Expansion Of Agricultural Land Research Articles

Vegetation Changes and Dynamics of the Climate Variables in Southern Thailand over the Past 1500 Years

The Indo-Pacific, a vast biogeographic of Earth, is influenced by both the Indian and East Asian monsoons. Despite its geographical importance, this region has been less studied compared to East Asia and India. Here, we present speleothem records from southern Thailand that cover the last 1500 years, including a hiatus during the Little Ice Age, providing insights into the interactions among climate dynamics, human influences, and ecological responses to climate change. Notably, our records lack the characteristic cold and warm periods observed in other regions, such as the Dark Ages Cold Period and Medieval Warm Period, which may reflect the complexity of the tropical climate system or the region’s unique topography. The analysis reveals a link between ENSO multi-decadal variability and hydroclimate conditions in southern Thailand, as evidenced by speleothem δ18O. Furthermore, a comparison between speleothem δ13C and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) indicates significant vegetation changes in the last three decades, corresponding with increased atmospheric CO2 levels and expansion of agricultural land due to human activities during the Current Warm Period. Additionally, our study suggests that an abrupt increase in sea surface temperatures may enhance vegetation growth in the Indo-Pacific by influencing atmospheric circulation and increasing precipitation.

Assessing future intra-basin water availability in madagascar: Accounting for climate change, population growth, and land use change

The Major River Basins in Madagascar (MRBM) play a crucial role in providing water to the Malagasy population as well as the ecosystem. Little is known about the impact of climate change on these basins, and it is not clear what factors have the most significant impact on them. There are two central objectives of this study: 1. To assess the future potential water available for daily life and agriculture use across the MRBM. 2. To compare the projected change within the MRBM with the historical trends analysis and identify the water-stressed basins. In this paper, a new method for assessing the future available Intra-basin water resources combined with the impacts of climate change, land use, and population is proposed. Three imbalance indicators are introduced to quantify the spatial availability (indicator N°1), distribution (indicator N°2), and variability (indicator N°3) of the Potential Water Resources (PWR) available and have been applied to the MRBM. Under the SSP2–4.5 scenario, results showed a decreasing trend of the PWR in most of the basins by 2050 with a rise in evapotranspiration and a decline in precipitation. The increasing trend and uneven distribution of the population and agricultural land upstream/downstream are found to cause the reduction of the PWR available per capita (by 37 %) and agriculture area (by 69 %) across the MRBM. This study predicts water scarcity for most of the basins by 2050, especially in the Mangoro and Onilahy Basins. Upstream populations are expected to grow in Mahajamba, Mahavavy, Betsiboka, Manambolo, Tsiribihina, Mangoro, Onilahy, Mananara, and Mandrare basins, along with an expansion of the downstream agricultural land in Sofia, Betsiboka, Manambolo, Mangoky, and Mandrare basins. These findings enhance the cause-effect relationship between climate change, land use change, population growth, and water scarcity in the MRBM. Urgent action is therefore needed for an efficient and sustainable management of these water-stressed basins.

Unveiling the frontiers: Historical expansion and modern implications of agricultural land use in Denmark

This study offers a first-of-its-kind investigation into the spatial and temporal transformation of agricultural land use and expansion in crops and livestock at national scale during the middle and latter half of the 19th century.We introduce an innovative methodological framework that combines historical data with advanced spatial analysis to trace and map the evolution of frontiers of agricultural land use changes, illustrating Denmark's agricultural evolution towards the modern era.Our research uncovers critical shifts in cropland, grazing land, and livestock density offering unprecedented insights into the mechanisms driving agricultural expansion and intensification. The mechanisms driving this expansion and their potential impact on contemporary agroecological challenges linked to land use intensification are explored. Our results point to a significant broadening and shifting of land use frontiers offering a historical perspective on agricultural land use. This sets the stage for promoting the analysis of drivers of change and gaining insights into how landscape development could be steered into an environmentally and societally more desirable and sustainable direction tackling present-day agroecological challenges.

Tracing agricultural land carbon loss through transregional food consumption for fairness of responsibility allocation

Agricultural land carbon loss (ALCL) has been increasingly triggered by transregional food consumption in China. Understanding land carbon burden from consumption side is then recognized to be essential for facilitating regional fairness. To this end, we combined physical food-orient multi-regional input-output table and ALCL inventory for 26 kinds of foods in 31 provinces to trace China's ALCL through cross-regional consumption. Results show that ALCL embodied in inter-provincial trade was up to 42 % of the national total ALCL. Food consumption in Guangdong caused the largest ALCL, while Tibet and Qinghai stood out from per capita perspective. Furthermore, consuming foods produced in areas with higher production ALCL intensity would elevate national ALCL, thus shrinking the adverse flows and controlling agricultural land expansion in high-intensity areas may help lessen national ALCL. This study contributes to equitable allocation of responsibility for land carbon loss, and enlightens future land carbon loss risks and restoration opportunities.

Regional food self-sufficiency potential in the European Alpine space

The sustainability of the food system needs to be improved, including shortening supply chains and promoting the consumption of regional food. Here, we explore the current potential for regional food self-sufficiency in the European Alpine space by calculating the current regional food/feed energy balance, deriving the regional per capita land footprint based on current food/feed consumption rates, and modelling the current potential for regional food/feed self-sufficiency. We show that 59% of the 560 Pcal of energy currently available in the study area comes from domestic production, and almost 60% of the energy is used for livestock consumption, with high regional variability. The resulting land footprints range from 2301 to 2975 m2 cap−1 y−1. Taking into account changes in cropping patterns, partial intensification, but no expansion of agricultural land, the European Alpine space could produce 89% of its current food demand domestically, with high regional variability due to population density, availability of agricultural land, crop yields, climatic conditions and dietary habits. These findings highlight the potential and limitations of regional mountain food systems and call for new strategies to improve sustainability. Reducing the current high consumption of animal products would reduce the land footprint and increase the potential for food self-sufficiency.

Impacts of commodity prices and governance on the expansion of tropical agricultural frontiers

Deforestation in the tropics remains a significant global challenge linked to carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. Agriculture, forestry, wildfires, and urbanization have been repeatedly identified as main drivers of tropical deforestation. Understanding the underlying mechanisms behind these direct causes is crucial to navigate the multiple tradeoffs between competing forest uses, such as food and biomass production (SDG 2), climate action (SDG 13), and life on land (SDG 15). This paper develops and implements a global-scale empirical approach to quantify two key factors affecting land use decisions at tropical forest frontiers: agricultural commodity prices and national governance. It relies on data covering the period 2004–2015 from multiple public sources, aggregated to countries and agro-ecological zones. Our analysis confirms the persistent influence of commodity prices on agricultural land expansion, especially in forest-abundant regions. Economic and environmental governance quality co-determines processes of expansion and contraction of agricultural land in the tropics, yet at much smaller magnitudes than other drivers. We derive land supply elasticities for direct use in standard economic impact assessment models and demonstrate that our results make a difference in a Computable General Equilibrium framework.

Transformation of the relief of the southern Astrakhan region (Russia) after the expansion of agricultural land at the beginning of the last century

To establish the causes and consequences of changes in the relief of the southern Astrakhan region in the period 1900–1970.Comparison of cartographic materials of past years with data in recent satellite remote sensing images. The materials were superimposed on a geoformation program: then the hydrological elements of the relief and the Baer hills were outlined and measured for the purpose of quantitative and qualitative analysis of changes in the territory (before and after reclamation works and the currently existing relief).The analysis of the materials revealed a significant transformation of the relief, which has served as an impetus for the development of a semidesert zone in this area.The work carried out revealed the anthropogenic impact on the relief through which most of the territory was subject to drainage as a result of reclamation works to increase in arable land.

Change of vegetation cover and land use of the Pómac forest historical sanctuary in northern Peru

AbstractThe dry forests of northern Peru, in the regions of Piura, Tumbes, Lambayeque, and La Libertad, have experienced significant changes as a result of deforestation and changes in land use, leading to the loss of biodiversity and resources. This work analyzed for the first time the changes in vegetation cover and land use of the Pómac Forest Historical Sanctuary (PFHS), located in the department of Lambayeque (northern Peru). The employed approach was the random forest algorithm and visually interpreted Landsat satellite images for the periods 2000–2002, 2002–2004, and 2004–2008. Gain and loss rates were computed for each period, and the recovery process was assessed using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI). Results indicate an expansion of agricultural land during each period, resulting in the deforestation of 102.6 hectares of dense dry forest and 739.9 hectares of open dry forest between 2000 and 2008. The degree of reforestation in the cleared areas was measured using the NDVI and EVI indices, revealing an improvement from 0.22 in NDVI in 2009 to 0.36 in 2022, and from 0.14 to 0.21 in EVI over the same period. This study is expected to pave the way for executing land management plans, as well as the use and conservation of natural resources in the PFHS in a sustainable manner.

Investigation of Woody Species Composition, Diversity, and Carbon Stock under Agroforestry Practices in Oromia National Region State, Central Ethiopia

Agroforestry is a common practice in the tropics that is characterized by various activities such as parkland on cultivated lands or home garden agroforestry around homesteads. In Ethiopia, agroforestry is an ancient land use type that is practiced by smallholder farmers. Scattered trees in cropland or parkland trees and home garden trees are old agroforestry practices, and the most dominant practices exist in different parts of Ethiopia. They cover large areas of highland, midland, and lowland agroecologies of Liban Jawi District in West Showa of Oromia National Regional State, Central Ethiopia. However, woody species particularly in parklands are declining in many agricultural landscapes due to the overuses for fuel wood, charcoal production, and expansion of agricultural lands due to the degradation of nearby forests. In the study sites, comprehensive studies in terms of their composition, diversity, structure, and carbon stocks are still not well explored. In this context, we assessed woody species composition and diversity, structure, and carbon stocks because parkland and home garden agroforestry practices in three agroecologies of highland, midland, and lowlands in the district were not quantified. About 45 parkland woody species were collected from 150 plots of 5000 m2, and 35 home garden woody species were collected from 70 plots of 400 m2. As a result, a total of 80 species belonging to 52 families and 62 genera were collected from parkland and home garden agroforestry practices. Woody species diversity was analyzed using species richness, Shannon diversity index, and Shannon evenness index. In this study, the Shannon diversity (2.8) and Shannon evenness indexes (0.54) of woody species were computed in parkland agroforestry, in the meantime the Shannon diversity index (3.30) and Shannon evenness index (0.52) for woody species of the home garden were computed. The distribution of diameter classes of 10–30 cm had the highest number of trees and shrubs followed by 31–60 cm diameter classes. However, the highest number of trees and shrubs were in 61–90 cm diameter class in the home garden. In this study, woody species, such as Citrus sinensis, Mangifera indica, Persea americana, Sesbania sesban, Vernonia amygdalina, and Azadirachta indica were the dominant species under the two agroforestry practices. The values of carbon stack for highland, midland, and lowland in parkland agroforestry were 19.8 MgCha−1, 17.6 MgCha−1, and 17.5 MgCha−1, respectively. Meanwhile, the total biomass of woody species in highland, midland, and lowland for homestead agroforestry was 32.6 MgCha−1, 34.7 MgCha−1, and 31.2 MgCha−1, respectively. These resulted in carbon dioxide sequestered of 72.59 CO2 equivalents (tha−1), 64.52 CO2 equivalents (tha−1), and 64.16 CO2 equivalents (tha−1) in highland, midland, and lowland woody species, respectively. This study holds significant inputs for policymakers, regional administrators, environmentalists, and natural resource experts by informing the farmers’ management and conservation of woody species on cultivated lands and home garden agroforestry plants around their homesteads which is serving as ecosystem services and climate mitigation response within Liban Jawi district. Under parkland and homestead agroforestry practices, communities should have know-how to predict the environmental consequences of the destruction of woody species on their farmlands.

Watershed hydrological responses to land use land cover changes at Bilata watershed, Rift Valley Basin, southern Ethiopia

Abstract Most anthropogenic activities have a profound effect on land cover that affects the water cycle and, ultimately, the availability of water in the watershed. The idea of this study was to evaluate the hydrological response to land use and land cover change in the Bilata watershed. To achieve this objective, supervised land use land cover classification was applied for the years 2000, 2010, and 2020 using ERDAS IMAGINE 2015. The watershed underwent significant land use and land cover changes from 2000 to 2020. There was an abrupt expansion of agricultural land and a reduction of forest. The SWAT model was applied to evaluate the impact of land use and land cover change on hydrological processes. The calibration and validation of the SWAT model showed that the model has performed well in simulating the hydrology of the watershed with a coefficient of determination, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, and per cent of bias greater than 0.6 for both calibration and validation. Due to intensive agricultural expansion and settlement, the surface runoff increased from 172 to 259.5 and 265.0 mm in 2000, 2010, and 2020, respectively. The average streamflow increased from 132 to 134 and 150 m3/s between 2000, 2010, and 2020.

Study on Wild Edible Plant Used by Shinasha Ethnic Community at Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia

Wild edible plants are an essential source of supplementary foods in many parts of Ethiopia. The aims of this study were to record and document wild edible plants used by shinasha ethnic community in Metekele Zone Northwestern Ethiopia. The Field surveys were conducted from Jun to Dec, 2022. Semi-structured interview, direct observation, focus group discussion, guided fled walks, and market surveys were used to collect data. A total of 120 informants were participated in interviewed. Descriptive statistical was made to analyze the data using SPSS version.20. A total 46 wild edible plants belonging to 38 genera and 30 families were recorded. Family Moraceae were the most popular edible plant. Trees were the dominant life forms (36.9%) and ripe fruits (58.6%) recorded plants par used in study area. The majority of (14 specie) were collected from natural forest followed by riverine banks habitat (12species). The majority of wild edible plants are mainly harvested and consumed during autumn followed by summer season. Based on the market surveys eight wild edible plants were sold and can provide additional income to the local community in study districts. The wild edible plants were consumed as raw. Agricultural land expansion, fuel wood collection, cutting for construction, uncontrolled fire and overgrazing were the major threats to the wild edible plants. Hence, the finding recommend that the community that practice in on-site and off-site conservation, public awareness raising, which requires participation the government's on sustainable forest management practices approach would help to protect wild edible plant in study area.

Effect of watershed characteristics on river flow for the case of two watersheds, Megech and Gumaro, Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Land degradation is a series of problems in Ethiopia’s highlands, particularly in the Upper Blue Nile River Basin reflected in the form of soil erosion and reduce soil fertility from time to time. The effect of watershed characteristics on the river flow of those watersheds was evaluated by distributing a physically based hydrological model known as the soil and water assessment tool model. The model was calibrated for the river flow from 1992 to 2006 and validated for the period from 2007 to 2014. The performance of the model was evaluated based on performance rating criteria, coefficient of determination, and Nash and Sutcliff efficiency on monthly based value, the coefficient of determination (R2) and Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient was greater than 0.6 and 0.5 for all scenarios on both watersheds, respectively. The land-use land-cover change scenario, the climate characteristics, and the slope change scenario was developed, from those analyses, it was found that has been a substantial decrease or increase in forest land, shrubland, grassland, and expansion of agricultural land. The mean annual streamflow of 2010 LULC decreased by 1.44% for 2010 from 2003 LULC and 5.23% for 2018 from 2010. Because of reduced cultivated land from 2010 up to 2018 and increased grassland and plantation in the Megech watershed and 2010 LULC decreased by 0.9% for 2010 from 2003 LULC and 2.04% in 2018 from 2010. This distributed physically based hydrological model has been applied for the evaluation of physical catchment characteristics with significant differences which was Cropland for Megech and Gumaro watersheds which were 67.28% and 61.5%, respectively, for the 2003 LULC, 64.94% Megech, and 58.89% for Gumaro watershed for 2010LULC and 51.95% for Megech and 42.12% for Gumaro watershed, similarly, Eutric Cambisols were covering large areas for both watersheds.

The Challenges of Deforestation and Management in Nigeria: Suggestions for Improvement

This paper appraises the dangers posed to forests regions in Nigeria resulting from deforestation impacts. The country is deprived with socio-economic and environmental benefits due to the over exploitation of forests and land cover. Nigeria is losing steadily economic opulence, leaving her with hazard from erosion, flooding and desertification culminating into climate change. Like some tropical world regions, many people illegally engaged in export of log/wood, and get solace in unlawful taxes and illegitimate royaltieswhich fetch them personal income from this repulsive job. This work employs a classical review in examining the challenges and poor management facing the economic forest regions in Nigeria. The main goal is centred on the pressures on the forest population leading to a number of causes like; urbanization, overpopulation and over expansion of agricultural lands. The work suggests that, the stakeholders and governments need to establish some laws and regulations that can check the indiscriminate felling of trees and degrading of the environment in Nigeria. Government is also advised to find alternative means of power generation and introduce modern farming techniques for the populace. The public enlightenment campaign is also imperative for citizenry in order to forestall dangers posed by un-restrained deforestation.

Causes of Deforestation and Degradation of Jhau (Casuarina equisetifolia) Plantation Along the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Sea Beach in Bangladesh

In this study, Jhau (Casuarina equisetifolia) plant degradation from the years 2006-2019 along the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf sea beach has been conducted by remotely sensed satellite image analysis from the Google Earth platform. According to the research, roughly 16.39% of Jhau patches were lost between 2006 and 2010, 30.59% between 2010 and 2015, and 43.38% between 2015 and 2019. Deforestation in the Jhau forest has mostly been triggered by anthropogenic and natural factors. The anthropogenic causes that have been found in the current study region include structural development, road construction, water logging, and agricultural land expansion. Coastal erosion and new channel development are natural causes. Among the natural causes, on average, 65% of deforestation has occurred due to coastal erosion processes, and less is due to anthropogenic activities from the years 2006 to 2019. Among the locations where coastal deforestation has occurred, Charpara region and the Teknaf peninsula were found to have the most notable deforestation. The Teknaf peninsula is highly unstable, and the Jhau forest has been deforested every year due to this instability. The selection of vulnerable zones in these regions is highly needed and the selection of suitable locations for future Jhau plantations is very important to these regions. The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 12(1), 2023, P 123-134

A modeling approach for evaluating and predicting the impacts of land use land cover changes on groundwater recharge in Walga Watershed, Upper Omo Basin, Central Ethiopia

Study regionWalga watershed, Upper Omo basin, Ethiopia (2349 km2). Study focusThis research aimed to understand and predict the impacts of LULC changes on groundwater recharge in Walga watershed. Thus, the historical LULC changes in Walga watershed was assessed from Landsat: 4–5 TM, 7 ETM + and 8 OLI-TIRS (1990, 2006, and 2021), through Hybrid classification of unsupervised and supervised scheme using Erdas Image 2015, while future LULC was predicted using CA–Markov chain analysis approach in QGIS-MOLUSCE plugin. The LULC change impact scenarios on groundwater recharge was assessed using SWAT model. New hydrological insightsThe evaluation of LULC changes pointed out that Walga watershed has undergone high intensity of LULC changes (1990–2021) due to anthropogenic activities and predicted to instantly change in the coming (2021–2035). The hydrological assessments indicate that groundwater recharge was declined over the last three decades by 20.84 mm and predicted to decline in future (2021–2035) by 6.17 mm. This implies that the declined recharge was linked to LULC changes over time with deforestation and agricultural land expansion. This means due to changes in agriculture (+26.3 %, +15.4 %), mixed forest (−3.7, −2.3 %), rangelands (−23.8 %, −8.8 %), grazing land (−2.6 %, −2.0 %), and urban (+1.14 %, +0.46 %) during (1990–2021) and (2021–2035). These outcomes provide baseline information for decision makers concerning LULC and groundwater for better planning and management strategies in the watershed.

Projecting Agricultural Land Abandonment and Expansion in Turkiye Using the Subspace KNN Algorithm (2030)

Projecting Agricultural Land Abandonment and Expansion in Turkiye Using the Subspace KNN Algorithm (2030)

Forest disturbance process caused by the expansion of agricultural and construction lands in the border zones of Mainland Southeast Asian countries and their neighbors

Forest disturbance process caused by the expansion of agricultural and construction lands in the border zones of Mainland Southeast Asian countries and their neighbors

Sugar-energy/Sugarcane Expansion and Concentration of Agricultural Land in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, between 1996 and 2017

Resumo Objetivou-se analisar os efeitos da expansão sucroenergética/canavieira e de outros fatos na distribuição da posse da terra agrícola no Estado de São Paulo, entre 1996 e 2017. Através da revisão de literatura, sistematizaram-se razões e tendências de concentração da posse da terra na agricultura mundial e brasileira. Da recente evolução da estrutura sucroenergética em São Paulo, abordaram-se fatores com prováveis impactos na distribuição da terra: avanço da área e aprofundamento da mecanização canavieira e continuidade da alta integração vertical entre transformação e cultivo de cana. Na análise empírica, usaram-se os censos agropecuários do IBGE e o cadastro de imóveis rurais do INCRA. A expansão canavieira sobre outras atividades contribuiu, significativamente, no aumento da concentração da posse da terra em São Paulo. Essa expansão deu-se, predominantemente, através do arrendamento e não da compra de terras, com menor impacto na concentração da propriedade do que na posse da terra. Também, o aprofundamento da mecanização canavieira teve efeito concentracionista, através da diferenciação de empresas. Pequenos e médios fornecedores de cana, com área insuficiente, foram excluídos ou incorporados por maiores. O mesmo ocorreu com algumas usinas e com grandes fornecedores, com problemas operacionais e com aumento do endividamento na aceleração da mecanização canavieira.

Land degradation neutrality in the Penza region

This study is carried out in order to calculate the neutral balance of the territory of the Penza region using the trend.earth program. In the course of the study, data on current land use, climatic conditions and changes in land cover are collected and analyzed. Using the trend.earth program, modeling of various scenarios of impact on land coverage is carried out in order to determine possible strategies for improving land management in order to achieve a neutral balance. The results of this study can be used to develop practical strategies for the sustainable use of land resources and to reduce the negative impact on the environment in the Penza region. The study of the neutral balance of the territory of the Penza region should take into account the existing rates of change in land cover, including the expansion of agricultural land, loss of forests and changes in water resources. When using the trend.earth program to model possible scenarios, potential impacts on biodiversity, climatic conditions and ecosystem sustainability should also be taken into account. The results of this study will identify potential locations for forest restoration, optimization of agricultural land use and other strategies to achieve a neutral balance in land management. The study will also provide important information for the development of practical recommendations for the sustainable development of the region. In addition, the assessment of the neutral balance of land use using trend.earth will allow assessing potential scenarios of changes in land cover in the context of climate change and economic development. This will allow factors such as carbon stocks, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem sustainability to be taken into account when developing land management strategies.

Complementary Approaches to Planning a Restored Coastal Wetland and Assessing the Role of Agriculture and Biodiversity: An Applied Case Study in Southern Italy

The European Parliament has recently passed the “Nature Recovery” law to restore degraded ecosystems and prevent natural disasters as part of its “Biodiversity Strategy 2030” and “Green Deal”. In this respect, wetlands can provide a wide range of ecosystem services such as biodiversity conservation, hydrological land protection, provision of products, cultural and recreational benefits, and many others. However, they are still threatened by the expansion of agricultural land, overexploitation of water resources, water pollution, climate change, etc. Wetland conservation, however, is essential and requires coordinated action by managers, policymakers, stakeholders, and scientists. A systemic planning and design process is required to address these complex challenges. This research aims to outline an integrated, comprehensive, and well-structured planning framework for wetland systems that can be applied to different wetland types, in line with institutional wetland policy, governance, and management. The methodological approach developed in this study aims to integrate a longer-term strategy plan with a shorter-term action plan by combining the Yeomans scale of permanence and the Driver–Pressure–State–Impact–Response model. This innovative approach was applied to a specific case study and may guide further wetland planning in the future. The Nominal Group Technique was used, a consensus method aimed at achieving a general agreement and convergence of opinion. An expert group of seven members with different technical backgrounds was engaged and expert consultation was found to be a simple and rapid technique for carrying out wetland planning. The expert judgements were sound, consistent, and did not overlap (i.e., were not redundant). “Pressures” and “Impacts” were identified by the experts and clustered according to corresponding “States” and “Drivers”. Expert scoring allowed the resulting “Responses” to be ranked in terms of their relevance and influence on the development of the wetland strategy and action plan, while a priority order for their implementation was assessed according to the Yeomans scale of permanence. Agriculture was the highest rated ‘Driver’; similarly, Biodiversity (habitats and species) was the ‘State’ with the highest score. Therefore, their combination (agriculture and biodiversity) should be considered as the strategic cornerstone of the whole planning framework. This means designing and implementing a system in which agriculture and nature (in our case a wetland) are allied ecological systems in mutual compensation, according to the way natural elements are embedded in the agricultural system. A collection of factsheets containing the full list of responses considered in the Wetlands Action Plan, with detailed operational actions, is provided in the Appendixes.