world. Several government and non-government agencies have launched watershed-development projects to tackle the challenges of soil conservation, improving land productivity, and economic upliftment of the rural poor for efficient use of natural resources. Participatory community-driven institutions of integrated watershed management are considered vital for the sustainability of natural resources.

China-Africa development cooperation in the rural sector has received an increased attention by researchers and policy-makers given the advantages and disadvantages of China’s contribution to the local economy. However, there is a lack of more reliable and nuanced findings to provide greater insights into the major issues concerning rural development and resource use. This paper aims to position land tenure and foreign investments linkages as a new research angle for understanding the role of land in sustainable resource use and investments.

Az agrártermelés helyzetének romló tendenciája és a vidék kilátástalansága egyre határozottabban követeli egy egységes agrár- és vidékstratégia kialakítását. Erre azonban nemcsak külső okok, de az ágazatban érdekeltek mély belső ellentétei miatt ma sincsen sok remény. Ehhez le kellene számolni sok, a rendszerváltás óta létező, a rendszerváltás törvényei által védett tabuval, amihez az agrárágazat és a vidék sorsa iránt nagyobb felelősségre, alázatra és együttműködésre lenne szükség.

The United States (US) and European Union (EU) share many general policy aims for rural areas, but they differ in the ways in which they try to achieve these aims. The principal difference lies in the role envisioned by agriculture in overall rural development. EU policies treat agriculture as a provider of public goods, and many of its 'rural' programmes target agriculture. In the US, very few Federal rural development programs are focused solely on agriculture.