Abstract We examine the dynamics that emerged during the exploitation and beneficiation phase of Ecuador’s first large-scale mining project in the Shuar Indigenous territories of the southern Amazon. Using an integrated approach that combines hydrosocial studies and political ecology, we examine the tensions, resistance, and socioenvironmental and cultural impacts resulting from the regrowth of tailings deposits, river diversions, steelmaking, and the expansion of mining activities. A mixed-methods approach was employed, including surveys, interviews, and socioenvironmental mapping. The findings highlight water disputes that serve as a form of territorial control and resource appropriation vital for community survival and ancestral practices. Our research reveals processes of water coloniality driven by territorial disputes and water privatization, resulting in the development of community governance strategies aimed at asserting rights.

Abstract Considerable attention has been given to the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily focusing on urban settings, while little research has examined the effects on rural communities. This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on livelihoods and food security in the rural area of Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. We utilized a panel data set comprising 454 households from the Sustainability in Communal Socio-Ecological Systems (SUCSES) survey, conducted in 2019 and 2021. To identify the determinants of food security over time, we employed difference-in-differences (DiD) panel regression models for the two time periods, focusing on key indicators of food security, including household food availability, dietary diversity, food access, and overall food security. The analysis revealed significant adverse impacts of the lockdown on local off-farm employment (p < 0.05). In response, households increased their reliance on subsistence agriculture and natural resource use as coping mechanisms. Contrary to expectations, food security metrics improved during the study period. Higher levels of food security were associated with migrant employment, domestic assets, and the use of edible wild fruits and vegetables. In contrast, a high dependency on social grants was correlated with lower food security levels. The study highlights the diverse coping mechanisms rural households employed to adapt to pandemic-related disruptions, underscoring the importance of livelihood diversification. While short-term improvements in food security were observed, the decline in local off-farm employment poses risks to long-term resilience. These findings emphasize the need for targeted policy interventions that support the diversified livelihoods of rural households while strengthening social protection systems to sustain food security beyond crisis periods.

Desertification poses significant environmental and socio-economic threats to pastoral systems within the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. However, there remains a paucity of interdisciplinary studies delving into the anthropogenic drivers of desertification at the local level of social-ecological systems, resulting in an inadequate understanding of its human-induced causes. This research aims to bridge this gap by presenting three case studies from Namibia’s eastern communal areas. Through an integrated approach drawing from rangeland ecology and anthropology, we offer a comparative analysis revealing nuanced differences among individual pastoral settlements, shaped by their distinct social contexts. Our findings elucidate the social determinants influencing varying degrees of desertification at the village level, highlighting local factors that mitigate the adverse impacts of grazing pressure and aridity on perennial grass populations. Notably, the study identifies the role of social institutions in managing critical environmental conditions and physical infrastructures, such as extensive pastures and cattle posts, which contribute to maintaining grassland resilience. Despite observable signs of desertification, the presence of perennial grasses both aboveground and in the soil seed bank across all settlements suggests that a tipping point has not yet been reached, emphasizing the window of opportunity for intervention. The discussion extends to the potential transferability of these findings to other Namibian communities within the existing socio-ecological framework, aiming to avert impending tipping points. Ultimately, the study challenges the notion of desertification in pastoral social-ecological systems as solely a tragedy of the commons, emphasizing the imperative of developing and implementing suitable social institutions within colonial and post-colonial contexts.

The Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE) has been given relatively little attention in research on climate-society interactions when compared to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, despite evidence of changing conditions and an agricultural economy that is theoretically vulnerable to droughts due to low annual precipitation. We review the available historical, archaeological, paleo-environmental, and paleo-climatic evidence to assess whether climatic conditions factored into periods of Sasanian growth and decline. We find evidence for drier conditions across Sasanian territories at the turn of the sixth century, a pattern that extends to the Aegean, Anatolia, and Central Asia. These same conditions contributed to a significant decline for the nearby Kingdom of Himyar but occurred alongside a period of expansion and intensification for the Sasanian Empire. We suggest that a combination of careful management of water infrastructure, including qanats, which can conserve water resources during dry periods, and land-use strategies that are both diverse and flexible, may have mitigated the worst impacts of this dry period. However, we note several weaknesses in the available data that still hinder confident interpretations of the potential impacts of climate change in the Sasanian Empire. Notably, there are gaps in the coverage of paleo-hydrological records and a complete lack of terrestrial paleo-temperature records in the region, as well as low resolution and high chronological uncertainties in the archaeological and paleo-environmental evidence.