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Land transformation reduces biodiversity and regional sustainability, with land price being an indicator of the opportunity cost to a landowner of resisting land conversion. However, reliable spatially explicit databases of current land prices are generally lacking in developing countries. We used tools from data science to scrape 1,487 georeferenced land prices in southern Kenya from the internet. Prices were higher for land near cities and in areas of high agricultural productivity, but also around the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Predicted land prices ranged from US$662 to US$4,618,805 per acre. Land speculation associated with expanding urbanization increases the opportunity and acquisition costs of maintaining conservation buffer zones, corridors, and dispersal areas. However, high land values are also found adjacent to a world-famous tourist destination. Profit-driven turnover of ownership, subdivision, and transformation of land is occurring at a rapid pace in southern Kenya, to the detriment of savanna biodiversity and the sustainability of the pastoral social–ecological system.

Poor water quality caused by intensive sugarcane farming has been among the main causes of coastal degradation around the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Despite regulations and incentives, water quality in the GBR has yet to reach government targets, and there is an urgent need to investigate alternative management approaches. In this study, we have employed a social-ecological approach to understand farmers' attitudes to existing nutrient and sediment management approaches, assess farmers' perceptions of managing coastal wetlands to ameliorate agricultural run-off, and propose how these findings could inform integrative policy development for the GBR. We conducted semi-structured interviews with sugarcane farmers in the Wet Tropics to understand perceptions of ecosystem services, coastal wetlands and industry challenges. We linked our analysis of key issues of concern to farmers with broader environmental and land use issues and have outlined future policy considerations in the face of socio-economic and climatic change. Our conclusions emphasise the need to rethink future land tenure in low-lying areas of North Queensland, the importance of considering ecosystem services provided by coastal wetlands in policy models and the need for a payments for ecosystem services (PES) model to safeguard the future of the GBR.

In conventional reallocation, farmers' preferences are used to determine the location of their new parcels in predetermined blocks. The most common conflict that can arise during this process is that demand may be high for some blocks. The manner of resolving such disputes, which deal directly with landowners' rights, can affect the success or failure of land consolidation projects. In this study, a novel model for land reallocation is proposed which is based on the principle that the initial situation of the landowner's parcels before land consolidation will be comparable with the new situation that includes all of his/her rights. For this, a spatial similarity-based approach was proposed, taking into account geometric, ownership, physical, and locational criteria. Then, the agricultural land reallocation model (LR-MOPSO) was developed using the multi-objective particle swarm algorithm. Three objectives were defined: (1) simultaneous consideration of farmers' priority and spatial similarity criteria; (2) pooling of farmers' fragmented parcels; and (3) optimal placement of parcels within the block. The LR-MOPSO model was applied to an Iranian case study and results were compared with a conventional approach. With this model decision-makers in land consolidation projects will be able to redistribute parcels in a more transparent way, while dealing with landowners' rights.

Drawing on multi‐sited fieldwork and discourse analysis of government orders, we investigate land‐titling programmes that distribute marginal public land to the poor in both urban and rural South India. We suggest understanding this type of distribution as a process of creating a subaltern category of land ownership to facilitate governance of lands and people entangled in de facto land tenures. Although these titling initiatives have been largely ignored or dismissed as failures in the existing literature, we argue that they have had significant socio‐political effects. First, we argue that, despite the attempt to create a differentiated property regime, titling engenders a complex juridico‐legal terrain where the bounds of ‘subaltern citizenship’ are contested and negotiated. Second, we show that titling is better understood as a process that creates new social relations and new expectations of the normative relationship between state and citizen. Finally, we suggest that the practices and discourses of the land bureaucracy are a window into the production of spatial relations based on pressures from above and below. In sum, we show how a history of iterative titling has resulted in the entanglement of struggles over possession, personhood and citizenship for marginalized groups in the region.

Although there is growing recognition that extreme weather events pose significant challenges to Central American agriculture, little is known about what factors influence farmers’ implementation of adaptation practices. Such information is critical for the formulation of climate change policies. To fill this knowledge gap, we surveyed 446 maize and bean farmers in Guatemala and Honduras in order to (1) describe their perceptions toward exposure and sensitivity to droughts, hurricanes, floods, and torrential rains; (2) identify factors related to the use of adaptation measures following these events; and (3) describe the perceived effectiveness of the adaptations in reducing farmers’ vulnerability to extreme weather events. Only 19.3% of farmers had implemented adaptation measures in response to extreme weather events and, of these, 22% perceived that the adaptations were not effective at reducing their vulnerability. Factors that were positively related to the implementation of adaptation measures included perceptions of repeated exposure and increased frequency of extreme weather events, land ownership, access to training, aid received, and additional incomes (e.g., coffee production). Farmers need site-specific knowledge about which agricultural practices are effective at reducing their vulnerability to extreme weather events, as well as access to training, technical support, and aid after such events happen.

Pervasive threats of climate change and land degradation have compounded the inherent low farm productivity problem in sub‐Saharan Africa. Though sustainable agricultural intensification practices have been shown to improve the resilience of farm production in the face of these emerging threats, they suffer low adoption rates typical of any technology adoption in these regions. Recent evidence points to an emergence of large traders in smallholder grain markets of countries in sub‐Saharan Africa. Given their big financial and operational capacities, the hypothesis is that they can drive the elusive transformation in agri‐food systems by enhancing sustainable production and marketing for smallholder farmers. This study tests this hypothesis using a decade‐long large‐panel dataset from Kenya. A dynamic random effects Probit model and a control function approach are used to evaluate the dynamism in adopting sustainable agricultural inputs and the effect of large grain traders in enhancing the adoption of these inputs at the farm level. Results indicate that sales to large grain traders lead to higher adoption of inorganic fertilizer and improved seed, key agricultural intensification inputs. Land ownership is also shown to be a key success factor for entry into large‐grain‐trader markets. Lastly, the adoption of improved seed and organic manure is persistent across time, indicating state dependence in using these inputs. These results suggest that strategies to foster engagements between large grain traders and farmers can enhance the uptake of sustainable intensification inputs. Such strategies should be accompanied by efforts to improve access to these markets by resource‐poor farmers who are primarily smallholders.

This article examines the implications of urban growth on youth migration decisions in Nigeria. We use night light intensity data combined with Living Standards Measurement Study‐Integrated Surveys on Agriculture data, as an indicator of urban growth and associated economic opportunities. Employing alternative econometric approaches that exploit the spatial and temporal differences in urban growth as proxied by night light intensity, we find that urban growth in potential migrant destinations encourages youth migration. We also find heterogeneous responses to urban growth among various groups of youth as well as varying responses to different types of migration. Broadly, women and those youth with more education are more likely to migrate, while those in households with livestock are less likely to migrate. Often, however, the effects are complex and varied. For example, land and physical asset ownership encourage temporary migration; but greater land ownership discourages permanent migration, while physical assets have insignificant effects. Our results from Nigeria show that policy makers concerned about rural–urban youth exodus should adopt a differentiated, in terms of targets, and multidimensional policy approach to reap the benefits of urbanization while avoiding its negative consequences.

Under the “separation of three rights” policy, the impact of security of land operational rights on agricultural production efficiency has attracted much attention in recent years. Data envelopment analysis and mediation effect analysis were applied to 888 family farms run by new‐type agricultural operators from Songjiang to identify the mechanism of the effect of land operational rights security on agricultural production efficiency through long‐term investment. The results show that greater security of land operational rights generally increased agricultural production efficiency. Approximately 37.94 percent of the impact could be explained by long‐term investment. The results also indicate that significant heterogeneity exists in the effect of land operational rights security on agricultural production efficiency at various levels of the family farms’ efficiency distributions. It is suggested that government should legalize land operational rights and give them a status equal to those of households’ contractual rights and land ownership rights in China's future land tenure reform.

Land trafficking, responsible for the unprecedented rate of urbanization in many Latin American cities, is often conceptualized through corruption as ?abuses of public office for private gain?. While those involved in the practice rely at times on violence and illegality, their repertoire is sophisticated, allowing them to move in and out of legality as part of their cost?benefit calculations. In this article I argue that land trafficking is based on legalized corruption. I use an ethnographic approach to observe the strategic conduits that are technically embedded in, and opportunistically related to, different municipal processes to legalize illegality. I demonstrate how land traffickers use morphing possibilities between land tenure types (communal, private and government) and mimic development typologies that have gained legitimacy over time. I also show how conflicting, competing and humanitarian rationalities that characterize the state play a crucial role in promoting land trafficking, by grafting illegality and violations onto ?formal? practices.

Forests managed through peoples' participation can help to achieve a number of sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper, drawing data from four participatory forest management (PFM) projects in south‐eastern Bangladesh, explored: (a) the factors that influenced the outcomes of PFM; and (b) contribution of PFM towards achieving selected SDGs. The research used observation, semi‐structured household interviews, group discussions, vegetation survey and Ostromʼs design principles for data collection, Divergent forest conditions and factors in four PFM sites have had differential contribution to SDGs. Heterogeneity of user groups, insufficient coordination, absence of motivation, and land tenure conflicts had affected the attainment of SDGs. The PFM helped to achieve 9–11 SDGs comprising poverty reduction (Goal 1), improving food security (Goal 2), maintaining health and well‐being (Goal 3), enhancing childrensʼ education (Goal 4), fair access to jobs and committees (Goals 5 and 10), sources of clean drinking water (Goal 6), affordable energy for cooking (Goal 7), increased household economy (Goal 8), climate change through carbon sequestration (Goal 13), forest conservation (Goal 15), and partnerships with relevant institutions (Goal 16). In order to achieve SDGs, PFM could be viewed as an integral part of government development strategies, which needs sectoral coordination and integration of relevant policies.

Displacement is urbanizing. Urban violence increasingly contributes to displacement while a growing number of displaced people across the globe seeks refuge in cities. This article builds on original research in four Somali cities to explore the link between violence, displacement and urbanization. It identifies and comparatively explores three types of urban settlements of displaced people: urban camps at cities’ outskirts, inner‐city squatter settlements, and relocation areas. The focus of the analysis is on the political economy that underpins the establishment, maintenance and, at times, destruction of these settlements. The article shows that settlements of displaced people are embedded in varied practices of rent seeking which contribute to the commercialization of land and housing and lead to further land speculations. Urban reconstruction accelerates rent seeking and goes hand in hand with (mass‐scale) evictions of displaced people. The article also shows how land ownership is mobilized to retain political rights and citizenship. The findings outline the multiple ways urban land relations are intertwined with practices of sovereignty and citizenship, and attest to observations of a globally expanding rent economy. They also underscore the arbitrariness and violence imbricated in property relations.

Caqueta Department, in the Colombian Amazon, has a historical context of deforestation, education of poor quality, land tenure conflicts, and social violence. Thus, there is an urgent need to restore not only the ecosystem, but also the social fabric and the society–nature relationship. This article describes the process, impacts, obstacles, and lessons learned from a program of ecological restoration‐based education for local communities. During 2017, a group of 15 local people were selected and trained in ecological restoration to become, as we called them, “local scientists” (LS). After this educative process, these LS, together with researchers from social sciences and biology, developed an ecological restoration education program aimed to local peasants. The bioregional current of environmental education and significant learning theory were the educative theoretical frameworks used. The pedagogical contents were grouped into five main themes: (1) soils, (2) farm planning, (3) river basins, (4) monitoring, and (5) social organization. During 2018, between 8 and 70 peasants per community participated in the program. The last phase, carried out in 2019, consisted of the propagation of native forest species and outplantings by the program participants, to restore the landscape connectivity in a region considered to be high priority. Peasants built 71 nursery gardens on their farms with their own labor. They produced 400,000 seedlings of 21 native forest species, which were further planted on 277 farms over 550 ha. The implications of the pedagogical process of the program, the advances in restoration of degraded forests, and changes in society–nature relationships are discussed.

Issues with land ownership and engagement in forestry have been intractable problems that have long impeded wealth development among African Americans in the rural South. Over a 6-year period, an integrated outreach and research program, the Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program, implemented communitybased projects, built networks among relevant organizations, changed policies, and developed new knowledge to address these critical issues of environmental justice. In this paper, we discuss how anthropological practice was integrated into a program of community-based projects to create a platform for long-term change in land ownership, forest management, outreach practice, and policy environments. The results provide an example of how anthropological methods can contribute to social and institutional change by listening and documenting stories and through long-term engagement with a diverse coalition of researchers, practitioners, landowners, and funders.

The agrarian policy changes introduced in Cuba since 2007 have resulted in notable changes in land tenure. This has contributed to a shift to annual crops, substantial reductions in idle land and the partial (but still insufficient) recovery of non‐sugar agricultural output and yields. Despite these limited advances, the long‐term growth and development of Cuban agriculture requires more profound structural reforms. The experiences of China and Vietnam suggest that the (further) expansion of land tenure and property rights should be a logical first step to achieve this goal.

Invasive schemes involving the erection of land tenure boundaries are currently spreading quickly across vast areas throughout the globe, turning former unfenced forests and grasslands into closed-off parcels. These processes pose intriguing questions about the deep history of colonizing assemblages consisting of particular tenure practices, temporalities, and technologies, as well as their potential long-term repercussions. This article expands the temporal horizon applied to human-nonhuman configurations, endeavouring to focus beyond the ethnographic present or the event on trajectories as a particular spatial and temporal logic of fencing and the virtuality that ensues. It explores the earliest large-scale spread of land tenure boundaries across northern Europe, a process which occurred between the seventeenth and fifth centuries BCE, several millennia after Neolithization. Significant ebbs and flows in this process demonstrate how fencing exerts pressure on the future, a conspiring of forces and potentialities regarding what may or may not turn into long-term paths towards ever-increasing or enduring boundaries. By applying a 2,000-year timespan to the study of material ontologies, this article explores new interfaces between archaeology and new materialism which reveal the presence of formative yet dynamic processes and quasi-paths.

Wildlife corridors aim to promote species' persistence by connecting habitat patches across fragmented landscapes. Their implementation is limited by patterns of land ownership and complicated by differences in the jurisdictional and regulatory authorities under which lands are managed. Terrestrial corridor conservation requires coordination across jurisdictions and sectors subject to site-specific overlapping sources of legal authority. Mapping spatial patterns of legal authority concurrent with habitat condition can illustrate opportunities to build or leverage capacity for connectivity conservation. Streamside areas provide pragmatic opportunities to leverage existing policy mechanisms for riverine and terrestrial habitat connectivity across boundaries. Conservation planners and practitioners can make use of these opportunities by harmonizing actions for multiple conservation outcomes. We formulated an integrative, data-driven method for mapping multiple sources of legal authority weighted by capacity for coordinating terrestrial habitat conservation along streams. We generated a map of capacity to coordinate streamside corridor protections across a wildlife habitat gap to demonstrate this approach. We combined values representing coordination capacity and naturalness to generate an integrated legal-ecological resistance map for connectivity modeling. We then computed least-cost corridors across the integrated map, masking the terrestrial landscape to focus on streamside areas. Streamside least-cost corridors in the integrated, local-scale model diverged (∼25 km) from national-scale least-cost corridors based on naturalness. Spatial categories comparing legal- and naturalness-based resistance values by stream reach highlighted potential locations for building or leveraging existing capacity through spatial coordination of policy mechanisms or restoration actions. Agencies or nongovernmental organizations intending to restore or maintain habitat connectivity across fragmented landscapes can use this approach to inform spatial prioritization and build coordination capacity. Article impact statement: Combined mapping of legal authority and habitat condition reveals capacity to coordinate actions along streams for clean water and wildlife.Mapeo de la Autoridad Legal para los Corredores Terrestres de Conservación a lo Largo de Ríos Stahl et al. Resumen Los corredores de fauna buscan promover la persistencia de las especies al conectar los fragmentos de hábitat a lo largo de paisajes fragmentados. Su implementación está limitada por los patrones de propiedad de tierras y se complica con las diferencias entre las autoridades jurisdiccionales y regulatorias que las administran. La conservación por corredores terrestres requiere de coordinación entre las jurisdicciones y los sectores sujetos a fuentes de autoridad legal que se traslapan y que son específicas del sitio. El mapeo de los patrones espaciales de la autoridad legal simultánea a la condición del hábitat puede ilustrar oportunidades para construir o hacer uso de la capacidad para la conservación por conectividad. Las áreas adyacentes a los cauces fluviales proporcionan oportunidades prácticas para hacer uso de los mecanismos políticos existentes para la conectividad de hábitats ribereño y terrestre a través de las fronteras. Los planificadores y practicantes de la conservación pueden usar estas oportunidades al armonizar las acciones para múltiples resultados de conservación. Formulamos un método integrativo orientado por los datos para mapear las múltiples fuentes de autoridad legal ponderadas por la capacidad para coordinar la conservación de hábitats terrestres a lo largo de ríos. Generamos un mapa de la capacidad para coordinar los corredores de protección a lo largo de los vacíos en los hábitats de fauna para demostrar esta estrategia. Combinamos los valores por medio de la representación de la capacidad de coordinación y la naturalidad para generar un mapa de resistencia legal y ecológica para el modelado de la conectividad. Después, computamos los corredores de menor costo en todo el mapa integrado, enmascarando el paisaje terrestre para enfocarnos en las áreas adyacentes al cauce fluvial. Los corredores de menor costo adyacentes a los cauces dentro del modelo integrado de escala local difirieron (∼25 km) de los corredores de menor costo basados en la naturalidad a escala nacional. Las categorías espaciales que compararon los valores de resistencia basada en la legalidad y en la naturalidad por alcance del río resaltaron las localidades potenciales para la construcción o el uso de la capacidad existente por medio de la coordinación espacial de los mecanismos de política o de las acciones de restauración. Las agencias y organizaciones no gubernamentales con la intención de restaurar o mantener la conectividad del hábitat en un paisaje fragmentado pueden utilizar esta estrategia para informar la priorización espacial y construir la capacidad de coordinación.野生动物廊道旨在通过连接破碎景观中的栖息地斑块来提高物种的续存, 但其建设受限于土地所有制模式, 还会因管理土地的管辖及监管机构不同而更加复杂。陆地廊道保护需要多个司法管辖区和各地受到多种法定权威管制的部门之间的协调。将法定权威的空间格局与栖息地条件的分布地图相叠加, 将有利于开展廊道连接度保护的能力建设及利用。河流沿岸地区为现有的跨境河流及陆地栖息地连接度的相关政策机制的应用提供了实践机会。保护规划者和实施者可以利用这些机会协调多方行动以取得各方面的保护成效。我们制定了一个综合的、基于数据驱动的方法, 可以将协调河流沿岸陆地栖息地保护的能力作为权重来绘制多个法定权威来源的地图。为了演示这个方法, 我们绘制了一张协调跨越野生动物栖息地空缺地带的河流沿岸廊道保护力地图。我们将代表协调能力和自然特性的数值相结合, 生成了一张用于连接度建模的法律-生态抵抗力综合地图。随后, 我们忽略陆地景观, 将重点放在河流沿岸地区, 计算了整个综合地图的最低成本廊道。结果显示, 由局部尺度的综合模型得到的河流沿岸最低成本廊道与基于自然特性的国家尺度最低成本廊道偏离约 25 公里。河流沿岸基于法律和自然特性抵抗力比较的空间分类进一步展示了可以通过政策机制或恢复行动的空间协调来建设和利用现有能力的潜在地点。计划恢复或维持破碎景观之间的栖息地连接度的机构或非政府组织可以应用这种方法确定优先保护的空间并建立协调力。【翻译: 胡怡思; 审校: 聂永刚】.

This paper revisits the economic consequences of land fragmentation, taking seriously concerns regarding the exogeneity of fragmentation, its measurement and the importance of considering impacts in terms of welfare metrics. Using data that are well-suited to addressing these issues, the analysis finds that land fragmentation reduces food insecurity. This result is robust to how fragmentation is measured and to how exogeneity concerns are addressed. Further, the paper finds that land fragmentation mitigates the adverse effects of low rainfall on food security. This is because households with diverse parcel characteristics can grow a greater variety of crop types.

Invasive forest insects can induce tree mortality in two ways: (a) by directly harming trees; or (b) by influencing forest owners to pre‐emptively harvest threatened trees. This study investigates forest owners’ intentions to harvest trees threatened by invasive insects. Our first objective is to identify and characterize agent functional types (AFTs) of family forest owners in the northeastern United States using a set of contingent behaviour questions contained in a mail survey. We establish AFTs as a form of dimension reduction, effectively casting landowners into a typology in which each type (AFT) has distinct probabilities of tree harvesting in response to forest insects. Our analysis identifies three functional types of landowners: ‘Cutters’ (46% of respondents; high intent to harvest trees impacted by invasive forest insects), ‘Responsive Cutters’ (42% of respondents; intent sensitive to insect impact severity), and ‘Non‐cutters’ (12% of respondents; low intent to cut). Our second objective is to model AFT membership to predict the distribution of AFTs across the landscape. Predictors are chosen from a set of survey, geographic and demographic features. Our best AFT‐prediction model has three predictor variables: parcel size (hectares of forest), geographical region, and town‐level forested fraction. Application of the model provides a high‐resolution probability distribution of AFTs across the landscape. By coupling human and insect behaviour, our results allow for holistic assessments of how invasive forest insects disturb forests, inclusive of the management response to these pests. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Civilizations rise and fall based on the effectiveness of their socio‐political arrangements and institutions. The institutions that matter most are the laws and customs that govern 1) production and exchange of goods (trade), 2) land tenure and the distribution of the surplus associated with it, 3) the levying of taxes to provide public goods and services, and 4) the monetary systems adopted to facilitate such activities. If those institutions distribute the benefits of civilization equitably to all members of society, the result is likely to be peace and prosperity. However, if the rules of a society are designed to protect the interests of an elite, conflict is likely to ensue. Unrestricted trade across national borders (“free trade”) has the potential to produce socially beneficial outcomes, but it is not sufficient to overcome systemic injustices associated with flawed systems of land tenure, taxation, and monetary management. This article makes use of historical examples to examine trade in relation to the other institutions to show why just social arrangements must be considered an essential part of trade policy.

Private land comprises over half the land mass of the United States-dominating certain ecosystems and hosting large numbers of threatened and endangered species. Understanding privately owned properties is thus critically important to conservation, yet these lands remain understudied by conservation biologists. A key factor in this lack of research is the difficulty of gaining permission to access private lands. However, there has been almost no empirical work to offer guidance for natural scientists on this issue. Using a combination of mail surveys and interviews, we undertook one of the first empirical studies of landowner decisions regarding access to their private property for research, and we identified the primary drivers and deterrents. We found that natural scientists may have more success gaining access if the landowners are interested in learning about the research taking place, if they have previously allowed research on their property, if they have positive attitudes toward conservation, and if they have larger properties. We also found that many landowners allowed research out of a desire to be helpful. Conversely, landowners are less likely to allow research if they are concerned that doing so will restrict free use of their property. Landowner age, education, trust in science, and attitude toward the subject of study were not significant predictors of landowner decisions. By considering our findings when requesting access to properties and engaging with landowners during research, scientists can improve their chances of accessing properties, enhance landowner satisfaction with the experience, and increase the likelihood that landowners will be amenable to future requests to conduct research on their land. Global Change Center; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation [0407.17.058676]; National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [IOS17555055]; Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies [2017-2020-VTECH] Published version Global Change Center; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 0407.17.058676; National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: IOS17555055; Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Grant/Award Number: 2017-2020-VTECH

Regular contact with nature provides multiple health benefits for people, but biodiversity is declining fast in an urbanizing world. Biodiversity offsets are implemented to compensate for the negative residual impacts of economic development projects on biodiversity, but the impacts on people who stand to lose biodiversity from their local environment are rarely considered. Offsetting typically involves creating, restoring or protecting biodiversity values at a specified site that can be located some distance away from the development site. In this article, we explore whether any relocation of nature is occurring due to development and offsets in Western Australia (WA); a jurisdiction with one of the world's few spatially referenced and comprehensive public offset registers. We analyzed data from 158 projects within the WA Environmental Offsets Register. We compared the location of development sites within 50 km (the urban and peri urban zone) and 500 km (~one day's drive) of the central business district (CBD) of Perth with the associated offset sites. The development and offset process together can be considered to contribute to a loss of urban nature as the offset sites tended to be further away from urban areas than the associated development sites. The offset sites were also located in significantly lower population density areas. However, offsets increased the publicly accessible land area by changing land ownership and creating amenity benefit by improving nature values on public land. Nevertheless, it is unclear to what extent relocation of nature further from people is balanced by increased public access to nature. In order to maintain nature connectedness, ecosystem service delivery and environmental justice in cities, we argue offset policies should require spatial proximity between impact and offset sites.

Climate policies will need to incentivize transformative societal changes if they are to achieve emission reductions consistent with 1.5°C temperature targets. To contribute to efforts for aligning climate policy with broader societal goals, specifically those related to sustainable development, we identify the effects of climate mitigation policy on aspects of socioeconomic development that are known determinants of conflict and evaluate the plausibility and importance of potential pathways to armed conflict and political violence. Conditional on preexisting societal tensions and socioeconomic vulnerabilities, we isolate effects on economic performance, income and livelihood, food and energy prices, and land tenure as most likely to increase conflict risks. Climate policy designs may be critical to moderate these risks as different designs can promote more favorable societal outcomes such as equity and inclusion. Coupling research with careful monitoring and evaluation of the intermediate societal effects at early stages of policy implementation will be a critical part of learning and moderating potential conflict risks. Importantly, better characterizing the future conflict risks under climate policy allows for a more comprehensive comparison to the conflict risk if mitigation is not implemented and graver climate damages are experienced. This article is categorized under:The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Benefits of Mitigation, Climate policies that emphasize a fair distribution of benefits and compensation for unintended consequences will moderate the risks of violent conflict and future climate impacts.

Wetlands conservation within agricultural working lands is currently incentivized by land retirement programs and farm program eligibility criteria. Private ownership of the majority of agricultural lands within which these wetlands reside and growing opportunity costs facing landowners put wetlands at risk and motivate consideration of alternative policy options. A choice experiment was used to estimate likelihood of enrollment in a hypothetical working wetlands program. Landowners preferred shorter contract lengths, higher rental rates, midterm adjustment rather than a fixed‐rate contract, the right to conduct managed burning on their lands‐containing program wetlands, and no conservation practice requirement. Landowners with higher expressed valuation of conservation and who favor protecting wetlands, believe that small wetlands are important for their farms, who would not drain any of their wetlands, and raise ruminant animals are more inclined to participate in the program. Recommendations include consideration of program targeting during program design, practicing creative thought regarding program promotion, and exploration of no‐loss wetlands solutions, especially those market based.

As part of a national experiment, in 2008, Chengdu prefecture launched a series of property rights reforms, among them complete registration of all land and measures to ease transferability and eliminate labour market restrictions. A comparison of villages inside and outside the prefecture's border using a difference‐in‐difference approach suggests that the reforms have reduced administrative reallocations; aligned land use closer to economic incentives, mainly through market transfers; and stimulated enterprise startups. These results, most of which are more pronounced for villages closer to Chengdu city, illuminate the potential gains from factor market reform.

Balancing urban and rural development is an important political goal in China. The failure of rural land privatization has led to a low level of rural economic development and a vast property income gap between citizens and farmers. This paper illustrates the reasons for property income inequality from the perspective of the land tenure system and the dualistic household registration system. After evaluating the segmentation of the rural land market and the rigid nature of rural land assets, a population–land coupling urbanization mechanism is proposed. The paper argues that China’s land property system has externalized a high degree of geospatial and social urban and rural intertwinement. Major reform of the rural land property rights system is required to correct the situation (further development of the social security system and stable urbanization) and to increase property income potential for farmers.

Global biodiversity is decreasing rapidly. Parks and protected lands, while designed to conserve wildlife, often cannot provide the habitat protection needed for wide‐ranging animals such as the American black bear (Ursus americanus). Conversely, private lands are often working landscapes (e.g., farming) that have high human footprints relative to protected lands. In southwestern Alberta, road densities are highest on private lands and black bears can be hunted year‐round. On protected lands, road densities are lowest, and hunting is prohibited. On public lands under the jurisdiction of the provincial government (Crown lands), seasonal hunting is permitted. Population estimates are needed to calculate sustainable harvest levels and to monitor population trends. In our study area, there has never been a robust estimate of black bear density and spatial drivers of black bear density are poorly understood. We used non‐invasive genetic sampling and indices of habitat productivity and human disturbance to estimate density and abundance for male and female black bears in 2013 and 2014 using two methods: spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR) and resource‐selection functions (RSF). Land tenure best explained spatial variation in black bear density. Black bear densities for females and males were highest on parkland and lowest on Crown lands. Sex ratios were female‐biased on private lands, likely a result of lower harvests and movement of females out of areas with high male density. Synthesis and application: Both SECR and RSF methods clearly indicate spatial structuring of black bear density, with a strong influence based on how lands are managed. Land tenure influences the distribution of available foods and risk from humans. We emphasize the need for improved harvest reporting, particularly for non‐licensed hunting on private land, to estimate the extent of black bear harvest mortality.

Over the last three decades, few studies have been conducted to tackle the complexity and heterogeneity of Bangladesh farming systems. We address these research gaps with a new survey. Accordingly, a survey was conducted in North‐Western Bangladesh to understand how socio‐economic traits influence technology adoption and to identify and characterize key farm types. The survey was based on farm household characteristics, farm structure, farming practices and livestock as well as the economic performance of the farm. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to establish the different farm typologies, and the data set based on 27 variables was carefully analysed. The findings confirmed that the key variables that significantly affect the adoption of new agricultural technologies relate to age, farming experience, level of education of the household head, income, access to markets, land ownership, the proportion of hired labour, savings, food self‐sufficiency and income from off‐farm activities. Four main farm types were identified in the study area based on resource endowment and livelihood orientation. These are (1) well‐resourced farmers entirely dependent on agriculture and less reliant on off‐farm activities; (2) moderately resourced households, which are headed by an older male with greater farming experience and which are engaged in both on‐farm and off‐farm activities; (3) resource‐constrained households with cattle as the main livestock and with income generated by the sale of livestock products; and (4) severely resource‐constrained households which are headed by young farmers/men and where income is generated by off‐farm activities. These four farm categories represent the heterogeneity of farms in North‐West Bangladesh, and it is hoped that the development of this farm household typology will help particularly the extension service, to set up appropriate extension advice that will benefit the farming community.

Over 80% of pre‐settlement Iowa was a prairie landscape, but conversion and neglect has reduced that to less than 0.1% of the original 30 million acres (12 million hectares). Much of the remaining remnant prairie lies within the Loess Hills landform in western Iowa. Here I describe my experience as a landowner identifying and restoring a native Loess Hills prairie remnant overtaken by Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana). Archived aerial photographs confirm its native remnant status and have been used to monitor restoration progress. Both shearing and hand clearing of cedars have been undertaken at this site, providing an opportunity to compare patterns of ecosystem recovery within one remnant prairie. I find that cedar shearing, though effective at rapidly clearing a large swath of land, was associated with greater abundance of weedy and woody species compared to hand clearing that occurred more gradually over a longer period of time. However, consistent, targeted herbicide application to woody growth, as well as two prescribed fires, have led to good recovery and stabilization of the grassland with minimal annual recruitment of new brush. Photographs of faunal associations with Pasque flowers (Anemone patens) provide an indicator of the biodiversity on this prairie and suggest Pasque flowers, due to their abundance at this site, function as a keystone species that drives early spring ecosystem productivity. Based on my experience, I introduce a paradigm called restorative recreation to provide a framework for integrating ecosystem restoration activities with outdoor recreation to maximize benefits to personal health and well‐being, while improving the landscape for other species that share our common home.

Faingerch, Melina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Faingerch, Melina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Grupo de Estudio de Agroecosistemas y Paisajes Rurales. Mar del Plata, Argentina. Vallejos, María. Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA). La Estanzuela, Colonia, Uruguay. Vallejos, María. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Texeira, Marcos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos y Sistemas de Información. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Texeira, Marcos. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA). Laboratorio de Análisis Regional y Teledetección (LART). Buenos Aires, Argentina. Texeira, Marcos. CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA). Laboratorio de Análisis Regional y Teledetección (LART) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Texeira, Marcos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina. Mastrángelo, Matías Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina. Mastrángelo, Matías Enrique. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Grupo de Estudio de Agroecosistemas y Paisajes Rurales. Mar del Plata, Argentina. Conservation policies often promote land privatization to reduce incentives for deforestation. However, empirical evidence on the relationship between landtenure form and forest conservation outcomes is inconclusive. We combined key informant mapping and geospatial analyses to test the association between the area under tenure and the area deforested by extra-local private and local nonprivate agents in the Argentine Dry Chaco over four decades (1976–2016). The study area is a typical commodity production frontier within a global deforestation hotspot. We found a strong spatial and temporal coupling between the area under tenure and the area deforested by extra-local private agents from 1987 to 2006, when a 59% increase in the former was accompanied by a 508% increase in the latter. Local private agents maintained high levels of forest cover, similarly to local nonprivate agents. Our findings have implications for the adaptive design of the Forest Law in the Argentine Dry Chaco. grafs., tbls., mapas

Perpetual conservation easements are a popular method in some countries for addressing conservation goals. Landowner participation plays a key role in the development of these agreements. Despite the importance of involvement by landowners, no recent efforts have been made to synthesize information about the motivations for participation in perpetual easement programs. As a result, the literature lacks a framework to guide future case studies that would facilitate comparisons and generalizations. To this end, we reviewed 43 studies that investigated individual motivations to participate in perpetual conservation easements, and categorized motivations using Ostrom's social–ecological framework. We identified a strong tendency among studies to focus only on local‐scale processes involving landowners, with little consideration of broader‐scale influences. We also highlight several cross‐study trends and gaps in the literature where future research would prove valuable.