Does Fallowing Cultivated Land Threaten Food Security? Empirical Evidence from Chinese Pilot Provinces

Facing worsening problems, including the decreasing amount, quality, and deterioration of land ecosystems, cultivated land needs protective measures. China has been conducting an experimental fallow policy to deter these problems in five pilot provinces since 2016. However, inadequate and inconclusive studies of the impacts of fallow policy on food security have motivated the authors to fill this knowledge gap and to provide evidence for policy-making. Using the modified cultivated land pressure model, this study explores the cultivated land pressure at three scales (nation, province, and prefecture) to determine the capacity of feeding people using cultivated land, and examines the impact of fallowing cultivated land. There are three main findings. First, the cultivated land pressure in China continually decreased during the period of 2000–2016, and would remain in a decreasing trend during 2017–2020 even if the measures implemented doubled the fallowing scale every year. Second, the spatial patterns of the cultivated land pressure between the provincial and prefectural scale show a similar overview, with some nuanced disparities. Finally, the five pilot provinces show various amplitudes of variation in cultivated land pressure, ranging from 0.017% to 9.027% under three fallow scale scenarios. Thus, the results of this research support the argument that fallow policy will not threaten food security at a national and provincial scale, based on the current fallow scale and enlargement pace. The deeper understanding of the impact of fallow policy provides a scientific reference for policymaking and calls for further studies focusing on a more comprehensive measurement of cultivated land pressure and optimization fallow scale.

Biological control protects tropical forests

Biological control of invasive species can restore crop yields, and thus ease land pressure and contribute to forest conservation. In this study, we show how biological control against the mealybug Phenacoccus manihoti (Hemiptera) slowed deforestation across Southeast Asia. In Thailand, the newly-arrived mealybug caused an 18% decline in cassava yields over 2009-2010, a shortfall in national production and an escalation in the price of cassava products. This spurred an expansion of cassava cropping in neighboring countries from 713,000 ha in 2009 to >1 million ha by 2011: satellite imagery reveal 388%, 330%, 185% and 608% increases in peak deforestation rates in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam focused in cassava crop expansion areas. Following release of the host-specific natural enemy Anagyrus lopezi (Hymenoptera) in 2010, mealybug outbreaks were reduced, cropping area contracted and associated deforestation slowed by 31-94% in individual countries. When used with due caution and according to current guidelines, biological control offers broad benefits for people and the environment.

Land Issues in Shanxi Province before the War of Resistance against Japan (抗战前山西土地问题新探)

Using Gini coefficients of land distribution, the proportion of small landowners, and the size of landholdings of large landowners in rural Shanxi before the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, this article shows that, overall, land was not concentrated but rather fragmented among all classes and that small landowners (mainly owner-cultivator peasants and semi-owner-cultivator peasants) predominated. In addition, the data presented here indicate that tenancy relations were also relatively unproblematic. Most of the tensions and contradictions in rural Shanxi were between the government and the common people, who bore the dual burden of state oppression and heavy taxation. The intense population-to-land pressure also contributed to Shanxi’s rural poverty. 通过对山西部分农村地权分配基尼系数的测算和小土地所有者比例及大地户占地情况的统计，可知在抗战前的山西农村，土地在总体上是比较分散的分配在各个阶层的，以自耕农和半自耕农为代表的小土地所有制占据主导地位，在此基础上的租佃关系比较缓和。乡村社会的矛盾和冲突更多地体现在官民之间，即农民负担过重，受压榨太甚。此外，紧张的人地关系亦是造成农村普遍贫困的一个重要因素。

What rules to frame the development of new vineyards plots in Bandol DOP?

The vineyard of Bandol is confronted with an important land pressure in a very urbanized and very touristic area. The new parcels that appear at the northern edge of the vineyard must comply with a certain number of rules in order to maintain the quality and typicality of the wines.

New regulatory tool for the conservation of the geological heritage in France: the Prefectural Decree of the Protection of the Geotope (APPG). Application and feedback in the Yvelines department (Paris basin, Île-de-France)

In France, the conservation of geological heritage has a complex history that dates back to the middle of the 19th century. Two regulatory tools, “Site Classé”, established in 1906, and Natural Reserves, created in 1976, have served to protect geological sites in the past. Nonetheless, these tools are long to implement vis-à-vis to the rapid destruction of geological objects in the French territory. Due to this juridical void, the state created in 2015 two prefectural decrees for the protection of geological sites of interest. These tools allow the Prefect to: (i) determine a departmental list of geological sites of importance; (ii) define appropriate regulations for their conservation through the Prefectural Decree of the Protection of the Geotope (APPG). Their decentralised legal proceedings appear to be easy to administer, as they only require the advice of regional and departmental commissions as well as some local stakeholders. Our article reports the first enactment of the APPG in France, in a peri-urban to urban area, the Yvelines department. By relying on the programmes of Strategy of Creation of Protected metropolitan Areas (SCAP) and the National Inventory of the Geological Heritage (INPG), two geological sites of international value threatened by anthropic activities were selected for the APPG: the Lutetian fossil sites of Grignon and the Ferme de l’Orme. If successfully enacted, the APPG could prove advantageous because it is a tool adapted to the protection of geological objects and to its socio-economic and environmental context. However, after almost two years, the proceedings of the APPG have not been finalised. Optional yet beneficial steps, as well as unforeseen requests, delayed the process considerably. Given that the APPG do not confer protection to the geological sites during this period, their efficacy must be questioned in a fast-evolving region where land pressure is high and geological sites disappear quickly. However, the French juridical system has improved in the recent years in that it encourages Earth Sciences specialists to form part of local consultative instances (CSRPN, CDNPS) and thereby influence the decisions concerning the protection of these highly threatened sites.

TRANSFORMATION OF AFRICAN FARM HOUSEHOLDS: A SHORT SURVEY OF ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTIONS

This paper reviews the scant economic literature on the transformations of farming households under the influence of land pressure, market development or technical change. Theoretical as well as empirical contributions are summarized with a special attention to the African context.

Social Dynamics of Renewable Energy—How the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive Triggers Land Pressure in Tanzania

The European Union plays a globally influential role in environmental legislation, with policies and regulation rooted in particular norms. Through a narrative on regulatory capitalism, ecological modernization, and diffusion, we trace how the promotion of renewable energy in transport through subsidies, mandatory targets, and prescriptive criteria for liquid biofuels mobilize social forces for its market development. The study identifies prevailing norms, mechanisms of decision making, and the network of actors involved in this regulatory regime and also identifies where and through whom its expansion influenced decisions in Tanzania. The findings show how this regime emphasizes systematic eco-innovation of energy technologies, has a substitutable approach to natural capital, and subordinates social concerns to economic efficiency. The analysis shows how this regime mobilized a broader network of actors with similar interests, who mediated the political space of liquid biofuels in Tanzania in ways which conflicted with a domestic critique concerning land use.