All publications and documents

The words of Alison Anderson, Papunya elder and recently retired Australian politician, resonate. They resonate with all indigenous peoples whose relationship with their land is often more profoundly intimate than that of Western or eurocentric societies, and they resonate with a geologist. For Aboriginal people and geologists, the land tells stories – in different ways, of course, but the…

To achieve the ambitious goals of alleviating poverty, securing food and water supplies, and protecting the natural resource base, we need to recognize the inter-connectedness of the factors driving land degradation, so that solutions can be taken to scale, transforming management practices for millions of land users. An analysis of the critical barriers and incentives to achieve scaling up…

The annual costs of land degradation are thought to be in the order of 10-17% of global gross domestic product. The very high costs of land degradation makes large-scale ecological restoration a global imperative. This paper documents the areas wherein, and manners whereby, large-scale ecological restoration has the potential to be an integral component of the sustainable management of natural…

Although the name “drylands” can diminish people’s appreciation of them, under different guises this land is often well-known and valued. Few doubt the importance to biodiversity of the world’s savannahs for example, or the value of fine fibers such as cashmere and alpaca wool, which are produced on dry grasslands. In countries of Central Asia, southern Europe and in the United States the…

The agrifood business (production, processing, transportation, and commercialization to final consumers) has changed dramatically in the last fifty years. Rather than being carried out via linear supply chains, agrifood business is now conducted in complex networks spanning the globe. It can, in other words, be said that modern agrifood business is conducted under the form of Global Value…

This working paper examines the role of rural-urban linkages in the context of sustainable development and environmental protection, analyzing how harnessing linkages between urban and rural areas can potentially reduce spatial disparities. Emphasis is placed on examining the flows of people, goods, money and information between rural and urban areas, as well as upon the linkages that form…