Land Management Practices and Conservation Strategies
Summary
Land management and conservation strategies encompass a spectrum of practices aimed at balancing productive use of terrestrial ecosystems with the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. At the farm scale, practices such as diversified crop rotations, reduced tillage, agroforestry and managed grazing seek to enhance soil health, water retention and carbon sequestration. In forested and rangeland settings, adaptive silviculture, controlled burns and rotational grazing maintain habitat structure and resilience to disturbance. Policy tools include incentive-based mechanisms—such as payments for ecosystem services and agro-environmental schemes—to encourage adoption of biodiversity-friendly practices, while regulatory measures may enforce land-use zoning or set conservation targets. Securing land tenure and fostering collaborative governance are critical for long-term stewardship, ensuring that land managers have both the rights and the motivation to invest in sustainable practices. Restoration ecology and landscape-scale planning further integrate corridors, protected areas and buffer zones to safeguard species connectivity. Collectively, these approaches address climate mitigation, food security and biodiversity conservation, offering practical pathways to reconcile human livelihoods with the integrity of terrestrial ecosystems on a global scale.
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Land Management Practices and Conservation Strategies publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in land management practices and conservation strategies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Land tenure: The system of rights and arrangements governing access to and use of land, including ownership, leases and customary holdings.
Soil conservation: Practices designed to prevent erosion, maintain soil structure and sustain fertility, such as contour farming, cover cropping and reduced tillage.
Agro-environmental scheme: A policy instrument that provides financial or technical support to land managers who implement practices benefiting biodiversity, water quality or landscape features.
Payments for ecosystem services (PES): Voluntary transactions in which beneficiaries of ecosystem services compensate land managers for conservation or restoration activities.
Action space: The range of practical options perceived by farmers to implement new practices, shaped by market, regulatory and resource constraints.
References
- Do farmers care about rented land? A multi-method study on land tenure and soil conservation. Land Use Policy (2019).
- Farmers’ action space to adopt sustainable practices: a study of arable farming in Saxony. Regional Environmental Change (2021).
- Management of rented farmland in Norway: Factors impacting on tenants’ decisions to make investments. Land Use Policy (2023).
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