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This paper focuses on the web of relationships established between Early and Middle Bronze Age communities and their environment in Northwest Iberia. Charcoal remains recovered from settlements and funerary sites in this area can inform a greater understanding of wood resource procurement and woodland management strategies adopted by these small-scale communities. Although charcoal analysis of contexts with chronologies ranging from 2200 to 1200 cal. BC is not commonly undertaken in this area, data from this period are of great importance because it represents a phase of major deforestation and landscape change. Wood resources were local and exploitation was conditioned by their availability in the environs of the sites. These communities established a clear preference for Quercus wood, combined recurrently with shrubby species of the Fabaceae family. This co-occurrence, previously observed in Middle and Late Bronze Age contexts, could extend back to the Early Bronze Age and even to the Late Neolithic. The presence of small trees and shrubs such as Rosaceae/Maloideae and Corylus avellana could be related with the open landscape that characterises this period, and with the existence of woodland management practices designed to prevent forest regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

River valleys in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan have served as corridors for human dispersal since the Palaeolithic but little information exists on the history of human occupation in this remote and inaccessible region. Here, we report the results of a multidisciplinary study of Airgyrzhal-2, a high elevation (2005 m) site in the Naryn valley in central Kyrgyzstan. Two main occupation horizons were recognized, the earliest belonging to the Mesolithic (12th millennium cal. BC) and a later one dating from the Bronze Age (first half of the 2nd millennium cal. BC). Land snail analyses from the two horizons yielded almost identical assemblages of species of dry, open environments. Archaeobotanical data, however, revealed marked differences. The greater representation of willow/poplar ( Salix/Populus ) in the charcoal from the Mesolithic suggests more focused activity along the river, which might have been closer to the site at this time. The occurrence of spruce ( Picea ) and other species in the Bronze Age charcoal indicates exploitation of resources from more distant upland locations. The occurrence of the remains of cereals, including both grains and chaff, provides unexpected evidence for both consumption and cultivation of wheat and barley at this high elevation during the Bronze Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous authors from various disciplines have underlined the importance of Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs) for assuring the livelihoods of local populations whilst conserving the environment. The agdal is probably Morocco's best example of such an institution. Nevertheless they have always existed within the context of change and currently are experiencing major transitions. Detailed ethnographic studies of the socio-ecological drivers of these processes of change in agdals are scarce. Based on the particular case of the agdal of Yagur in the Mountain Mesioui tribal territory (High Atlas of Morocco), this article will analyse contemporary transformations. These dynamics are inherent to small-scale societies' ICCAs, even if they have most often been described as isolated, autarchic and mutable only under external pressure. From the case of the agdal of Yagur, we show how non-local processes are only part of the picture, and that the transformation of agdal forms are also related to key internal drivers, entailing a greater degree of agency by local actors than is usually given in the literature. At the same time, placing our analysis within a broader social anthropological framing, we provide a detailed actor-centred analysis that situates agents and local power relations within their institutional and cultural context while explaining how these same micropolitics of natural resource management articulate with and within wider global scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middens are created from the discard of natural resources, collected by people for consumptive purposes: mainly subsistence, but also for artefact manufacture (e.g. stone, bone and shell artefacts); warmth and/or shelter (e.g. firewood [charcoal] and timber windbreaks); or for ceremony. Taphonomic processes act on the discarded cultural materials to modify the evidence originally deposited by the creators of the archaeological site as a result of consumptive behaviour. There is nothing particularly new or unusual in this description of the accumulation of midden material. Interpretations of midden deposits in the literature are based around the interaction between consumptive behaviour and taphonomy. However, all archaeological sites also reflect a process other than consumption and taphonomy: discard. In this paper, we argue that a focus on consumption and taphonomy that ignores discard activity may overlook an important aspect of site creation. Using the Peel Island Lazaret Midden as a case study, we demonstrate that an understanding of past discard patterns may generate new understandings of human behaviour as represented in midden deposits. In particular, we argue that the formation of the Peel Island Lazaret Midden is due as much to the creation and stewardship of oyster beds, and to the consequent cultural materials that did not find their way into the midden, as artificial to the collection of shellfish for food consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This research examines recent years’ rainfall extremes and their socioeconomic and environmental impacts in Benin. The annual rainfall amounts of the 1922–2005 series for 16 stations spread throughout the country were used, as recorded in the files of the Agency for Air Navigation Safety (ASECNA-Cotonou). In addition, investigations in the environment have been conducted to understand the impacts experienced by communities. The data and information collected were processed using statistical tools and maps. Analysis shows a strong incidence of extreme rainfall during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the south, while the 1970s and 1980s recorded very dry years. In all cases, wet and dry years pose problems for rural and urban communities. The projected climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall and drought and their consequences, and development policies must take that into account. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Whether people like it or not, landscapes change. Accepting this and understanding processes of landscape change are prerequisites for the maintenance and development of specific landscape- or ‘natural’ values. This paper discusses the relevance of landscape historical information and insights to the management of landscape change. The focus is on the Netherlands, especially the Pleistocene inland part of the country and on the period 1000BP - present. Two dominant (seemingly contradictory) long-term processes of landscape change can be distinguished: drowning and ‘desertification’ (severe land degradation). Both will be outlined. The first of these historical processes, ‘drowning’, is also highly relevant to one of today’s most pressing topics: how to cope with the consequences of climate change. Long-term studies of landscape formation processes and the associated landscape dynamics can provide essential contributions to the formulation of historically acceptable solutions to current challenges and problems, and to the dissociation of processes of policy making, planning and decision from current fashions. Linking the so-called ‘Landscape Development Plans’ to research guided by the concept of ‘landscape biography’ proves to be an effective strategy to achieve this. Insight into the long-term history of people and landscapes can effectively inspire and shape future developments, especially on a regional and local level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This review takes as its starting point the relationship between landscape history and environmental policy. Landscape historians now face the same problem that social scientists have long faced, i.e., how to relate to values and to the political use of scientific results, which demands greater conceptual and theoretical rigour from integrative landscape studies. The concept of social–ecological systems is criticised for its reduction of the complexity and human agency involved in land use; in contrast, Clark Erickson’s concept of domesticated landscapes offers an approach that can incorporate humanist as well as scientific considerations. The roles of surplus production and labour allocation in early societies are seen as crucial for understanding early domesticated landscapes. Different social formations result in different landscapes, but landscapes also have an earthly inertia. Investments in land govern, steer, impede, or inspire land use in subsequent social formations. This specific understanding of time and place is shared by Quaternary geology, landscape archaeology, and historical geography, and distinguishes them from both history and physics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]