Opening the Door to Policy relevant, Interdisciplinary Research on Land Degradation and Development

Escadafal, Richard; Marques, María José; Stringer, Lindsay C.; Akhtar‐Schuster, M.

doi:10.1002/ldr.2403

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Soil fulfils a range of ecological and human functions such as food and other biomass production, water storage, filtering pollutants or biological habitat and gene pool, among others (Brevik et al, ; Escadafal et al, ; Brevik et al, ). Therefore, soil quality must be understood as the degree of fulfilment of all or some of these soil functions (Zornoza et al, ) such as the filtration of water (Keesstra et al, ; Mol & Keesstra, ), avoiding the loss of vegetation and soil (Novara et al, ) and facing the challenges of the sustainability of human societies today by means of direct strategies (Sadeghi et al, ; Yazdanpanah et al, ) or by proper management that keeps the resources, goods and services of the soil system stable (Costa et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Heavy Grazing on Soil Quality and Pasture Production in Rangelands of SW Spain

et al. 2016

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Soil degradation phenomena, including water erosion and physical and biological processes, have already been reported in rangelands of southwestern Spain. The increasing numbers of livestock since 1986 have been highlighted as one of the key causes. The main goal of this work is to analyse the effects of the excessive number of animals on soil quality and pasture production on privately owned farms dedicated to extensive ranching. Soil properties and surface cover, pasture production, rainfall and land management variables such as livestock density were analysed during a period of 3 years (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011). The study was carried out in 22 livestock enclosures selected from ten farms distributed throughout the Spanish region of Extremadura. The occurrence of bare soil patches and water erosion processes, as well as an increase of mean bulk density in the soil layer from 5 to 10 cm in depth, was observed in the enclosures with animal stocking rates exceeding 1 AU ha À1 . Indications that confirm the negative effects of increased bulk density on pasture production and quality were also found.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Heavy Grazing on Soil Quality and Pasture Production in Rangelands of SW Spain

et al. 2016

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“…Lamentably, the major reason for insufficient implementation and adoption of environmentally sound land management is the lack of efficient channels to transmit knowledge and technology between environmental science and policy [201,202]. To achieve effective communication of scientific knowledge to policy findings must be interdisciplinary and have cross-sector approaches [203].…”

Section: Academiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifaceted Impacts of Sustainable Land Management in Drylands: A Review

et al. 2016

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Biophysical restoration or rehabilitation measures of land have demonstrated to be effective in many scientific projects and small-scale environmental experiments. However circumstances such as poverty, weak policies, or inefficient scientific knowledge transmission can hinder the effective upscaling of land restoration and the long term maintenance of proven sustainable use of soil and water. This may be especially worrisome in lands with harsh environmental conditions. This review covers recent efforts in landscape restoration and rehabilitation with a functional perspective aiming to simultaneously achieve ecosystem sustainability, economic efficiency, and social wellbeing. Water management and rehabilitation of ecosystem services in croplands, rangelands, forests, and coastlands are reviewed. The joint analysis of such diverse ecosystems provides a wide perspective to determine: (i) multifaceted impacts on biophysical and socio-economic factors; and (ii) elements influencing effective upscaling of sustainable land management practices. One conclusion can be highlighted: voluntary adoption is based on different pillars, i.e. external material and economic support, and spread of success information at the local scale to demonstrate the multidimensional benefits of sustainable land management. For the successful upscaling of land management, more attention must be paid to the social system from the first involvement stage, up to the long term maintenance.

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“…The public institutions involved must function in a coherent and transparent way and provide effective consultation to all participants, in line with the programmes' policy goals and targets (Baker et al ., ). Furthermore, the level of social engagement in sustainable utilization of natural resources will shape the long‐term impacts achieved (Menz et al ., ; Escadafal et al ., ). To identify if rangeland management programmes are meeting given expectations, their progress also needs to be monitored and evaluated on a regular basis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Successes and Failures in Rangeland Restoration: An Icelandic Case Study

et al. 2016

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Rangeland restoration is a multilayered process aimed at improving land condition, often parallel to utilization. To ensure the long‐term progress that restoration programmes are expected to deliver, they must be designed, implemented and maintained in partnership with local stakeholders. Each programme should have clear goals, followed up by measurable ecological and/or socio‐economic objectives, to facilitate their evaluation in the long run. In this research, we examine if a large‐scale rangeland restoration programme in Iceland had contributed to the expected attitudinal and behavioural changes among the participating sheep farmers, as described in the initial objectives of the programme. A survey, based on a questionnaire on sheep farmers' attitude and behaviour related to rangeland restoration and land management practices, was used to gauge the perception of participating farmers, in comparison with non‐participating farmers. Our results show that participating farmers are more aware of the potential of rangeland restoration and are more motivated to engage in further collaboration, when compared with non‐participating farmers. Nevertheless, our results indicate that, despite extensive areas of degraded land already successfully treated within the restoration programme, the programme has not facilitated other anticipated attitudinal and behavioural changes among its participants as expected. Furthermore, it seems that the direct incentives provided by the programme are pushing participating farmers towards favouring agronomic instead of ecological approaches in their restoration activities, when compared with the non‐participating farmers. Our results also point to several organizational errors embedded in the programme management that might be halting its further progress. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Opening the Door to Policy relevant, Interdisciplinary Research on Land Degradation and Development

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

The Impact of Heavy Grazing on Soil Quality and Pasture Production in Rangelands of SW Spain

The Impact of Heavy Grazing on Soil Quality and Pasture Production in Rangelands of SW Spain

Multifaceted Impacts of Sustainable Land Management in Drylands: A Review

Successes and Failures in Rangeland Restoration: An Icelandic Case Study

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