scholarly journals Chinese degraded grasslands – pathways for sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
David R. Kemp ◽  
Karl Behrendt ◽  
Warwick B. Badgery ◽  
Guodong D. Han ◽  
Ping Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
The North ◽  
Collaborative Program ◽  
Grazing Lands ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Stocking Rates

The 400m ha of grazing lands in China, mainly across the north and west of the country, have similar problems to those throughout the steppe of Mongolia, Central Asia and neighbouring countries. The grasslands are in drier regions (50–500mm) across mainly Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan, often at higher altitudes on the Tibetan, Mongolian and Loess Plateaus, and have for millennia supported the livelihoods of millions of herders. By 2002, surveys were classifying 90% of the grasslands as degraded. Less than 10% were considered desertified to the extent that replanting was the only option to restore some plant cover. The majority of the grasslands were considered capable of being rehabilitated to some degree through changing management practices. In the 1980s the first Grassland Laws were promulgated, initiating a series of programs aimed at rehabilitating the grasslands. These programs included the establishment of individual ‘user rights’ to herders to use a defined area of grassland and the imposition of grazing bans, often for five years, to rehabilitate degraded areas. These were often applied at a regional level. At the same time, herders were encouraged to have more livestock as that was seen as a pathway to lift them from poverty. The sheep equivalent of grazing animals for the whole of China, has increased 4-fold since 1949, often by greater amounts in some regions. But there was very limited work done on how best to manage grazing livestock in ways that could aid grassland rehabilitation. In the early 2000s a collaborative program was started between several Australian and Chinese Institutes, to investigate better ways of rehabilitating the grasslands and to improve herder incomes from livestock. This work involved the development of four models that could use the limited data available, to help guide a series of research programs. These models indicated that halving stocking rates could maintain or increase herder net incomes. Farm demonstrations showed this result applied in practice and grasslands did improve. A series of grazing experiments found that halving the current stocking rates was needed to enable the survival of the better plant species within the grassland. A model that estimated the net value of each animal indicated that often half the animals were generating marginal or negative incomes, and could be culled without affecting the household income, again substantiated in farm demonstrations. In this paper, the causes of degradation, which can be traced back to the progressive changes that have occurred in China since 1949, are discussed together with the practice changes that have come from a large collaborative research program between Australia and China. Efficient markets and land tenure reform are needed to help create the incentives for herders to change in sustainable ways.

The 1870 Education Bill and the Method of J. S. Mill's Later Politics

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-245
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Kinzer
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Women's Suffrage ◽  
National Society ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
The North ◽  
Parliamentary Reform ◽  
Women’S Suffrage

The last fourteen years of John Stuart Mill's life (1859-1873), which followed the death of Harriet Taylor, possessed a hefty political content. They saw the publication of his essays on parliamentary reform and Considerations on Representative Government, his impassioned identification with the North in the American Civil War, the eventful parliamentary career sandwiched between the Westminster elections of 1865 and 1868, and a final phase of activity associated with causes such as women's suffrage and land tenure reform. When Mill acted politically he usually did so with strong feeling, but in his search to give deeply held principles practical effect he understood the need for dispassionate adaptation of means to ends. Both the feeling and the adaptation are evident in his treatment of the elementary education question in 1870, a treatment that vividly illustrates how Mill operated during the decade and a half before his death.Of the host of legislation Gladstone's first administration proposed, only one item, the 1870 Education Bill, elicited a congregation of public responses from Mill. Of course, Mill's political activity in the several years following his defeat at Westminster in autumn 1868 was not confined to the adoption of a stance on ministerial measures. With respect to women's suffrage and land reform Mill was not about to wait on any government, and his conspicuous connections with the National Society for Women's Suffrage and the Land Tenure Reform Association attracted notice at the time and have been the subject of comment since. Moreover, during his last years Mill continued to cultivate his contacts in the world of London working-class radicalism, particularly with George Odger, William Randal Cremer, and George Howell. Whereas Mill's parliamentary career has been explored in some detail, the political character of his post-Westminster years has received less attention.

Growth and degradation of British and Irish blanket mires

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
J H Tallis
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Military Training ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Natural State ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Grazing Land ◽  
Mire Vegetation ◽  
The North ◽  
Blanket Bog

Blanket mires extend over approximately 22,500 km2 of the north and west of the British Isles, and are of both national and international importance. Blanket peat started to form locally in some regions 9400 years ago, but the period of most active spread was between 5100 and 3100 BP. Clearance of forest and scrub by human activity probably triggered peat formation in many areas, though the influence of longer term changes in climate can be detected both in the times of peat initiation and in subsequent peat growth. High-quality blanket mires can be characterized by the presence of distinctive plant communities, well-defined microtopographic differentiation of the mire surface, and a diplotelmic structure to the peat mass. Many blanket mires, however, currently have a modified, damaged, or eroded vegetation cover. British and Irish blanket mires are used for a variety of purposes: year-round grazing (mainly sheep), game stocking (red grouse and red deer), water catchment, plantation forestry, domestic and commercial peat extraction, military training, recreation, and conservation. The associated management practices can have significant effects on the composition and structure of the vegetation, the bird and invertebrate faunas, and the physical and chemical properties of the underlying peat. A major part of the British blanket mire resource is affected and modified by grazing, burning, and drainage; only approximately 4000 km2 may remain in a near-natural state. An estimated 3500 km2 is afforested and a further 3500 km2 is eroded. Atmospheric pollution has been shown to have had significant effects on the blanket mire vegetation only in the Southern Pennines, but substantial areas in Wales, northern England, and southwestern Scotland are potentially at risk from high levels of sulphur and nitrogen deposition. The peat mass is very susceptible to erosion from natural agents: frost, drought, rain, and wind. However, erosion normally occurs only when the plant cover is damaged. Severely eroded peat is found in all blanket mire regions of the British Isles and is most common above 450 to 500 m altitude, where it is associated with the development of gully systems within the peat mass. Erosion has almost certainly increased in intensity in the last 200 years, as land-use pressures have intensified, but there is evidence from a number of regions that active gully systems were present by at least AD 1500-1700. Damage and erosion of the blanket mire vegetation has considerable economic and amenity consequences: loss of grazing land, infilling of reservoirs with sediment and periodic discolouration of water supplies, loss of distinctive wildlife (particularly birds), and impaired recreational value. Techniques are now available for the revegetation and restoration of badly damaged blanket mire, but they are very costly. Government schemes that provide incentives for less-intensive management of blanket mires offer a potentially more viable way of meeting our international conservation obligations.Key words: blanket bog, peat, grazing, pollution, burning, afforestation.

Management of grazing systems

1989 ◽  
pp. 117-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Grazing Management ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Stocking Rate ◽  
Pastoral Systems ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Grazing Systems ◽  
Stocking Rates

Recent assessments of the relative importance of stocking rate. stocking policy and grazing management on the output from pastoral systems are used as a starting point to argue the need for objective pasture assessments to aid control of livestock enterprises to meet production targets. Variations in stocking rates, stocking policy and other management practices all provide alternative means of control of pasture conditions which are the major determinants of pasture and animal performance. Understanding of the influence of pasture conditions on systems performance should provide a better basis for management control and for Communication between farmers, extension officers and researchers. Keywords: Stocking rate, pasture condition, pasture cover

In memory of Vera Antonovna Martynenko (1936-2018)

2018 ◽  
pp. 149-154
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Plants ◽  
Ussr Academy ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Komi Republic ◽  
Great Contribution ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Natural Flora

Vera Antonovna Martynenko (17.02.1936–06.01.2018) — famous specialist in the field of studying vascular plant flora and vegetation of the Far North, the Honored worker of the Komi Republic (2006), The Komi Republic State Scientific Award winner (2000). She was born in the town Likhoslavl of the Kali­nin (Tver) region. In 1959, Vera Antonovna graduated from the faculty of soil and biology of the Leningrad State University and then moved to the Komi Branch of USSR Academy of Science (Syktyvkar). From 1969 to 1973 she passed correspondence postgraduate courses of the Komi Branch of USSR Academy of ­Science. In 1974, she received the degree of candidate of biology (PhD) by the theme «Comparative analysis of the boreal flora at the Northeast European USSR» in the Botanical Institute (St. Petersburg). In 1996, Vera Antonovna received the degree of doctor of biology in the Institute of plant and animal ecology (Ekaterinburg) «Flora of the northern and mid subzones of the taiga of the European North-East». The study and conservation of species and coenotical diversity of the plant world, namely the vascular plants flora of the Komi Republic and revealing its transformation under the anthropogenic influence, was in the field of V. A. Martynenko’ scientific interests. She made great contribution to the study of the Komi Republic meadow flora and the pool of medi­cinal plants. She performed inventorying and mapping the meadows of several agricultural enterprises of the Republic, revealed the species composition and places for harvesting medicinal plants and studied their productivity in the natural flora of the boreal zone. The results of her long-term studies were used for making the NPA system and the Red Book of the Komi Republic (1998 and 2009). Vera Antonovna participated in the research of the influence of placer gold mining and oil development on the natural ecosystems of the North, and developed the method of long-term monitoring of plant cover. Results of these works are of high practical value. V. A. Martynenko is an author and coauthor of more than 130 scientific publications. The most important jnes are «Flora of Northeast European USSR» (1974, 1976, and 1977), «Floristic composition of fodder lands of the Northeast Europe» (1989), «The forests of the Komi Republic» (1999), «Forestry of forest resources of the Komi Republic» (2000), «The list of flora of the Yugyd va national park» (2003), «The guide for vascular plants of the Syktyvkar and its vicinities» (2005), «Vascular plants of the Komi Republic» (2008), and «Resources of the natural flora of the Komi Republic» (2014). She also was an author of «Encyclopedia of the Komi Republic» (1997, 1999, and 2000), «Historical and cultural atlas of the Komi Republic» (1997), «Atlas of the Komi Republic» (2001, 2011). V. A. Martynenko made a great contribution to the development of the botanical investigations in the North. Since 1982, during more than 10 years, she was the head of the Department of the Institute of Biology. Three Ph. D. theses have been completed under her leadership. Many years, she worked actively in the Dissertation Council of the Institute of biology Komi Scientific Centre UrB RAS.  The death of Vera Antonovna Martynenko is a heavy and irretrievable loss for the staff of the Institute of Biology. The memory of Vera Antonovna will live in her numerous scientific works, the hearts of students and colleagues.

scholarly journals Establishment of Regional Phytoremediation Buffer Systems for Ecological Restoration in the Great Lakes Basin, USA. I. Genotype × Environment Interactions

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald S. Zalesny ◽  
Andrej Pilipović ◽  
Elizabeth R. Rogers ◽  
Joel G. Burken ◽  
Richard A. Hallett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Best Management Practices ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Recurrent Selection ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Great Lakes Basin ◽  
Annual Increment ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
The North ◽  
Local Soil

Poplar remediation systems are ideal for reducing runoff, cleaning groundwater, and delivering ecosystem services to the North American Great Lakes and globally. We used phyto-recurrent selection (PRS) to establish sixteen phytoremediation buffer systems (phyto buffers) (buffer groups: 2017 × 6; 2018 × 5; 2019 × 5) throughout the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan watersheds comprised of twelve PRS-selected clones each year. We tested for differences in genotypes, environments, and their interactions for health, height, diameter, and volume from ages one to four years. All trees had optimal health. Mean first-, second-, and third-year volume ranged from 71 ± 26 to 132 ± 39 cm3; 1440 ± 575 to 5765 ± 1132 cm3; and 8826 ± 2646 to 10,530 ± 2110 cm3, respectively. Fourth-year mean annual increment of 2017 buffer group trees ranged from 1.1 ± 0.7 to 7.8 ± 0.5 Mg ha−1 yr−1. We identified generalist varieties with superior establishment across a broad range of buffers (‘DM114’, ‘NC14106’, ‘99038022’, ‘99059016’) and specialist clones uniquely adapted to local soil and climate conditions (‘7300502’, ‘DN5’, ‘DN34’, ‘DN177’, ‘NM2’, ‘NM5’, ‘NM6’). Using generalists and specialists enhances the potential for phytoremediation best management practices that are geographically robust, being regionally designed yet globally relevant.

scholarly journals Late Glacial and Holocene plant cover in Węgliny, Lubsza Plain, south-west Poland, based on pollen analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Jurochnik ◽  
Dorota Nalepka
Keyword(s):  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Anaerobic Sediments ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Pollen Diagrams ◽  
Laacher See Tephra ◽  
Late Glacial And Holocene

ABSTRACT Late Glacial (since Oldest Dryas) and Holocene (to Subatlantic) changes of vegetation at the Węgliny site (south-west Poland) are reconstructed based mainly on pollen analysis of five cores from the palaeobasin (anaerobic sediments). The chronology of the described events is based on palynological comparison with the Lubsza Plain environs, based on LPAZs from several published pollen diagrams on 14C data, and multiple cryptotephra levels determined in the Węgliny profiles. The Węgliny record integrates well into the north European Holocene and Late Glacial biostratigraphic framework. The Węgliny site is the next (fourth) locality in Poland where the Laacher See Tephra (LST) horizon within the Allerød chronozone was identified.

Vulnerabilities and Threats to Natural Forest Regrowth: Land Tenure Reform, Land Markets, Pasturelands, Plantations, and Urbanization in Indigenous Communities in Mexico

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1340
Author(s):  
Elena Lazos-Chavero ◽  
Paula Meli ◽  
Consuelo Bonfil
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Natural Regeneration ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Landscape Restoration ◽  
Peasant Communities ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Biological Corridor

Despite the economic and social costs of national and international efforts to restore millions of hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes, results have not met expectations due to land tenure conflicts, land-use transformation, and top-down decision-making policies. Privatization of land, expansion of cattle raising, plantations, and urbanization have created an increasingly competitive land market, dispossessing local communities and threatening forest conservation and regeneration. In contrast to significant investments in reforestation, natural regrowth, which could contribute to landscape regeneration, has not been sufficiently promoted by national governments. This study analyzes socio-ecological and economic vulnerabilities of indigenous and other peasant communities in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Chiapas, and Morelos related to the inclusion of natural regeneration in their forest cycles. While these communities are located within protected areas (Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve, El Tepozteco National Park, and Chichinautzin Biological Corridor), various threats and vulnerabilities impede natural regeneration. Although landscape restoration involves complex political, economic, and social relationships and decisions by a variety of stakeholders, we focus on communities’ vulnerable land rights and the impacts of privatization on changes in land use and forest conservation. We conclude that the social, economic, political, and environmental vulnerabilities of the study communities threaten natural regeneration, and we explore necessary changes for incorporating this process in landscape restoration.

scholarly journals Monitoring water fluxes in rice plots under three different cultivation methods

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2s) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Antonio Chiaradia ◽  
Daniele Ferrari ◽  
Gian Battista Bischetti ◽  
Arianna Facchi ◽  
Olfa Gharsallah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Considerable Effect ◽  
Level Gauge ◽  
Total Production ◽  
Water Fluxes ◽  
Wireless Data ◽  
Data Logger ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
The North

Italy is the leading producer of rice in Europe with over half of total production, almost totally concentrated in a large traditional paddy rice area between the Lombardy and Piedmont regions, in the north-western part of the country. In this area irrigation of rice has been traditionally carried out by flooding. The introduction of new combined irrigation and agronomic management practices (dry seeding followed by field flooding and in a full aerobic cultivation with intermittent irrigations), aiming to reduce the water consumption, can determine considerable effect on the landscape and the water cycle. With the aim to study in depth the water fluxes during the whole crop season, three experimental plots at the Ente Nazionale Risi-Rice Research Centre’s Experimental Station of Castello d’Agogna (PV) were instrumented. In each plot the following instruments have been installed: 1) a long throated flume and a double shaped (V-notch and rectangular) thin plate for superficial inputs and outputs, 3) a set of piezometers for groundwater levels, 4) one stage level gauge in each submerged field, 5) four tensiometers and moisture sensors clusters, 6) one eddy covariance station for vapour fluxes estimation. Most of the instruments were equipped with electrical sensors connected by cables to a wireless data logger that, in turn, send the data to a PC placed within ENR offices and web-connected by a LAN. In this way, besides the automatic download of data, it was possible to remotely control the devices, to quickly fix troubles, and to better plan the field trips. The management of the whole framework was done by a specifically developed software. In this paper the whole system, which presents some degree of innovation, is described in detail.

scholarly journals Conditions for successful land reform in Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
JA Groenewald
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Special Support ◽  
Fiscal Planning ◽  
Human Material

Land reform has traditionally had two objectives: equity and productivity. Food insecurity and the need for agriculture to contribute to development emphasise the need to maintain and improve productivity while improving equitability. Land must foster production and agriculture must attract good human material. The following areas need to be considered in policy formulation and delivery: an effective institutional framework involving all the relevant public and private bodies; efficient fiscal planning is essential; potentially successful farmers must be selected and given special support, including extension and adult education; complementary services and infrastructure are needed; prioritisation of functions and land tenure reform is often necessary. In addition, international agricultural markets are very important for Africa.  Wealthy nations should cease trade-distorting protection of their own farmers.

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