•Research on sustainable land use in agriculture during last 30 years is analysed.•Four main research lines detected: agronomy, water, land use and sustainable development.•The development of ...production systems based on circular economy models is needed.•Further knowledge about stakeholders' preferences and attitudes is required.•Management practices and crops must be adapted to the new climatic conditions.
Currently, 42% of the world's population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, and agriculture drives the economy of most developing countries. Therefore, human life on our planet depends on its sustainability. Research on sustainable land use in agriculture has been gaining increasing relevance since the term ‘sustainable development’ was coined with the Brundtland Report in 1987. The objective of this study is to analyse the evolution of this line of research worldwide to date. A bibliometric analysis of the existing articles from the period 1988–2017 was conducted. The results show that this topic has been gaining relevance in land use studies. Extensive cooperative networks and a high level of international collaboration exist between the different agents involved in land use studies. The analysis of key words has shown four main research lines of inquiry: agronomy, which focuses on soil processes and the study of different crops; sustainable water management for irrigation; the analysis of changes in land use, especially as related to the increase in population, the need for supplies, and the expansion of urban land; and sustainable development in new forms of agrarian management, such as organic farming, permaculture, and multifunctional systems. The regions serving as the object of these studies are mainly the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Western Europe. This highlights a research gap in regions such as Russia, the Middle East, and Africa. Future research should examine the development of circular economic systems in agricultural activity, perceptions and preferences of stakeholders, inclusion of the sustainability objective in planning urban spaces, improvement in irrigation water use efficiency, use of nonconventional water sources in agriculture, and development of management practises and crops that can adapt to the impact of climate change.
Abstract
Food security still becomes a big challenge nowadays, especially since the spreading of Covid-19 pandemic. Facts show that a large-scale social restriction policy in Indonesia limits the ...movement of logistics to distribute food. This situation tends to worsen due to the limited number of agricultural lands. Environmental or ecological sustainability in agriculture activity is also rarely considered, making the land poor for agriculture. Permaculture can be a viable approach to achieve sustainable food security, by creating a cultivated ecosystem which provides necessary human needs along with natural regeneration.
Kuttab Al Fatih
(KAF) Islamic School was chosen as the case study because contextually KAF has the potential to implement permaculture to its landscape development. Therefore, this paper discusses how to implement permaculture to KAF landscape development. This research was conducted with a literature review, field survey, and case study to determine permaculture design considerations within the selected project. The findings show that the permaculture landscape encourages the people to serve their needs (including foods) within the site without harming the environment. Through mimicking nature and adapting the pattern, permaculture system can create a sustainable ecosystem for people and other creatures to live in harmony. The implementation of permaculture at KAF should consider the Islamic values and the prohibitions in order the implementation does not conflict with user’s beliefs. User’s food needs, procurement, and human resources become another factor that should be considered to ensure the permaculture implementation is visible at KAF since the users are not staying at school.
The term sustainability is important for the comprehension of how Environmental Education and practices of Permaculture can be used as tools of education. Permaculture is characterized as a system ...for planning and creation, in a harmonic manner, of productive, sustainable and ecologic environments. The goal of this paper is to evaluate permaculture’s practices efficiency as a tool of environmental education and mechanism of integration between the human being and the environment. The project was developed in a school of municipal education system located in the rural part of Ituiutaba, State of Minas Gerais, involving 40 people directly. Students and staff participated taking to school plants that are part of their everyday life, in other words, that have cultural value for their community. The integration between students, staff and the remaining residents was noticed mainly when everyone got involved in developing the vegetable garden, showing the aggregating potential through joint actions that such activities allow. The unity and estimation of one’s own living place bring the feeling of belonging and the improvement of ambiance, important aspects for the improvement of people’s, that live far from urban centers, life quality.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
A review is presented of the manufacture and use of different types of plastic, and the effects of pollution by these materials on animal, human and environmental health, insofar as this is known. ...Since 2004, the world has made as much plastic as it did in the previous half century, and it has been reckoned that the total mass of virgin plastics ever made amounts to 8.3 billion tonnes, mainly derived from natural gas and crude oil, used as chemical feedstocks and fuel sources. Between 1950 and 2015, a total of 6.3 billion tonnes of primary and secondary (recycled) plastic waste was generated, of which around 9% has been recycled, and 12% incinerated, with the remaining 79% either being stored in landfills or having been released directly into the natural environment. In 2015, 407 million tonnes (Mt) of plastic was produced, of which 164 Mt was consumed by packaging (36% of the total). Although quoted values vary, packaging probably accounts for around one third of all plastics used, of which approximately 40% goes to landfill, while 32% escapes the collection system. It has been deduced that around 9 Mt of plastic entered the oceans in 2010, as a result of mismanaged waste, along with up to 0.5 Mt each of microplastics from washing synthetic textiles, and from the abrasion of tyres on road surfaces. However, the amount of plastics actually measured in the oceans represents less than 1% of the (at least) 150 Mt reckoned to have been released into the oceans over time. Plastic accounts for around 10% by mass of municipal waste, but up to 85% of marine debris items – most of which arrive from land-based sources. Geographically, the five heaviest plastic polluters are P.R. China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, which between them contribute 56% of global plastic waste. Larger, primary plastic items can undergo progressive fragmentation to yield a greater number of increasingly smaller 'secondary' microplastic particles, thus increasing the overall surface area of the plastic material, which enhances its ability to absorb, and concentrate, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), with the potential to transfer them to the tissues of animals that ingest the microplastic particles, particularly in marine environments.
Although fears that such microparticles and their toxins may be passed via food webs to humans are not as yet substantiated, the direct ingestion of microplastics by humans via drinking water is a distinct possibility – since 92% of samples taken in the USA and 72% in Europe showed their presence – although any consequent health effects are as yet unclear. Foodstuffs may also become contaminated by microplastics from the air, although any consequent health effects are also unknown. In regard to such airborne sources, it is noteworthy that small plastic particles have been found in human lung tissue, which might prove an adverse health issue under given circumstances. It is also very striking that microplastics have been detected in mountain soils in Switzerland, which are most likely windborne in origin. Arctic ice core samples too have revealed the presence of microplastics, which were most likely carried on ocean currents from the Pacific garbage patch, and from local pollution from shipping and fishing. Thus, sea ice traps large amounts of microplastics and transports them across the Arctic Ocean, but these particles will be released into the global environment when the ice melts, particularly under the influence of a rising mean global temperature.
While there is a growing emphasis toward the substitution of petrochemically derived plastics by bioplastics, controversy has arisen in regard to how biodegradable the latter actually are in the open environment, and they presently only account for 0.5% of the total mass of plastics manufactured globally. Since the majority of bioplastics are made from sugar and starch materials, to expand their use significantly raises the prospect of competition between growing crops to supply food or plastics, similarly to the diversion of food crops for the manufacture of primary biofuels. The use of oxo-plastics, which contain additives that assist the material to degrade, is also a matter of concern, since it is claimed that they merely fragment and add to the environmental burden of microplastics; hence, the European Union has moved to restrict their use.
Since 6% of the current global oil (including natural gas liquids, NGLs) production is used to manufacture plastic commodities – predicted to rise to 20% by 2050 – the current approaches for the manufacture and use of plastics (including their end-use) demand immediate revision. More extensive collection and recycling of plastic items at the end of their life, for re-use in new production, to offset the use of virgin plastic, is a critical aspect both for reducing the amount of plastic waste entering the environment, and in improving the efficiency of fossil resource use. This is central to the ideology underpinning the circular economy, which has common elements with permaculture, the latter being a regenerative design system based on 'nature as teacher', which could help optimise the use of resources in town and city environments, while minimising and repurposing 'waste'. Thus, food might be produced more on the local than the global scale, with smaller inputs of fuels (including transportation fuels for importing and distributing food), water and fertilisers, and with a marked reduction in the use of plastic packaging. Such an approach, adopted by billions of individuals, could prove of immense significance in ensuring future food security, and in reducing waste and pollution – of all kinds.
Permaculture-based social movements proliferate as a response to environmental challenges, a way to pursue the 'good life', and a vision of a more harmonious way to be in and belong to the world. ...Ecovillages, bioregionalisation, and the Transition (Town) movement all apply permaculture principles in designing social systems. Core to permaculture is designing based on, and in harmony with, patterns identified in nature. Yet, as is often highlighted, identifying, using, and thinking through 'natural' patterns are problematic. This article takes canonical geographical work on the social reception and (re)production of nature as its starting point. It then outlines permaculture, and particularly their most prominent expression, the Transition (Town) movement, as an ecosophical movement-an attempt to reorientate collective subjectivities as ecological entities. While discussion of Transition (with or without their permaculture heritage) abounds in Geography, paying attention to the ecosophical, and ethical, character of such movements is crucial to grasp their full significance.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Other, spurious data may be requested that have no bearing on the review process or publication decision, perhaps because the information is useful to the journal (submission to not-forprofit ...journals such as PeerJ is notably less time-consuming). In our view, the best way to save our diminishing earthworm workforce is to use routine vermicomposting of organic wastes and to manage soils in ways that respect permaculture principles and practices. Axel Hochkirch Trier University, Germany. rob.blakemore@gmail.com Note limitations of DNA legislation The draftbill on forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) in Germany should take into account the technology's scientific and operational limitations, as well as the social contingencies regarding its use (see Nature 543, 589-590; 2017). The use of these technologies also requires a balanced framework of governance, including judicial, ethical and regulatory oversight by independent governmental bodies (see go.nature. com/2oq090e). Initially used to unite larger theropods with the sauropodomorphs, the term could...
This article localizes the traveling concept of permaculture in Timor-Leste as a pathway into studying the juventude permakultura (permaculture youth) movement, its pedagogies of hope, sensory ...learning, and emotional mobilization. Focusing on permaculture-based community gardening and water conservation projects in Timor-Leste in relation to projects implemented by the nation’s significant government-NGO nexus opens up anthropological inquiries into various social, political, and ecological phenomena. It contrasts divergent imaginaries of shaping young persons’ selves and futures and taps into issues of food security, environmental awareness, and alternative knowledge construction. Although ongoing research localizes the traveling concept of “permaculture” in Timor-Leste through tracing, exploring, and juxtaposing methodologies, this article focuses on the practice-oriented sensorial pedagogy of permaculture youth camps. It inquires how the eco-social youth movement contests the marginalization of vulnerable communities by acknowledging local knowledge and connecting it with translocal permaculture techniques. More precisely, the article focuses on the sensory and affective dimensions of learning in vulnerable communities and disaster-prone landscapes. It zeroes in on tasting the soil and mobilizing the future as pedagogies of hope and considers these powerful ways of securing (future) livelihood.
Agricultural production involves the scaling of agricultural innovations such as disease-resistant and drought-tolerant maize varieties, zero-tillage techniques, permaculture cultivation practices ...based on perennial crops and automated milking systems. Scaling agricultural innovations should take into account complex interactions between biophysical, social, economic and institutional factors. Actual methods of scaling are rather empirical and based on the premise of ‘find out what works in one place and do more of the same, in another place’. These methods thus do not sufficiently take into account complex realities beyond the concepts of innovation transfer, dissemination, diffusion and adoption. As a consequence, scaling initiatives often do not produce the desired effect. They may produce undesirable effects in the form of negative spill-overs or unanticipated side effects such as environmental degradation, bad labour conditions of farm workers and loss of control of farming communities over access to genetic resources. Therefore, here, we conceptualise scaling processes as an integral part of a systemic approach to innovation, to anticipate on the possible consequences of scaling efforts. We propose a method that connects the heuristic framework of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP) to a philosophical ‘modal aspects’ framework, with the objective of elucidating the connectedness between technologies, processes and practices. The resultant framework, the PRactice-Oriented Multi-level perspective on Innovation and Scaling (PROMIS), can inform research and policymakers on the complex dynamics involved in scaling. This is illustrated in relation to three cases in which the framework was applied: scaling agro-ecological practices in Nicaragua, farmer field schools on cocoa cultivation in Cameroon and ‘green rubber’ cultivation in Southwest China.
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