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1. Tropical forest landscapes face competing demands for conserving biodiversity, sustaining ecosystem services and accommodating production systems such as forestry and agriculture. Land-sparing and land-sharing have emerged as contrasting strategies to manage trade-offs between production and biodiversity conservation. Both strategies are evident in land-management policies at local-to-international scales. However, studies rarely report the impacts of these strategies, assessed for multiple stakeholders and multiple ecosystem services, particularly in real landscapes. 2. Using a case study from a high-priority region for forest protection, restoration and rural development in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, we analysed the potential outcomes under 10 alternative policy scenarios, including land-sharing, land-sparing and mixed strategies. We used a novel optimization process integrating integer programming with conservation-planning software (Marxan with Zones) to identify production possibility frontiers (PPFs), highlighting the trade-off between smallholder agriculture and oil palm, subject to achievement of a set of carbon, timber and biodiversity conservation targets. 3. All policy scenarios modelled proved to be capable of achieving all targets simultaneously. Most strategies resulted in an expansion of the PPF from the baseline, increasing the flexibility of land allocation to achieve all targets. Mixed strategies gave the greatest flexibility to achieve targets, followed closely by land-sparing. Land-sharing only performed better than the baseline when no yield penalties were incurred, and resulted in PPF contraction otherwise. Strategies assessed required a minimum of 29-37% to be placed in conservation zones, notably protecting the majority of remaining forest, but requiring little reforestation. 4. Policy implications. Production possibility frontiers (PPFs) can evaluate a broad spectrum of land-use policy options. When using targets sought by multiple stakeholders within an ecosystem services framework, PPFs can characterize biophysical, socio-economic and institutional dimensions of policy trade-offs in heterogeneous landscapes. All 10 policy strategies assessed in our case study are biophysically capable of achieving all stakeholder objectives, provided at least 29-37% of the landscape is conserved for biodiversity. This novel methodological approach provides practical options for systematic analysis in complex, multifunctional landscapes, and could, when integrated within a larger planning and implementation process, inform the design of land-use policies that maximize stakeholder satisfaction and minimize conflict.

Multi-objective land allocation (MOLA) can be regarded as a spatial optimization problem that allocates appropriate use to certain land units subjecting to multiple objectives and constraints. This article develops an improved knowledge-informed non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) for solving the MOLA problem by integrating the patch-based, edge growing/decreasing, neighborhood, and constraint steering rules. By applying both the classical and the knowledge-informed NSGA-II to a simulated planning area of 30 × 30 grid, we find that: when compared to the classical NSGA-II, the knowledge-informed NSGA-II consistently produces solutions much closer to the true Pareto front within shorter computation time without sacrificing the solution diversity; the knowledge-informed NSGA-II is more effective and more efficient in encouraging compact land allocation; the solutions produced by the knowledge-informed have less scattered/isolated land units and provide a good compromise between construction sprawl and conservation land protection. The better performance proves that knowledge-informed NSGA-II is a more reasonable and desirable approach in the planning context.

Wetlands are the most biodiverse ecological landscape in nature and one of the most important natural resources for human beings. In recent years, wetlands in northeast China have been increasingly converted into cultivated land, resulting in significant reduction in wetland area. Currently, the extensive and prolonged use of natural resources, combined with mismanagement and climate change, presents considerable challenges for both governments and future sustainability. This study utilized the PLUS model to analyze the spatial-temporal transformation of cultivated land and wetland in northeast China over the past 30 years and to project land use changes from 2020 to 2035. The analysis quantitatively evaluated the impacts of human activities and climate change. The results showed that: (1) Wetlands in northeast China have been progressively converted into paddy fields or degraded into unused land. (2) Topography, GDP, and temperature are the primary drivers of land use change over the past three decades. (3) There is an urgent need for national macro-policy regulation to mitigate the degradation of cultivated land and wetlands through the rational allocation of land resources.

Although previous studies in developing countries like Ethiopia have extensively documented the benefits of irrigation, these studies rely primarily on cross-sectional data. Consequently, analysis of the effects of irrigated land allocation on national crop production from a longitudinal perspective remains limited. This study examines the dynamic effects of irrigated land allocation on wheat production in Ethiopia, using World Bank and FAOSTAT data from 2000 to 2021. We employed an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to estimate long-run and short-run cointegration. The empirical results revealed that irrigated land allocation has a statistically significant positive impact on wheat production in both the long and short term. Notably, the long-term elasticity shows that a one-hectare increase in irrigated land is associated with a 36% rise in wheat production. Moreover, livestock manure, agriculture water use efficiency, and chemical fertilizer consumption positively influence wheat production in both the short and long term, while agricultural credit has a negative effect. The result further shows that despite steady growth in wheat production during the study period, domestic supply has continually lagged behind demand, forcing the country to rely on commercial imports. Irrigation development has also lagged behind potential capacity throughout the entire study period. To address Ethiopia’s wheat supply shortfall and growing food demand, this study recommends expanding irrigation into underutilized areas, modernizing existing infrastructure, and increasing access in both lowland and highland regions. It is also critical to enhance monitoring of agricultural loans to prevent misallocation.

We study the role of traditional norms in land allocation and human capital investment. We exploit a policy experiment in Ghana that increased the land that children from matrilineal groups could inherit from their fathers. Boys exposed to the reform received 0.9 less years of education—an effect driven by landed households, for whom the reform was binding. We find no effect for girls, whose inheritance was de facto unaffected. These patterns suggest that before the reform matrilineal groups invested more in education than they would if unconstrained, to substitute for land inheritance, underscoring the importance of cultural norms.

Understanding farmers’ perceptions of and preferences towards agroforestry is essential to identify systems with the greatest likelihood of adoption to inform successful rural development projects. In this study we offer a novel approach for evaluating agroforestry systems from the farmer perspective. The approach couples rapid rural appraisal and normative optimisation techniques to determine favourable land-use compositions for meeting various socio-economic and ecological goals, based on farmers’ empirical knowledge and preferences. We test our approach among smallholder farmers in Eastern Panama, obtaining data from household interviews and using hierarchical cluster analysis to identify farm groups with similar land-use and income characteristics. We found that moderate differences in farmers’ perceptions between these groups altered the type and share of agroforestry included in the optimised land-use portfolios that balance the achievement of 10 pre-selected socio-economic and ecological objectives. Such differences provide valuable information about potential acceptability of agroforestry within each group. For example, we found that farmers who derive most of their farm income from crops may be more willing to adopt silvopasture, whereas farmers who are more economically dependent on cattle may benefit from diversifying their land-use with alley cropping. We discuss the potential of this modelling approach for participatory land-use planning, especially when dealing with small sample sizes and uncertainty in datasets.

Land use planning has been mainly implemented based on land capabilities but rarely on land limitations such as air pollution. This study aims to simulate the optimal land use structure by incorporating the air quality into the land use planning process using MCE and MOLA in an industrialized area in Isfahan province, central Iran. To do so, we developed two scenarios as 'with-' and 'without-' considering the air pollution criterion. The optimal land use planning was applied for agricultural, urban, and industrial land uses. PM10 and NOX seasonal (winter) dispersion maps were used as the air pollution criterion which was simulated by AERMOD. We applied the Best Worst Method (BWM) to standardize and weight the physical, ecological, and socio-economic criteria. Accordingly, we used an Ordered Weighted Average (OWA) technique to combine the factors. Assuming 1% (1100 ha) of the land area available for future allocation to each land use, we compared the outcomes of both scenarios revealed a significant difference between the coverage of capable areas. The results of the “with” scenario indicated that approximately 11, 17, and 54% of the area that were, in fact, incapable for agricultural, industrial, and urban developments, respectively. These areas are detected as capable if we leave the air pollution criterion out. The findings demonstrated that to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to consider dynamic physical land components including air pollution along with ecological, physical, and socio-economic factors.

Industrial land allocation in China has been distorted for a long time by local governments providing land at a low price to attract manufacturing activities. This study explores whether an industrial land protection policy can reduce the distortions and, hence, improve land allocation efficiency in China. Using industrial land zoning and protection policies adopted in some cities in Guangdong province, this study finds that industrial land allocation efficiency is indeed improved after the implementation of protection policies, reflected in higher land prices and greater land use intensity. However, the improvement is smaller for industrial land provided to advanced manufacturing industries, indicating that local governments continue to rely on a strategy of offering cheap land to compete for high-end manufacturing activities. Further analysis suggests that the adoption of industrial land protection in one region generates a positive spillover effect on industrial land allocation efficiency in neighboring regions. Overall, this study provides new evidence on the effectiveness of industrial land protection.

Against the backdrop of pervasive land fragmentation and high transaction costs, organized land transfer has emerged as a growing trend in China’s agricultural land market, facilitating the transition toward moderate-scale farming. Based on survey data from 1472 households across 72 villages in Jiangsu Province, this study investigates the impact of organized land transfer on agricultural land allocation efficiency and explores the underlying mechanisms. The results show that organized land transfer significantly enhances agricultural land allocation efficiency. This finding proves to be robust across a series of robustness analyses. Specifically, organized land transfer enhances land allocation efficiency, primarily by enhancing transfer stability, expanding the transfer scale, and broadening the transfer scope. Moreover, our analysis of moderating factors reveals that the strength of the village collective economy positively moderates the relationship between organized land transfer and efficiency, whereas lineage networks exert a negative moderating influence. Addressing equity implications, this study also examines the model’s impact on farmers’ autonomy. The findings indicate that organized land transfer significantly suppresses transfer willingness, particularly in those with low incomes and the elderly. These results carry significant policy implications: when promoting organized land transfer, it is crucial to balance the strengthening of village collectives’ intermediary role with robust regulatory frameworks designed to safeguard farmers’ land rights and autonomy.

Land use configuration in any given landscape is the result of a multi-objective optimization process, which takes into account different ecological, economic, and social factors. In this process, coordinating stakeholders is a key factor to successful spatial land use optimization. Stakeholders need to be modeled as players who have the ability to interact with each other towards their best solution, while considering multiple goals and constraints at the same time. Game theory provides a tool for land use planners to model and analyze such interactions. In order to apply the spatial allocation model and address stakeholder conflicts, an integrated model based on linear programming and game theory was designed in this study. For implementing such model, we conducted an optimal land use allocation process through multi-objective land allocation (MOLA) and linear programming methods. Then, two groups of environmental and land development players were considered to implement the optimization model. The game algorithm was used to select the appropriate constraint so that the result would be acceptable to all stakeholders. The results showed that during the third round of the game, the decision-making process and the optimization of land uses reached the desired Nash Equilibrium state and the conflict between stakeholders was resolved. Ultimately, in order to localize the results, a suitable solution was presented in a GIS environment.