Search Results (467)

Soil degradation is a pressing concern in the European Union, affecting all major land use types, including agriculture, forests, and urban areas. Existing studies often identify explanatory variables for soil degradation, but large-scale, comprehensive datasets are limited. This dataset, compiled at the NUTS2 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, level 2–a European regional classification system) level, integrates socio-demographic factors, land use changes, and soil health descriptors from 2005 to 2023. It includes variables such as population dynamics, material deprivation, land tenure, and soil health challenges (erosion, compaction, salinity, soil organic carbon levels, and industrial pollution). The soil descriptors used were derived from secondary geospatial datasets, including ESDAC, processed via GIS techniques. Designed for use in spatial planning, agriculture, and environmental research, this dataset facilitates multivariate and regression analyses to explore socio-economic impacts on soil health. By merging diverse descriptors from multiple sources, it provides a valuable resource for understanding soil degradation and supporting evidence-based policymaking. Full article

Equine yards represent a substantial yet often overlooked land-use category in Europe, with potential to contribute to biodiversity and environment conservation. This study explored behavioral drivers and barriers to biodiversity implementation on Dutch equine yards using the COM-B model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation—Behavior). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 yard owners, covering both private and commercial operations ranging from <3 hectares to >3 hectares. Data were analyzed thematically using a deductive COM-B framework, with coded responses quantified to assess the relative weight of barriers and enablers. Reflective motivation emerged as a consistent enabler, grounded in values such as equine welfare, sustainability, and responsible land use. However, barriers were more prevalent overall, particularly within physical and social opportunity. Small yards faced constraints related to time, labor, and land tenure, while larger yards reported challenges integrating biodiversity into routines and navigating regulatory complexity. Psychological capability was not a major constraint, though yard owners expressed a clear need for externally sourced, informed advice. These findings suggest that while motivation is high, structural barriers limit implementation. Unlocking the ecological potential of equine yards will require targeted, size-sensitive policy support, recognition of their land stewardship role, and better integration of biodiversity into daily management practices. Full article

While the legal framework in Mozambique in principle provides equal rights to land for women and men, its underlying assumptions imply that customary tenure is patrilineal, that women get access to land through their relationships with men, while men in practice own and control land. This article focuses on matrilineal land institutions in Makhuwa communities in northern Mozambique. It argues that local matrilineal institutions have provided women with transferable rights to land, while men get access to land in various ways within the matrilineal institutional framework. Based on the Land Law of 1997, the Mozambican government in 2015 launched a large-scale land tenure formalisation programme, Terra Segura (“Secure Land”), with World Bank funding. The Mozambican Land Law recognises local community rights to customary land, while Land Law Regulations define the requirements for both community and individual formalisation of such rights. Field data collected in Makhuwa communities, where individual titling was carried out in the period 2019–2023, indicate that both women and men received titles. But what is secured through these individual titles? The article discusses to what extent formalised “secure land tenure” for individuals can weaken women’s land rights and traditional rights to subsistence—provided by matrilineal land institutions over time, across generations. Full article

The Congo Basin peatlands, the world’s largest tropical peatland complex, are critical for global carbon storage yet remain poorly understood from a human dimension’s perspective. This study explores the perceptions, lifestyles, and knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities around Lake Tumba, Democratic Republic of Congo, to identify practices supporting peatland conservation. Using a mixed-methods approach—household surveys (n = 320), focus groups, and statistical analyses including chi-square tests and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA)—the study reveals a predominantly Indigenous agrarian society with limited formal education and strong reliance on peatlands for food (93.7%), construction materials (79.0%), and medicines (75.9%). While regulating services such as carbon storage were seldom recognized, traditional ecological knowledge was evident in sacred species protection, ritual plant and animal uses, and intergenerational knowledge transfer, mainly father-to-son. However, 95.3% of respondents cited religion as the main barrier to this transmission. MCA confirmed that livelihoods, village status, and ritual practices form an integrated socio-cultural system aligned with conservation. These findings stress the role of endogenous governance in sustaining peatland-compatible lifestyles. Conservation efforts should move beyond carbon-centered or top-down approaches to reinforce land tenure, traditional governance, and knowledge transmission, thereby protecting both peatlands and the cultural identities sustaining them. Full article

Enhancing forestry management efficiency is critical for global sustainable development goals, yet how institutional arrangements can effectively incentivize farmers’ performance requires deeper investigation. This study constructs an integrated framework to examine the effects of well-defined property rights and market certification on the output and technical efficiency of household bamboo management. Utilizing survey data from 1090 households in China, we employ stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), propensity score matching (PSM), and mediation models. The findings reveal a key divergence: (1) Forest tenure certificates significantly increased bamboo output but not technical efficiency. This “quantity-driven” effect stemmed from increased capital and land inputs. (2) Market certification enhanced both output and technical efficiency, operating via a “quality-driven” mechanism of standardized management. (3) Significant technical efficiency losses persist, indicating substantial potential for productivity gains through optimized practices. This study concludes that singular property rights institutions are insufficient to overcome the “output-without-efficiency” bottleneck. Complementary, market-based mechanisms are essential for a dual-pillar policy system. This research offers theoretical support for optimizing forestry policies and provides insights for other developing countries seeking sustainable resource management. Full article

Understanding how land tenure and socio-economic pressures shape landscape transformation is critical for sustainable management in biodiversity-rich regions. This study examines three decades (1987–2017) of land use and land cover (LU&LC) change in the Ngerenyi area of the Taita Hills, Kenya, by integrating multispectral Landsat analysis with household survey data. Harmonized pre-processing and supervised classification of four LU&LC classes, agriculture, built-up areas, high-canopy vegetation, and low-canopy vegetation, achieved overall accuracies above 80% and Kappa values exceeding 0.75. Transition modeling using the Minimum Information Loss Transition Estimation (MILTE) approach, combined with net-versus-swap metrics, revealed persistent decline and fragmentation of high-canopy vegetation, cyclical transitions between agriculture and low-canopy vegetation, and the near-irreversible expansion of built-up areas. Low-canopy vegetation exhibited the highest dynamism, reflecting both degradation from canopy loss and natural regeneration from fallowed cropland. Household surveys (n = 141) identified agricultural expansion, charcoal production, fuelwood extraction, and population growth as the dominant perceived drivers, with significant variation across tenure categories. The population in Taita Taveta County increased from 205,334 in 2009 to 340,671 in 2019, reinforcing documented pressures on land resources and woody biomass. As part of the Eastern Arc biodiversity hotspot, the landscape’s diminishing high-canopy patches underscore the importance of conserving undisturbed vegetation remnants as ecological baselines and biodiversity refuges. The findings highlight the need for tenure-sensitive, landscape-scale planning that integrates private landowners, regulates subdivision, promotes agroforestry and alternative energy options, and safeguards remaining high-canopy vegetation to enhance ecological resilience while supporting local livelihoods. Full article

South Africa’s land reform program is a cornerstone of efforts to redress historical injustices, guided by the 1997 White Paper on Land Reform Policy and structured around restitution, redistribution, and tenure reform. Three decades into implementation, this study systematically reviews the policy performance from 1994 to 2024, focusing on these pillars and related governance measures. Despite repeated policy revisions and extensive public debate, significant gaps persist between objectives, such as equitable access, tenure security, and poverty reduction—and actual outcomes. Using PRISMA guidelines, 94 peer-reviewed articles were selected from Scopus (1994–2024) alongside key policy documents and official reports. Evidence shows that land reform has consistently fallen short of its targets. Restitution claims remain largely cash-based, undermining tenure security, while redistribution has transferred less than 14% of agricultural land, far below the 30% target. Beneficiaries under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) often hold insecure lease agreements, and most households in former homelands lack title deeds, perpetuating vulnerability. The weak institutional capacity, poor coordination, and inadequate post-settlement support further constrain progress. The review concludes that the most fundamental policy priority is establishing a unified national framework that guarantees secure land tenure through the issuance of title deeds, complemented by integrated post-settlement support and transparent beneficiary selection. Strengthening tenure security is essential for enabling investment, improving livelihoods, and achieving equitable and sustainable land reform. Full article

This study evaluates urban growth and access to drinking water in Bukavu from 1980 to 2024, combining diachronic Landsat image analysis, demographic and geospatial data, and household surveys. Bukavu’s population rose from 280,000 to over 2 million, with an annual growth rate of 4.57%, doubling every 16 years. The urbanized area expanded from 17 km² in 1984 to nearly 50 km² in 2024, with progressive densification in risk-prone zones such as steep slopes and wetlands. Theoretical access to drinking water is 61%, falling below 20% in informal neighborhoods. REGIDESO produces 25,000–30,000 m³/day, while the estimated demand is 70,000–72,000 m³/day, creating a deficit of over 30,000 m³/day. Households rely on public standpipes (45%), unimproved sources (33%), and the parallel market (44%), with average collection times of 45 min. High-density areas show elevated health risks, with 57% of water samples contaminated by Salmonella and 36% contaminated by E. coli. Land tenure insecurity affects 29.7% of households. Statistical analysis indicates strong correlations between distance and collection time (r = 0.963) and moderate correlations with disease occurrence (distance r = 0.582; time r = 0.411). These findings demonstrate that rapid urban sprawl, informal settlement, and weak institutional capacity significantly constrain water access, contributing to health risks and highlighting broader implications for African cities experiencing similar growth patterns. Full article

Rural labor transfer is crucial for China’s urbanization and agricultural modernization, yet the role of contracted land assets in this process remains underexplored. Understanding how land tenure arrangements affect labor mobility decisions has significant implications for rural development policy. This paper investigates the impact of rural contracted land assets on rural labor transfer and its underlying mechanisms, with particular attention to the moderated mediating effect of total income from agricultural products. Using data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) and employing mediation and moderated mediation analyses, we examine rural households across China’s eastern, central, and western regions. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) Whether at the household or individual level, contracted land assets significantly reduce the transfer of rural labor, and this conclusion still holds true after robustness testing and overcoming endogeneity issues. (2) The impact of contracted land assets on rural households in the eastern region is greater than that on rural households in the central and western regions, and the impact on rural households closer to cities is greater than that on rural households far away from cities. (3) The area of contracted land transferred in and the total income of agricultural products play a mediating role, while whether the contracted land is transferred out and whether it is close to the city plays a moderating role. These findings offer important insights for developing countries, suggesting that facilitating land transfer mechanisms and improving agricultural income are essential for sustainable rural development and labor mobility. Full article

Urban informal settlements (UISs), characterized by self-organized housing, a high population density, inadequate infrastructure, and insecure land tenure, constitute a critical, yet underexplored, aspect of contemporary urbanization. They necessitate scholarly scrutiny to tackle pressing challenges pertaining to equity, sustainability, and urban governance. The automated, accurate, and rapid extraction of UISs is of paramount importance for sustainable urban development. Despite its significance, this process encounters substantial obstacles. Firstly, from a remote sensing standpoint, informal settlements are typically characterized by a low elevation and a high density, giving rise to intricate spatial relationships. Secondly, the remote sensing observational features of these areas are often indistinct due to variations in shooting angles and imaging environments. Prior studies in remote sensing and geospatial data analysis have often overlooked the cross-modal interactions of features, as well as the progressive information encoded in the intrinsic hierarchies of each modality. We introduced a spatial network to solve this problem by combining panoramic and coarse-to-fine asymptotic perspectives, using remote sensing images and urban street view images to support a hierarchical analysis through fusion. Specifically, we utilized a multi-linear pooling technique and then established coarse-to-fine-grained and panoramic viewpoint details within an integrated structure, known as the panoramic fusion network (PanFusion-Net). Comprehensive testing was performed on a self-constructed WuhanUIS dataset as well as two open-source datasets, ChinaUIS and $S^{2}UV$. The experimental results confirmed that the performance of the introduced PanFusion-Net exceeded all comparative models across all of the above datasets. Full article

Agroforestry, an integrated land-use practice combining trees and woody shrubs with crop and animal farming, offers significant ecological and agricultural benefits, including enhanced biodiversity, improved soil fertility, and increased resilience to environmental pressures. Despite its advantages, agroforestry faces challenges such as high initial investments, long maturation periods for trees, land tenure issues and a high level of complexity in technical management. Digital agriculture introduces advanced technologies and sensors, which provide precise data on soil moisture, nutrient levels, and plant health, enabling more efficient resource use and better farm management. Integrating these sensing technologies into agroforestry can address key challenges, optimize irrigation and nutrient management, and enhance overall system productivity and sustainability. This review explores the interaction between agroforestry and digitalization, highlighting case studies, and discusses the potential for these technologies to support sustainable agriculture and climate change mitigation. Increased investment in research and development, along with supportive policies, is essential for advancing the adoption of these innovative practices in agroforestry. Full article

Deforestation and forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon remain critical threats to ecosystem integrity and local livelihoods. Existing approaches often overlook the nuanced perspectives of different regional actors, limiting our understanding of deforestation drivers and conservation policy effectiveness. This study compared perceptions of deforestation drivers and policy instruments between two major development hubs, Porto Velho and Manaus, using Likert-scale questionnaires administered to 49 villagers and 27 experts. Villagers across both areas identified Natural Disasters (RII = 0.79) and Forest Fires (RII = 0.63) as the most influential drivers, with these ranking particularly high in Porto Velho. Contrastingly, Cattle Ranching Expansion (RII = 0.89) and Political Intervention (RII = 0.86) were prominent in Porto Velho, while Forest Fires (RII = 0.84) and Illegal Logging (RII = 0.73) dominated in Manaus, highlighting distinct governance and economic priorities. Experts and locals both highlighted strong connections between agricultural expansion, land tenure insecurity, and policy deficiency. Conservation units (RII = 0.95) were considered the most important policy instrument according to experts in both areas and governance levels. These results highlight the need for context-specific, participatory solutions tailored to regional realities in Amazonian forest management. Full article

Land property rights reform has been a key driver of agricultural productivity growth in post-reform China. Clearly defined land tenure arrangements also play a crucial role in maintaining rural social stability. This study assesses the impact of enhanced land tenure security on rural social stability, focusing on both the overall effects and the underlying mechanisms. Leveraging the new round of agricultural land rights confirmation initiated in 2013 as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ a staggered difference-in-difference model using panel data from the National Fixed-Point Survey for 2013–2021 to examine how enhanced land tenure security affects rural conflicts and disputes, which are important indicators of rural social stability. The empirical results indicate that the new round of land titling has significantly reduced the incidence of rural disputes. Mechanism analysis suggests that increased household income, strengthened bargaining power of farmers, and reduced infringements on property rights are the primary channels through which land titling mitigates rural conflicts. Furthermore, the effects are more pronounced in villages characterized by balanced clan power, larger income disparities, and non-suburban locations. These findings highlight the importance of consolidating land property rights and integrating them with local governance to sustain rural social stability. Full article

Urban green spaces (UGS) are pivotal to urban sustainability, yet their morphology—patch size, shape, and configuration—remains insufficiently linked to institutional drivers. We investigate how land tenure strength shapes UGS morphology across 36 cities in nine countries. Using OpenStreetMap data, we delineate UGS and compute landscape metrics (AREA, PARA, SHAPE, FRAC, PAFRAC) via FRAGSTATS; we develop a composite index of land tenure strength capturing ownership, use-right duration, expropriation compensation, and government land governance capacity. Spearman’s rank correlations indicate a scale-dependent coupling: stronger tenure is significantly associated with micro-scale patterns—smaller patch areas and more complex, irregular boundaries—consistent with fragmented ownership and higher transaction costs, whereas macro-scale indicators (e.g., overall green coverage/connectivity) show weaker sensitivity. These findings clarify an institutional pathway through which property rights intensity influences the physical fabric of urban nature. Policy implications are twofold: in high-intensity contexts, flexible instruments (e.g., transferable development rights, negotiated acquisition, ecological compensation) can maintain network connectivity via embedded, fine-grain interventions; in low-intensity contexts, one-off land assembly can efficiently deliver larger, regular green cores. The results provide evidence-based guidance for aligning green infrastructure design with diverse governance regimes and advancing context-sensitive sustainability planning. Full article

Climate change threatens global food security, highlighting the necessity for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) to enhance agricultural resilience and sustainability. Yet low adoption among farmers highlights gaps in understanding adoption barriers. Existing models often overlook the dynamic, multi-layered nature of farmers’ decisions. This study introduces the Multidimensional Dynamic Decision Analysis Framework (MDDAF), which integrates Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, Diffusion of Innovations, and Behavioral Economics, and applies it to conservation agriculture in Northeast China’s black soil region. We conducted 125 semi-structured interviews (100 farmers, stage-mapped into six groups; 20 leaders of agricultural socialized service organizations; 5 technical experts) and analyzed transcripts in NVivo using a hybrid deductive–inductive approach. Findings show stage-specific barriers: superficial knowledge and fragmented perceptions in awareness; traditional norms and social stigmatization in evaluation; biosecurity risks, ecological mismatches, and land tenure disputes during decision-making; economic constraints and policy inconsistencies during implementation; and operational failures, incomplete practices, and climate-driven volatility at confirmation. Priority implications are as follows: professionalize service provision; safeguard bundle fidelity and manage climate risk; reduce context and tenure risks; and counter misbeliefs via complement-focused demonstrations, diverse opinion leaders, and targeted training. MDDAF thus links dynamic, stage-specific barriers to actionable interventions, supporting more effective CSA scale-up. Full article