Attempts to alleviate land degradation and water scarcity in arid/semi-arid regions of India have historically been carried out within the ambit of government schemes implemented disparately by concerned departments. These sectoral methods are being increasingly replaced by a watershed-based approach in which local communities are encouraged to assume ownership of development programs, albeit w...

Expansion of agriculture on new lands is recognized as one of the most significant human alterations to the global environment. Although food and fiber production are essential ecosystem services (ES) to humankind, the land use change process implicates in the adoption of intensive agricultural practices directly related to the depletion of a wide range of ES at local, regional and global scale...

The adoption and adaptation of enclosures in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of sub-Saharan Africa is driven and sustained by a combination of factors. However, reviews indicate that these factors cannot be generalized, as they tend to be case specific. A study was therefore conducted to explore the history and reasons for enclosure establishment in Chepareria, a formerly degraded communal ra...

as scholarships for training for almoners' work. The Council consider that not enough women are entering upon this work to fill the vacancies that are likely to occur in the future. Hitherto, indeed, the demand for trained almoners has always exceeded the supply. This is no doubt explained by the fact that the inherent qualities that go to the making of a good almoner are somewhat exceptional. ...

This paper quantifies the welfare impact of a permanent increase in the level of per capita income brought about by a temporary growth effect following financial liberalization. We find that a lion’s share of the welfare benefits from financial liberalization accrue over relatively short horizons, and in the early years after the policy is implemented. Evaluating welfare gains from liberalizati...

A number of scientific methodologies have been used in assessing land degradation globally. However, the use of local knowledge in eliciting indicators of land degradation has seen little application by scientists and policy makers. Researchers believe the two approaches could complement each other to provide a holistic assessment of land degradation. The objective of the study was to find out ...

B etween 1900 and 2010, the global volume of natural resources used in buildings and transport infrastructure increased 23-fold (1). Sand and gravel are the largest portion of these primary material inputs (79% or 28.6 gigatons per year in 2010) and are the most extracted group of materials worldwide, exceeding fossil fuels and biomass (2). In most regions, sand is a common-pool resource, i.e.,...