Published with partial support from the Moriah Fund. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of ICRW or the Moriah Fund. INTRODUCTION Environmental degradation and natural resource loss are widespread, growing problems throughout the world. Topsoil is being lost at the rate of 24 million tons per year. Arable land is declining by an estim...

Currently, forests cover about one-third of the world’s land area, just under 4 billion hectares (ha) (FAO, 2006a). It is estimated that 70% of the world’s forests are natural (self-generating), 20% semi-natural (regeneration with some degree of human intervention), 10% anthropogenic (established or significantly transformed by humans) (MA, 2005). 75% of the world’s forests are located in two b...

The adoption of genetically modified (GM) crops has increased dramatically during the last 3 years, and currently over 52 million hectares of GM crops are planted world-wide. Approximately 41 million hectares of GM crops planted are herbicide-resistant crops, which includes an estimated 33.3 million hectares of herbicide-resistant soybean. Herbicide-resistant maize, canola, cotton and soybean a...

Since the first commercial release of genetically modified (GM, also referred to as genetically engineered, GE) crops in the middle of 1990s, the research and development of transgenic biotechnology has made dramatic progress. To date, global cultivation area of GM crops has exceeded 120 million hectares (James, 2009) with extensive cultivation of herbicide-tolerant soybean and canola, insect-r...

Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees describe the ‘ecological footprint’ (i.e. the ecological capacity, measured in hectares of biologically productive land, needed to supply a given person’s consumption of natural resources and absorb their waste) as a conception of environmental sustainability, and have accumulated significant data to measure the footprints of nations, cities and even individu...

More than 50 heads of state gathered late last month to look at ways of policing the extraordinary 'land grab' that has seen richer countries buy up at least 20 million hectares of farmland in Africa in the last two years. The United Nations is drawing up a 'code of conduct' in an effort to slow what has been described as a new scramble for Africa, while agricultural experts are calling for a n...

This study used information about a farm in the Victorian Mallee during the period 1998 – 2005 to analyse the profitability of investing in Precision Agriculture and Site-Specific Crop Management technology and farming systems. Two equipment guidance systems were evaluated. Both guidance systems earned more than 8 percent real return p.a. on the extra capital invested. A Real-Time Kinetic (RTK)...

Calakmul is a large expanse of tropical forest that is continuous with the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén Province of Northern Guatemala. Calakmul biosphere reserve covers an area of 723,000 hectares, but is attached to two state reserves Balam-kim and Balam-ku which run the entire length of the western side of the biosphere. The total area covered by these connected reserves is 1,200,000 ...

The North Sea washes up on some of the lowest-lying coastlines around the world. The standard response to protect land from its ravages has been to build solid dykes between land and sea. And many parts of the Netherlands have been more ambitiously reclaimed from the North Sea by such means. But, in the face of climate change and rising sea levels, researchers have been thinking about other mec...