Assessing the resilience of communities is assuming greater importance at a time of global economic upheaval, climatic and socio-demographic change. The past 10-15 years have seen a significant increase in the number of studies addressing resilience issues at community level from a variety of perspectives, and although the resilience of communities in dealing with disturbances feature strongly in these studies, less work appears to have been undertaken at the interface between community resilience and land degradation. In addition, little attention has been paid to land degradation, desertification risk and community resilience at the forest-community interface, despite the fact that forest ecosystems represent one of the most important terrestrial biomes in terms of the ecosystem services and socioeconomic benefits that they provide. Building on existing community resilience literature, which highlights the importance of various socio-economic and political drivers for understanding community resilience, this study analyses how economic, institutional, social, cultural and natural factors at community level affect the ability of communities to adapt and adjust decision-making pathways towards resilience. The study focuses on the municipality of Gorgoglione (Basilicata, Italy), a typical Mediterranean forest and shrubland socioecological system characterised by a mixture of agricultural and forest landscapes, and prone to land degradation issues linked to both anthropogenic (deforestation, overgrazing, forest fires) and natural (soil erosion, droughts, climate aridity) causes. A case study approach is used, drawing on quantitative and qualitative data across spatial levels and temporal scales to examine the complex interrelationships between community resilience, forest ecosystems and land degradation.

Climate change has taken centre stage in European and international politics. It represents one of the most serious threats to international security and the well-being of human kind, as evidenced in the fourth assessment report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. 1 At the European level, climate change has become a major agenda item regularly discussed by the European Council of EU heads of state and government. Internationally, the issue has become one of ''high politics''. In 2007, it was a top priority of the G-8 Summit, and both the United Nations Security Council and the UN General Assembly placed it high on their agendas. Overall, there is hardly any high-level political encounter in which the issue is not discussed. 2 This article reviews the phenomenon of EU leadership on climate change. Since the early 1990s, the EU has increasingly established itself as an international leader in global environmental governance in general, including with respect to the protection of the ozone layer, biotechnology, biodiversity and related UN reform. 3 EU leadership has been most prominent in the paradigmatic area of climate change. In the following, it is argued, first, that the EU has, over time, considerably improved its leadership record. This improvement is then linked to advances in EU domestic climate and energy policies and recent shifts in the European and international politics of climate change. The major challenges that the EU needs to address if it wants to remain in the lead during the negotiations on a new international agreement on climate change launched in Bali at the end of 2007 (and beyond) are identified. In conclusion, it is argued that relatively

Implementation of socially acceptable and environmentally desirable solutions to soil erosion challenges is often limited by (1) fundamental gaps between the evidence bases of different disciplines and (2) an implementation gap between science-based recommendations, policy makers and practitioners. We present an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to support co-design of land management policy tailored to the needs of specific communities and places in degraded pastoral land in the East African Rift System. In a northern Tanzanian case study site, hydrological and sedimentary evidence shows that, over the past two decades, severe drought and increased livestock have reduced grass cover, leading to surface crusting, loss of soil aggregate stability, and lower infiltration capacity. Infiltration excess overland flow has driven (a) sheet wash erosion, (b) incision along convergence pathways and livestock tracks, and (c) gully development, leading to increased hydrological connectivity. Stakeholder interviews in associated sedenterising Maasai communities identified significant barriers to adoption of soil conservation measures, despite local awareness of problems. Barriers were rooted in specific pathways of vulnerability, such as a strong cattle-based cultural identity, weak governance structures, and a lack of resources and motivation for community action to protect shared land. At the same time, opportunities for overcoming such barriers exist, through openness to change and appetite for education and participatory decision-making. Guided by specialist knowledge from natural and social sciences, we used a participatory approach that enabled practitioners to start co-designing potential solutions, increasing their sense of efficacy and willingness to change practice. This approach, tested in East Africa, provides a valuable conceptual model around which other soil erosion challenges in the Global South might be addressed.

Increased soil erosion is one of the main drivers of land degradation in East Africa's agricultural and pastoral landscapes. This wicked problem is rooted in historic disruptions to co-adapted agro-pastoral systems. Introduction of agricultural growth policies by centralised governance resulted in temporal and spatial scale mismatches with the complex and dynamic East African environment, which subsequently contributed to soil exhaustion, declining fertility and increased soil erosion. Coercive policies of land use, privatisation, sedentarisation, exclusion and marginalisation led to a gradual erosion of the indigenous social and economic structures. Combined with the inability of the new nation-states to provide many of the services necessary for (re)developing the social and economic domains, many communities are lacking key components enabling sustainable adaptation to changing internal and external shocks and pressures. Exemplary is the absence of growth in agricultural productivity and livelihood options outside of agriculture, which prohibits the absorption of an increasing population and pushes communities towards overexploitation of natural resources. This further increases social and economic pressures on ecosystems, locking agro-pastoral systems in a downward spiral of degradation. For the development and implementation of sustainable land management plans to be sustainable, authorities need to take the complex drivers of increased soil erosion into consideration. Examples from sustainable intensification responses to the demands of population increase, demonstrate that the integrity of locally adapted systems needs to be protected, but not isolated, from external pressures. Communities have to increase productivity and diversify their economy by building upon, not abandoning, existing linkages between the social, economic and natural domains. Locally adapted management practices need to be integrated in regional, national and supra-national institutions. A nested political and economic framework, wherein local communities are able to access agricultural technologies and state services, is a key prerequisite towards regional development of sustainable agro-pastoral systems that safeguard soil health, food and livelihood security.

This study analyses social, economic and political “lock-ins” for understanding community resilience and land degradation. The study focuses on lock-ins from within communities, using four case study communities in Italy affected by land degradation. The analysis highlights the complex interrelationships between various lock-ins, and suggests that the communities are on declining resilience pathways that may lead to increasing difficulties in addressing land degradation issues in future

The temporal speeds and spatial scales at which ecosystem processes operate are often at odds with the scale and speed at which natural resources such as soil, water and vegetation are managed those. Scale mismatches often occur as a result of the time-lag between policy development, implementation and observable changes in natural capital in particular. In this study, we analyse some of the transformations that can occur in complex forest-shrubland socio-ecological systems undergoing biophysical and socioeconomic change. We use a Multiway Factor Analysis (MFA) applied to a representative set of variables to assess changes in components of natural, economic and social capitals over time. Our results indicate similarities among variables and spatial units (i.e. municipalities) which allows us to rank the variables used to describe the SES according to their rapidity of change. The novelty of the proposed framework lies in the fact that the assessment of rapidity-to-change, based on the MFA, takes into account the multivariate relationships among the system's variables, identifying the net rate of change for the whole system, and the relative impact that individual variables exert on the system itself. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of fast and slow variables on the evolution of socio-economic systems based on simplified multivariate procedures applicable to vastly different socio-economic contexts and conditions. This study also contributes to quantitative analysis methods for long-established socio-ecological systems, which may help in designing more effective, and sustainable land management strategies in environmentally sensitive areas.

No abstract

Based on evidence collected in 22 village communities from nine study sites situated in Spain, Italy, Greece, Morocco and China, this study analyses the complex interlinkages between social memory, community resilience and land degradation. Social memory is seen as an important explanation regarding the ability of a local community to manage and cope with land degradation. Emphasis is placed on the importance of three components of social memory—rites, traditions and social learning processes—for shaping community resilience in coping with land degradation processes. The study argues that although there are subtle differences between the 22 village communities, the loss of social memory and learning pathways associated with managing land degradation is emerging as a critical factor constraining stakeholders from effectively responding to land degradation issues. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.