Sustainable land use

Current land use systems are severely challenged by global environmental change. To achieve long-term food security and to preserve ecosystems from deterioration and collapse, locally adapted practices of land use employing natural resources in a sustainable way are needed.

The Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management applies a systemic approach to its research to understand benefits and challenges of different agricultural land use practices. When studying farming systems such as irrigation agriculture, agroforestry and silvo-pastoral systems, we take an integrative perspective on complex ecological and societal implications occurring on various scales.

For sustainable land use it is necessary to take not only conservation needs and questions of sustainable resource use into account, but also to integrate perspectives of smallholders and other stakeholders involved, to study local knowledge systems and to understand social implications of land use changes.

Projects related to sustainable land use: