| 1. |
- Andersson, Elina, et al.
(författare)
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The Political Ecology of Land Degradation
- 2011
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Ingår i: Annual Review of Environment and Resources. - : Annual Reviews. - 1545-2050 .- 1543-5938. ; 36, s. 295-319
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Land degradation, as a threat to smallholders in the tropics, attracts less attention than other global challenges. In addition, gaps between scientific understandings of land degradation and international policy regimes are problematic. We identify the three most significant debates including their different policy implications: desertification in the Sahel, nutrient depletion in Africa, and rural reforms in China. Using a political ecology frame across disciplines, scales of inquiry, and regional experiences, we nuance the often polarized scientific debate while seeking to bridge the gap between science and policy. Three main findings emerge: State-led rural reforms in China represent an important approach to land degradation; a renewed focus on agriculture and sustainability in development discourses opens new ways for tackling nutrient depletion with combined sociotechnological reforms; and a policy void in Africa paves the way for market mechanisms, such as payment for environmental services, that are insufficiently understood and put fairness at risk.
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| 2. |
- Bai, Z. G., et al.
(författare)
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Proxy global assessment of land degradation
- 2008
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Ingår i: Soil Use and Management. - : Wiley. - 0266-0032 .- 1475-2743. ; 24:3, s. 223-234
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Land degradation is always With Lis but its causes, extent and severity are contested. We define land degradation as a long-term decline in ecosystem function and productivity, Which may be assessed using lone-term, remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data. Deviation from the norm may serve as a proxy assessment of land degradation and improvement - if other factors that may be responsible are taken into account. These other factors include rainfall effects which may be assessed by rain-use efficiency, calculated from NDVI and rainfall. Results from the analysis of the 23-year Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies (GIMMS) NDVI data indicate declining rain-use efficiency-adjusted NDVI on ca. 24% of the global land area with degrading areas mainly in Africa south of the equator, South-East Asia and south China, north-central Australia, the Pampas and swaths of the Siberian and north American taiga; 1.5 billion people live in these areas. The results are very different from previous assessments which compounded what is happening now with historical land degradation. Economic appraisal can be undertaken when land degradation is expressed in terms of net primary productivity and the resultant data allow statistical comparison With other variables to reveal possible drivers.
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| 3. |
- Biermann, F., et al.
(författare)
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The Earth System Governance Project as a network organization : a critical assessment after ten years
- 2019
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Ingår i: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. - : Elsevier BV. - 1877-3435 .- 1877-3443. ; 39, s. 17-23
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The social sciences have engaged since the late 1980s in international collaborative programmes to study questions of sustainability and global change. This article offers an in-depth analysis of the largest long-standing social-science network in this field: the Earth System Governance Project. Originating as a core project of the former International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, the Earth System Governance Project has matured into a global, self-sustaining research network, with annual conferences, numerous taskforces, research centers, regional research fellow meetings, three book series, an open access flagship journal, and a lively presence in social media. The article critically reviews the experiences of the Earth System Governance network and its integration and interactions with other programmes over the last decade.
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| 4. |
- Jerneck, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Food first! Theorising assets and actors in agroforestry: risk evaders, opportunity seekers and 'the food imperative' in sub-Saharan Africa
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1473-5903 .- 1747-762X. ; 12:1, s. 1-22
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite widely recognised and well-established benefits, it is difficult to adopt the multifunctional activity of agroforestry into the landscape and lifeworld of small-scale agriculture, if poverty, itself a main reason for adopting agroforestry, stands in its way. Based on participant observations and interviews with small-scale farmers in western Kenya, we explore and theorise agroforestry adoption as a process of socio-ecological and socio-technological change. Proceeding from sustainability science and a modified livelihoods approach we use grounded theory in narrative walks' to analyse adoption and non-adoption of agroforestry in a setting where farmers continuously interpret, adjust to and invest in their environment. Given the diversity and complexity of such livelihoods, the analysis is structured around reproductive and productive chains, strategies and practices defined by uncertainty and risk, and conflicting interests. Findings indicate that food secure farmers may act as entrepreneurially inclined opportunity seekers' and venture into agroforestry, whereas the food imperative'(alongside the health imperative') makes it more difficult for agroforestry to take root among the poorest of the poor' who act as risk evaders'. Hence, agroforestry adoption must be understood within an integrated human-environment frame recognising the socio-ecological relations of technology adoption and the wider political aspects and power structures of food security.
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