Место издания:Wageningen UR, Communication Services The Netherlands, Wageningen
Первая страница:239
Аннотация:Global food security is jeopardized by the increasing land degradation, which is especially harmful in the poorest countries of the world. Several studies showed on the global and national levels that implementation of sustainable land management practices could significantly reduce the negative effects of land degradation. However, possible impacts and the costs of sustainable land management practices are site-specific, and still much research should be done at a regional and farm level to provide evidence-based recommendations to the decision-makers and farmers throughout the world. In this paper, we present a case study of the estimation of the prices for action and inaction in addressing land degradation in Rostov region, south of European Russia, and a farm located there. Our results showed that in the period 2000-2010, some part of perennial plantations, pastures, and forest areas was been transformed and began to be used for agricultural crops in the studied area. This resulted in a slight degradation with regard to ecosystem services. In the next 30 years, taking action, according to our estimates, will cost $ 37 million, but the cost of inaction will be 42% lower - $ 21.7 million. Calculations indicated that economic specialization in the area was been selected correctly and there is no significant influence of transformation of land on the degradation process with regard to ecosystem services. The use of sustainable land management practices could lead to a long-term positive effect on soil fertility and improve soil ecosystem services. The lessons learned from this study are: the methodology of the economics of land degradation can be successfully applied in peculiar socioeconomic conditions of Russia, but the lack of harmonization of methods and indicators brings uncertainty to quantitative assessment.