Agricultural Land Conservation Research Articles

Economic Value of Agricultural Land for Community Livelihoods within the Context of REDD+

A study was carried out in two villages of Mughunga and Pohama in Singida Rural District, central Tanzania, to assess the economic value of agricultura l land for community livelihoods within the context of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Market price valuation method was used to assess the economic value of agricultural land. Findings showed that a good number of pe ople in both villages depend on agriculture (96.4%) and livestock keeping (90.1%) for their livelihoods. The economic value of agriculture land wa s revealed to be 35,871,750 and 49,259,382Tsh per acre for Mughunga and Pohama villages respectively, with hig h contribution from sunflower, followed by sorghum and maize crops. The study results revealed lower economic value, mainly of food crops such as maize and bulrush millet. This implicates changes in the agricultural land as these crops were valued high in the past. The major reasons for such changes include decline in agricultural production and increased pressure for land resources. For sustainability of agricultural land in the study area, efforts need to be scaled up towards conservation of agricultural land by all parties, that is, communities, government and private entities.

Določitev trajno varovanih kmetijskih zemljišč – metodološki poskus

Določitev trajno varovanih kmetijskih zemljišč – metodološki poskus

Optimization in the utility maximization framework for conservation planning: a comparison of solution procedures in a study of multifunctional agriculture.

Quantitative methods of spatial conservation prioritization have traditionally been applied to issues in conservation biology and reserve design, though their use in other types of natural resource management is growing. The utility maximization problem is one form of a covering problem where multiple criteria can represent the expected social benefits of conservation action. This approach allows flexibility with a problem formulation that is more general than typical reserve design problems, though the solution methods are very similar. However, few studies have addressed optimization in utility maximization problems for conservation planning, and the effect of solution procedure is largely unquantified. Therefore, this study mapped five criteria describing elements of multifunctional agriculture to determine a hypothetical conservation resource allocation plan for agricultural land conservation in the Central Valley of CA, USA. We compared solution procedures within the utility maximization framework to determine the difference between an open source integer programming approach and a greedy heuristic, and find gains from optimization of up to 12%. We also model land availability for conservation action as a stochastic process and determine the decline in total utility compared to the globally optimal set using both solution algorithms. Our results are comparable to other studies illustrating the benefits of optimization for different conservation planning problems, and highlight the importance of maximizing the effectiveness of limited funding for conservation and natural resource management.

Legislation on The Protection of Agricultural Land in the context of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Slovak Conditions

Abstract (EN) Protecting the qualitative aspect of the agricultural land is in the interest of European Union policies and Slovakia as well. The EU adopted in 2006 a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection to ensure protection and sustainable use of land, including agricultural land. The aim of this paper is to analyze and evaluate legislation protecting agricultural land in the context of the implementation of the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection in Slovakia. The basic legislation for the protection of agricultural land in Slovakia is the Act No. 220/2004 Coll. on the conservation and use of agricultural land and amending Act No. 245/2003 Coll. concerning integrated pollution prevention and control and amending certain laws, as amended, which provides a basic framework for conservation of the agricultural land. In terms of preserving, agricultural land has significant importance in the Common Agricultural Policy -pillar I and II which stipulate cross-compliance requirements, requirements for agri-environmental measures for applicants for single area payment scheme, for applicants for support under agri-environmental measures respectively.

Assessing highway's impacts on landscape patterns and ecosystem services: A case study in Puli Township, Taiwan

Highway construction facilitates urban growth in Taiwan. However, the long-term effects of transportation infrastructure are not well understood; these include land-use changes, changes in landscape patterns, and the alteration of ecosystem services. To assess the effects of different land-use scenarios under various agricultural and environmental conservation policy regimes, this study applies an integrated approach to analyze the effects of Highway 6 construction on Puli Township. Interviews with neighborhood leaders of Puli Township, along with remote sensing analysis, reveal that both biophysical and socioeconomic factors are the major forces driving land-use change. The effects of these land-use changes are varied. An example is the road-effect zone, which for Puli Township extends 400m perpendicular to the length of the highway; however, due to differing spatial patterns it is highly asymmetric; indirect effects include the spatial restructuring of certain landscapes, which can drastically influence habitat dynamics. Land-use simulation results indicate that agricultural and environmental conservation policies have significant effects on projected land-use patterns in the southern part of Puli's downtown area and in areas along major roads. Specifically, highway construction and subsequent urbanization under various land-use policies result in varying degrees of isolation and fragmentation in the overall landscape pattern. A habitat quality assessment using the InVEST model indicates that the conservation of agricultural and forested lands improves habitat quality and preserves rare habitats. In summary, appropriate environmental policies will mediate both the direct and indirect impacts of Highway 6 on landscape patterns and ecosystem services in Puli Township.

An Evaluation of the Practicality of Application in the Paddy Field of Method for Tentative Conservation of Agricultural Land

An Evaluation of the Practicality of Application in the Paddy Field of Method for Tentative Conservation of Agricultural Land

The impact of forest encroachment after agricultural land abandonment on passerine bird communities: The case of Greece

Agricultural land abandonment is one of the main drivers of land use change, leading to various responses of farmland ecological communities. In an effort to better understand the effect of agricultural land abandonment on passerine bird communities, we sampled 20 randomly selected sites [1km×1km] in remote Greek mountains, reflecting an abandonment gradient, in terms of forest encroachment. We sampled 169 plots using the point count method of fixed distance (47 passerine species), and we investigated bird diversity and community structure turnover along the gradient. We found that grazing intensity has a beneficial effect hampering forest encroachment that follows progressively land abandonment. Habitat composition changes gradually with forests developing at the expense of open meadows and heterogeneous grasslands. Forest encroachment has a significant negative effect on bird diversity and species richness, affecting in particular typical farmland and Mediterranean shrubland species. Birds form five distinct ecological clusters after land abandonment: species mostly found in pinewoods and cavity-dwelling species; species that prefer open forests forest edges or ecotones; species that prefer shrubland or open habitats with scattered woody vegetation; Mediterranean farmland birds that prefer semi-open habitats with hedges and/or woodlots; and, generalist forest-dwelling or shrubland species. We extracted a set of 22 species to represent the above ecological communities, as a new monitoring tool for agricultural land use change and conservation. We suggest that the maintenance of rural mosaics should be included in the priorities of agricultural policy for farmland bird diversity conservation.

Food Sovereignty and Agricultural Land Use Planning: The Need to Integrate Public Priorities across Jurisdictions

Recent calls for national food policies that promote greater food sovereignty represent an emerging concern of public policy. Such a shift in food policy toward greater citizen control over domestic food supplies would have significant implications for all aspects of the agri-food system. One area of concern is the conservation and use of agricultural land because, in the end, every act of producing and consuming food has direct or indirect impacts on the land base. Yet no research has considered the potential interactions and implications between food sovereignty and agricultural land use planning. This gap in research presents an opportunity to critically examine the effects of the changing roles and values on agricultural land use planning within and across jurisdictions. We believe that a better understanding of the dominant policy regimes within the agri-food system, including global competitiveness, farmland preservation, and food sovereignty, can lead to land use planning practices that are most beneficial for integrating not only multiple interests across jurisdictions, but also multiple perspectives.

Using Construction Expansion Regulation Zones to Manage Urban Growth in Hefei City, China

AbstractThe management of urban land development, as well as the conservation and optimization of agricultural land and urban green space, is crucial for sustainable urban development. China has experienced rapid urbanization and industrialization since 1978, which brought unintended negative social and environmental consequences. Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province in eastern China, is identified by the Economist Intelligence Unit as one of the top 20 emerging cities in China. Its urbanized area grew from 29 km2 to 268 km2, an 824% increase, between 1980 and 2005. This paper reviews Hefei’s urban growth management since 1987. It then analyzes in detail the construction expansion regulation zone, an innovative measure proposed by the Ministry of Land and Resources China (MLRC). The regulation zone includes four types of zones: a permitted expansion construction zone, a conditionally permitted expansion construction zone, a restricted expansion construction zone, and a prohibited expansion construction ...

Entrusting the Commons

The start of the twenty-first century is marked by new levels of globalization, environmental degradation, and social conflict that are endangering the cultural landscapes and agrarian heritage of rural areas. In the wake of these threats, heritage professionals are imagining new, holistic models for shared cultural and natural heritage protection that support active community engagement around issues of cultural identity, material and ecological sustainability, and shared ethical values. Agricultural land conservation is fertile terrain in which to theorize how heritage protection can contribute to the mobilization of social cohesion to restore a balanced human ecology. Agrarian land tenure challenges heritage advocates to bridge the conventional binary of nature/culture that has divided heritage resource protection strategies and to support the protection of working, populated cultural landscapes. Over the past 35 years in the United States, a number of agricultural land protection programs have emerged that depend upon a complex web of cooperation among landowners, governments, and private land trusts to purchase development rights on farmland. I propose that such programs are both symptoms of and coping strategies for broader processes of socio-economic alienation. This paper focuses on a New England case study to explore the potential for agricultural land protection as a framework for shared heritage protection. Based on the results and research connected with this case study, I offer a theoretical and ethical framework of heritage protection as a culturally mediated discursive practice of community-building—one that references the past in order to intervene in present alienating processes and secure a recognizable future.

Trial Construction Method for Tentative Conservation of Agricultural Land

Trial Construction Method for Tentative Conservation of Agricultural Land

Multi Agent Simulationによる農業参入企業の定着要因分析

With the revision of the Agricultural Land Act in 2009,there has been an increase in the entry of industrial corporations into the agricultural business. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the retention factor of such agricultural market entrants by Multi-Agent simulation which is an accessible method to predict some dynamics of social systems based on a virtual model of society. In this analysis, we predicted the impact of such agricultural entrants in terms of agricultural land conservation and economic efficiency.As a result, the following points were suggested. First,such agricultural market entrants do not contribute strongly to the dissolution of fallow paddy fields. Secondly, unless the withdrawal of agricultural market entrants from the area is forbidden, it is hard to avoid the early withdrawal of industrial corporations based on corporate decisionmaking. Thirdly, when employment costs and other fixed costs can be covered by the non-agricultural sectors of the company, such agricultural market entrants may be able to gain sufficient profits.As mentioned above, it is thought from the aspect of sustainability and economic efficiency that the practice of the farm management by a private industrial corporation is not easy. However, the analytic model, used in this research, is based on the restrictive situation.So, it should become possible to achieve the clarification of more realistic retention factors by improving this model.

Species richness of hedgerow habitats in changing agricultural landscapes: are α and γ diversity shaped by the same factors?

Understanding the determinants of hedgerow plant diversity in agricultural landscapes remains a difficult task, because the potential drivers affect the complete range of biodiversity components (alpha to gamma diversity). We surveyed herbaceous plant communities (of a height <1.5 m) in 84 hedgerows in the Seine river floodplain of France. Two types of potential drivers for species richness, accounting for landscape mosaic and hedgerow network, were recorded at both hedgerow and site scale. The distribution of species richness through the components of alpha hedgerow diversity (i.e. the average diversity within a habitat) and gamma hedgerow diversity (i.e. the total diversity across habitats) were assessed using additive partitioning methods, while the relationship between species diversity and its potential landscape drivers at both scales was modeled using Generalized Additive Models. Our results indicated that gamma hedgerow diversity is explained by the heterogeneity of the landscape structure, which is correlated with the mosaic of agricultural land use. At this scale, intrinsic properties of the configuration of the hedgerow networks have a weak influence on species richness. Alpha hedgerow diversity is also explained by landscape variables, accounting for both the configuration of agricultural mosaics and hedgerow networks, but to a lesser extent. Time lags for species responses are shown at both scales, and for the two types of drivers. Extinction or colonization debt may be indicated at both scales, while the remnant effects of former practices may also be responsible for such patterns at a local scale. We suggest that hedgerow management should take the specific parameters of both scales into account. At a local scale, management actions should aim to decrease the influence of adjacent land use when the impact is negative, through the implementation of extended buffer zones, while at the landscape and farm scales, agri-environmental schemes should be dedicated to the conservation of specific agricultural land uses.

Evaluating Land-Use Change in Rapidly Urbanizing China: Case Study of Shanghai

Historical patterns and driving forces of land-use change were investigated in Shanghai under the background of drastic socioeconomic transition in China. Differing from the previous researches, this paper highlights the investigation of not only the socioeconomic factors driving urban area growth, but also the physical elements affecting urban land's spatial distribution through remote sensing and multivariable regression methods. The results indicate that land-use changes have been occurring at an accelerating pace in Shanghai over the past two decades, and are characterized by a massive increase of urban land and a loss of croplands. The growth in urban land use has primarily been driven by population, economy, and transportation, and its spatial distribution has mainly been influenced by accessibility to the transport network and the city center, together with the constraints of existing land-use patterns. The implications for policy are that improvements are needed in the efficient use of resources and the layout of a more adequate transport network; simple restrictions on the migration to cities are not a long-term solution. The conservation and exploitation of agricultural land, as well as the promotion of urban green spaces, are also crucial instruments for sustainable city development.

The ecologo-geomorphological consequences of conservation of agricultural lands within the Lake Baikal watershed basin

The results derived from analyzing the long-term dynamics of the runoff of sediment loads of the main rivers in the agricultural areas of the Lake Baikal watershed basin are discussed. The analysis revealed a descending trend of the erosion processes caused by an abrupt change of agricultural activity in the region, i.e. a reduction in the area of arable and pasture lands in the late 20th century. It is shown that a decrease in basin erosion intensity promotes stabilization of desertification processes and, in general, an improvement of the ecological situation in the Baikal region.

Creating Land use Scenarios for City Greenbelts Using A Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis Shell: Two Case Studies

City greenbelts or greenways are usually created to achieve multiple goals, often including conservation of agricultural or range land, preservation of unique environments and heritage, recreation, and creation of transportation and utility corridors. Tradeoffs may be required in meeting these multiple goals. Analysis of potential future trajectories for urban development with such greenbelts is important to characterize the drivers and spatially explicit patterns of change that may ensue. Spatially explicit multi-criteria analysis provides one approach for examination of driver and patterns. In this paper, we use a spatial multi-criteria analysis shell (MCAS-S) to explore two case studies: (1) a 1250 ha subset of the Toronto Greenbelt in the Durham region of Ontario (Canada); and (2) the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan area for endangered species protection on the western side of Austin, Texas (USA). In both cases, urbanization and encroachment are major pressures. The study areas were described by GIS data layers grouped into themes that capture major competing factors—e.g., residential preference, physical constraints to development, agricultural and environmental assets, tourism, and infrastructure development. Rules were constructed that combined preference for access to green space with limits to development, and a range of scenario layers were created to indicate likely future development areas. Development in the Toronto Greenbelt was mostly associated with areas of low likelihood of development, probably because areas that met all requirements—limited impact on agriculture and environment but helpful for tourism and infrastructure—were difficult to find. By contrast, development in the Austin BCCP was associated with urban infill modified by proximity to preserves. Although the results are only associative and not causative, they illustrate the difficulties of satisfying multiple competing goals in greenbelts, and the tendency for preserved patches to be incrementally surrounded by development.

Abstracts of Nippon Dojo-Hiryogaku Zasshi

Abstracts of Nippon Dojo-Hiryogaku Zasshi

Traditional land-use planning regulation and agricultural land conservation: A case study from the USA

The loss of agricultural land to development pressures and other uses has increasingly become an issue of local, regional and national concern in the United States. On a national level, the Natural...

RICHARD J. ORSI. Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2005. Pp. xxii, 615. $29.95

Richard J. Orsi's book is the story of the Southern Pacific Railroad's substantial efforts to promote agriculture, agricultural land ownership, water resources, renewable forestry, and conservation in the West, particularly in California. The title derives from the name of its famous passenger train, the Sunset Limited, which ran from San Francisco to New Orleans by way of Los Angeles, El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston. Orsi suggests that most of our impressions of the Southern Pacific were shaped by Frank Norris's 1901 novel The Octopus, which portrayed it as a soulless evil bent on keeping the West in bondage. The Southern Pacific made plenty of public and private enemies in whose interest it was to perpetuate that image. But we always knew California became a desirable destination for settlers after the railroad was built, when it was supposedly at its pinnacle of dastardliness. We always knew California became an economic success because of the markets the railroad opened.

The Development and Spread of the Soil Management System for the Agricultural Land Conservation of Aichi Prefecture(JSSSPN Technological Advancement Awards)

The Development and Spread of the Soil Management System for the Agricultural Land Conservation of Aichi Prefecture(JSSSPN Technological Advancement Awards)