Smart Land Governance: Towards a Conceptual Framework

peer reviewedGlobal environmental governance (GEG) is one of the world’s major attempts to address climate change issues through mitigation and adaptation strategies. Despite a significant improvement in GEG’s structural, human, and financial capital, the global commons are decaying at an unprecedented pace. Among the global commons, land has the largest share in GEG. Land use change, which is rooted in increasing populations and urbanization, has a significant role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a response, land governance and, consequently, good land governance, have arisen as normative concepts emerging from a series of success factors (notably economic development, environmental conservation, and social justice) to achieve greater sustainability. However, global land governance has shown little success in helping GEG due to the lack of intellectual and flexible thinking over governing the land sector. Consequently, reforming land governance “in a smart way” is one of the most critical actions that could contribute to achieving GEG goals. Hence, we propose a smart land governance (SLG) system that will be well addressed, understood, and modeled in a systemic and dynamic way. A smart system may be smart enough to adapt to different contexts and intellectual responses in a timely fashion. Accordingly, SLG is able to promote shared growth and solve many land sector problems by considering all principles of good land governance. Therefore, in order to enhance adaptive land governance systems, efficient land administration and management are required. This study’s outcomes will raise the comprehension of the problems of land management, providing an excellent framework to help land planners and policy-makers, as well as the development of strategic principles with respect to the principal multidimensional components of SLG

An integrated GEE and machine learning framework for detecting ecological stability under land use/land cover changes

Ecological stability (ES) is recognized as a crucial factor for sustainable development at global and regional scales. However, the importance of this factor was not considered significant. Hence, the main aim of this study was to introduce a new approach that focuses on detecting ES over the Maharloo watershed in Iran. To achieve this goal, we extracted land use and land cover (LULC) data from the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform by applying the random forest (RF) machine learning method, which obtained Kappa statistics of 0.85, 0.86, and 0.87 for the years 2002, 2013, and 2023, respectively. We identified both stable and unstable regions based on LULC changes and employed them using machine learning to forecast the ES. The most important predictors of ES were elevation, soil organic carbon index, precipitation, and salinity. The results of this research revealed that certain areas within the Maharloo watershed have experienced ecological instability in recent years, with gardens showing the highest percentage (60.65 %) of instability among all land-use categories. The performance and validation of our model suggest that the study results are reliable (AUC = 0.86). This study offers detailed maps of ES and trends, offering valuable insights for decision makers to support landscape conservation and restoration efforts. Overall, the findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the ecological dynamics of the Maharloo watershed and provide valuable insights for sustainable development and conservation efforts in other regions

Toward sustainable rural livelihoods approach: Application of grounded theory in Ghazni province, Afghanistan

peer reviewedThrough the implementation of policies, the sustainable livelihood strategy has been a strategic method for increasing rural economies and harmonizing political, sociocultural, economic, and environmental development. One of the important and critical techniques for attaining sustainable development is the ability to empower and create capacity among the poor in rural areas. Therefore, the aim of this study was to recognize and design a sustainable livelihood approach in the northern villages of Andar District, Ghazni province in Afghanistan. This study employed purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques to gather data. In this study, data analysis was carried out using ATLAS.TI program in three steps including axial coding, open coding, and selective coding. Based on the research, solutions for achieving a sustainable way of life include industrializing rural areas, employing solar energy, improving rural housing, maximizing the efficiency of production factors, growing native poultry in house yards, and growing eugenic dairy cows. Rural industrialization has the consequences such as creating diverse job opportunities, reducing dependence on the agricultural sector, reducing living costs, strengthening handicrafts, improving earning methods, and increasing poultry and farm products. This study is significant because the people of the studied villages were in a poor livelihood situation and this research provides numerous suggestions to improve their livelihood. In the present study, a complementary approach to sustainable livelihood has been identified and designed. Therefore, governmental and non-governmental organizations should take effective steps to reduce livelihood challenges and improve access to sustainable livelihood in the studied villages

Climate smart agriculture: Mitigation and adaptation strategies at the global scale

To address adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change, researchers in the agricultural field have extended numerous technologies and practices known as climate-smart agriculture (CSA). The CSA has led to an important debate on sustainable development in the agriculture system and climate among the scientific and civil society. However, one of the main challenges is incorporating the effects of climate change into agricultural development planning. For effective adaptation, the set of technologies that the CSA concept comprises requires measures of policies to decrease vulnerability and improve the capacity of producers, especially smallholders. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to expand and formalize the CSA conceptual framework by relying on the theory and concepts of global adaptation and mitigation strategies. Overall, the chapter provides some evidence of good practices and innovative strategies of upgrading the CSA approach to mitigation and adaptation strategies through development agencies and civil society, research and academia, etc

Agricultural land tenure system in Iran: An overview

peer reviewedIncreased demand for fertile lands has resulted from the exponential growth of the world's population in the twenty-first century. This mechanism results in widespread land tenure adjustments in a specific arrangement of rights, partnerships, and structures, which is in direct opposition to the existence of land as a small and necessary asset. While several attempts have been made to clarify land tenure conflicts, and scholars have studied them from different perspectives, there is still a significant gap in our knowledge of land tenure-related conflicts in the agricultural system and their production. As a result, this paper examined 85 pieces of literature (from 2013 to 2021) on the impact of land registration on the link between land tenure and agricultural productivity in Iran and throughout the world. Land tenure arrangements in Iran are evolving as a result of land demand and improvements in agricultural techniques, according to the results. Furthermore, each land tenure scheme can include a variety of land types, each with its own set of rules and patterns for use. The findings showed that further research with a combined locally-set methodology is required to better understand any relationship(s) between land tenure system (LTS) and agricultural production (AP), in addition to highlighting the value of land knowledge updating and the efficiency of local land management institutions. This study concluded that explaining land-related conflicts, mechanisms of power, and legal actions are important steps toward guiding the consequences of the growth of agricultural LTS in Iran, which leads to effective solutions at the area level

Genetically modified crops in developing countries : savior or traitor?

Genetic modification has been used as a method to produce higher yields for consumption. However, the impact of genetic modification technology on agriculture in developing countries at the farm level often remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the environmental, social and economic consequences of genetically modified (GM) crops at the farm level in developing countries. Using a meta-analysis on 40 empirical studies conveyed in developing countries, this article reports farmers' reflections on the influences of GM crops in the framework of sustainability, including environmental, economic, and social impacts. Results indicate that genetic modification technology has been able to enhance the socio-economic and environmental efficiency of farmers in developing countries. This study showed genetic modification as a lifesaving technology in the short term, while in the long term, the sustainability of genetic modification production is reduced, according to farmers. Furthermore, this meta-analysis study showed that legal and administrative challenges and less access to relevant information are the main dilemmas of farmers dealing with GM crops in developing countries. Accordingly, the study concluded that conducting meta-analysis can provide useful information for policy makers who plan for the development of GM production