Agricultural Land Abandonment as a Global Land-Use Change Phenomenon
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Stay Informed About Global Land Abandonment Working Group Activities
6th February 2024. New publication on separating abandoned lands from intentional afforestation in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation.
More people globally tend to leave rural areas behind and move to the cities. It turns out some farmlands are not cultivated anymore; it is a well-known story, particularly in Europe. Farmland abandonment, however, is widespread worldwide, and even in populous countries such as China. And we are talking about tens of millions of hectares! But sometimes it looks like deliberate tree planting, people still use such former farmlands but for different purposes 🌱 Our study, crafted and led by Changqiao Hong, using Landsat time series, Landtrendr, biomass gain, digs into the details, spotting the difference between crops left abandoned and intentional tree growth. 🛰️ Understanding this can unlock insights into where and why land is abandoned, social and environmental impact. 🌍 Another step towards mapping in detail farmland abandonment! https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2024.103693
Why is this study important? Please read our recent article in Nature Communications, "The neglected role of abandoned cropland in
supporting both food security and climate
change mitigation" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41837-y. Often it is difficult to carve out, where former agricultural lands are truly left set aside. And we expect they could contribute to, or opposite, should not lead to regional and global food insecurity and provide valuable NBS nature-based solutions, rewilding, and social and environmental bundles.
2023, 3-7 July. First Ph.D. summer school on an interdisciplinary look at Farmland Abandonment hosted by the University of Copenhagen. Please read here
Special Iusse in Catena Elsevier: Farmland abandonment: consequences for soil, vegetation, water and landscape
23 November 2022
Special Iusse in Catena Elsevier: Farmland abandonment: consequences for soil, vegetation, water and landscape
Farmland abandonment is one of the major land use changes in many rural territories, especially in mountain regions, usually resulting in a general expansion of vegetation cover through both natural succession or afforestation programs in former agricultural land. Although farmland abandonment is predicted to slow down, vegetation recovery, in abandoned lands is far from complete, and is resulting in soil, water and landscape changes (e.g, on high-altitude pastures due to a decline in livestock, a warming climate and the rise of atmospheric CO2) and might affect new territories in the coming future (e.g., rural areas with low-intensity activities in developing countries).
Research carried out worldwide has shown that vegetation recovery in abandoned lands has critical implications for landscape, water resources, soil erosion and biodiversity. However, there are still unresolved questions and new challenges that have emerged from a scientific and management point of view. We believe that in the current context of climate change and the degradation of natural resources, there is an urgent need for scientists to provide knowledge to help decide on the best way to manage former agricultural land in order to optimize the environmental services they can provide to society.
In this Special Issue, editors would like to invite research and reviews papers that look into farmland abandonment in mountain areas in terms of landscape dynamics, soil conservation and water resources, also in their socio-economic context. Studies at different spatial scales and using different approaches (field observations, lab investigations) are presented.
More details: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/catena/about/call-for-papers
October 18, 2022
Presenting on the progress of satellite remote sensing observation of farmland land abandonment during the 25th NASA LCLUC Science meeting in Washington. D.C. A historical excurse, major milestones in monitoring farmland abandonment, and summarizing research gaps. Among those are a critical need for global farmland abandonment products, multidimensional observation of farmland abandonment, and a strong need for field-based training validation data, not only derived from satellite imagery, aka “GoogleEarth”.
The presentation is available following the link https://lcluc.umd.edu/sites/default/files/8%20Alexander%20Prishchpov.pdf
October 18, 2022
Presenting on the progress of satellite remote sensing observation of farmland land abandonment during the 25th NASA LCLUC Science meeting in Washington. D.C. A historical excurse, major milestones in monitoring farmland abandonment, and summarizing research gaps. Among those are a critical need for global farmland abandonment products, multidimensional observation of farmland abandonment, and a strong need for field-based training validation data, not only derived from satellite imagery, aka “GoogleEarth”.
The presentation is available following the link https://lcluc.umd.edu/sites/default/files/8%20Alexander%20Prishchpov.pdf
July 30, 2022
Fantastic Ph.D. defense of Dr. Stephen Bell (now) at UA Barcelona on agricultural land abandonment and soil organic carbon stocks- a nested approach from plot level to continental-scale analysis. All challenges and hurdles, including COVID, were overpassed following the Ph.D. road.
Some publications from this Ph.D. thesis:
Bell, Stephen M., Carles Barriocanal, César Terrer, and Antoni Rosell-Melé. “Management Opportunities for Soil Carbon Sequestration Following Agricultural Land Abandonment.” Environmental Science & Policy 108 (June 2020): 104–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2020.03.018.
Bell, Stephen M., César Terrer, Carles Barriocanal, Robert B. Jackson, and Antoni Rosell-Melé. “Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation Rates on Mediterranean Abandoned Agricultural Lands.” Science of The Total Environment 759 (March 2021): 143535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143535.
TEDx talk “Retiring farmlands to put carbon back where it belongs” https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_bell_retiring_farmlands_to_put_carbon_back_where_it_belongs?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
June 27, 2022
A joint field trip In Kutna Hora, Czech Republic, exploring long-term farmland abandonment.
Following the EU+ workshop on the topic of farmland abandonment and satellite remote sensing organized between Charles University in Prague, the Institute of Geography of Slovak Academy of Sciences, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Warsaw and Heilderberg University (the 4EU+ University Alliance), a joint field trip to long-term abandonment areas was organized, when participants had a chance to discuss challenges of measuring farmland abandonment. An exemplary abandonment spot occurred on the site of former silver extraction and agricultural fields. Some abandoned sites are maintained and partially cleared now from shrubs in order to flourish biodiversity.
Relevant publication associated with the study site from Czech colleagues:
Šantrůčková, Markéta, Jiří Dostálek, and Tomáš Frantík. “Vegetation Succession in Extensive Abandoned Tall-Trunk Cherry Orchards: A Case Study on Kaňk Mountain near Kutná Hora (Czech Republic).” Hacquetia 19, no. 1 (June 1, 2020): 127–36. https://doi.org/10.2478/hacq-2019-0017.
June 1, 2022
New publication in Science Advances. Rural land abandonment is too ephemeral to provide major benefits for biodiversity and climate
Hundreds of millions of hectares of cropland have been abandoned globally since 1950 due to demographic, economic, and environmental changes. This abandonment has been seen as an important opportunity for carbon sequestration and habitat restoration; yet those benefits depend on the persistence of abandonment, which is poorly known. Here, we track abandonment and recultivation at 11 sites across four continents using annual land-cover maps for 1987–2017. We find that abandonment is largely fleeting, lasting on average only 14.22 years (SD = 1.44). At most sites, we project that >50% of abandoned croplands will be recultivated within 30 years, precluding the accumulation of substantial amounts of carbon and biodiversity. Recultivation resulted in 30.84% less abandonment and 35.39% less carbon accumulated by 2017 than expected without recultivation. Unless policymakers take steps to reduce recultivation or provide incentives for regeneration, abandonment will remain a missed opportunity to reduce biodiversity loss and climate change.
More details in https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm8999
December 21, 2021
Our first Global Land PRogram's public webinar on the complexity of studying farmland abandonment. A short summary of the complexity of the topic- from the definition, through measuring, and studying the drivers and implications of farmland abandonment. Enjoy watching and your questions and suggestions are welcomed! Link