Multifaceted Impacts of Sustainable Land Management in Drylands: A Review

Maria Jose Marques, Gudrun Schwilch, Nina Lauterburg, Stephen Crittenden, Mehreteab Tesfai, Jannes Stolte, Pandi Zdruli, Claudio Zucca, Thorunn Petursdottir, Niki Evelpidou, Anna Karkani, Yasemen AsliYilmazgil, Thomas Panagopoulos (), Eshetu Yirdaw, Markku Kanninen, Jose Luis Rubio, Ute Schmiedel and Adrian Doko
Additional contact information
Maria Jose Marques: Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Autonomous University of Madrid, C/Francisco Tomás y Valiente, 2, Madrid 28049, Spain
Gudrun Schwilch: Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 10, Bern 3012, Switzerland
Nina Lauterburg: Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 10, Bern 3012, Switzerland
Stephen Crittenden: Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, 325 Morrison Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Mehreteab Tesfai: Norwegian Institute of Bio-economy Research (NIBIO), Frederik, A.Dahls, vei 20, Ås N-1430, Norway
Jannes Stolte: Norwegian Institute of Bio-economy Research (NIBIO), Frederik, A.Dahls, vei 20, Ås N-1430, Norway
Pandi Zdruli: International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Via Ceglie 9, Valenzano 7001, Italy
Claudio Zucca: International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box, Amman 950764, Jordan
Thorunn Petursdottir: Department of Research and Development, Soil Conservation Service of Iceland (SCSI), Gunnarsholt, Hella 851, Iceland
Niki Evelpidou: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens 15784, Greece
Anna Karkani: Faculty of Geology and Geoenvironment, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens 15784, Greece
Yasemen AsliYilmazgil: General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion, Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, Ankara 6000, Turkey
Eshetu Yirdaw: Department of Forest Sciences, Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI), University of Helsinki, P.O.Box 27, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland
Markku Kanninen: Department of Forest Sciences, Viikki Tropical Resources Institute (VITRI), University of Helsinki, P.O.Box 27, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland
Jose Luis Rubio: Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación—CIDE, CSIC, Carretera Moncada-Naquera Km 4.5, Moncada (Valencia) 46113, Spain
Ute Schmiedel: Research Unit Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants, Biocentre Klein Flottbek, University of Hamburg, Ohnhorststrasse 18, Hamburg D-22609, Germany
Adrian Doko: International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Via Ceglie 9, Valenzano 7001, Italy

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 2, 1-34

Abstract: Biophysical restoration or rehabilitation measures of land have demonstrated to be effective in many scientific projects and small-scale environmental experiments. However circumstances such as poverty, weak policies, or inefficient scientific knowledge transmission can hinder the effective upscaling of land restoration and the long term maintenance of proven sustainable use of soil and water. This may be especially worrisome in lands with harsh environmental conditions. This review covers recent efforts in landscape restoration and rehabilitation with a functional perspective aiming to simultaneously achieve ecosystem sustainability, economic efficiency, and social wellbeing. Water management and rehabilitation of ecosystem services in croplands, rangelands, forests, and coastlands are reviewed. The joint analysis of such diverse ecosystems provides a wide perspective to determine: (i) multifaceted impacts on biophysical and socio-economic factors; and (ii) elements influencing effective upscaling of sustainable land management practices. One conclusion can be highlighted: voluntary adoption is based on different pillars, i.e . external material and economic support, and spread of success information at the local scale to demonstrate the multidimensional benefits of sustainable land management. For the successful upscaling of land management, more attention must be paid to the social system from the first involvement stage, up to the long term maintenance.

Keywords: drylands; restoration; rehabilitation; land management; participatory-approach; WOCAT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/2/177/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/2/177/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:2:p:177-:d:64176

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().