Volumen 10 (2022): Edición 2 (June 2022)

A demographic view of the ageing process of a population provides an assessmentof the degree of development of this phenomenon and its dynamics at a given time in a given area, such as an administrative unit, a country or other territory. In this study, the main research aim was to assess the demographic situation of rural areas in Eastern Poland in the context of an ageing population. Changes in both the number of people and the demographic structure of the population living in the region were analysed. The time period of the research covered the years 2008-2020. Statistical data used in the study were derived from the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland. The assessment of the regional specificity of the processes of demographic changes in rural areas was based on the study of the relationships in the analyzed parameters, with the use of statistical measures defining the range of variability of the examined characteristics. In order to achieve the main aim of the study, a typology of the areas with a disturbed age structure was developed. Four groups of rural areas have been identified (labelled from A to D) which are characterised by varying degrees of advancement of the examined problem in 2020.

Land-use change is a human process aimed at transforming the natural landscape and emphasizing the role and function of land for socio-economic activities. However, we do not know how the land transition in Vietnam has been proceeding recently. Thus, this article aims to examine the current urbanization process of land conversion in Vietnam. To explore the current situation and recent change of land use, the author analyzed standardized databases and maps from reports of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam (MoNRE), the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), and the land cover map of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Research results show that the land transition in Vietnam has been similar to the world trend. The highest land conversion rate occurs in the North Central and Central Coast regions, but conversion of agricultural land for urbanization is mainly in the Red River Delta and Southeast. The study also noted some negative socio-economic impacts of land conversion on the lives of suburban residents.

We performed a study of the vegetation of afforestation belts in the Middle Dnipro Region of Ukraine. These were planted to protect agricultural land from adverse climatic conditions. The syntaxonomy of these afforestation belts is, so far, embedded in the synanthropic class of Robinietea tree plantations, but over time, these may need another syntaxonomic solution. Based on the data, a phytoindicational assessment of these communities was performed. The ecological features of the vegetation of afforestation belts have been determined by the mutual influence of ecological factors of different origin, and the extent of these impacts. In particular, the climatic conditions and edaphic factors and also the peculiarities of the environment-forming influence of different dominant tree species in the main layers and the age of these plantations, which determines at different stages of sylvestral succession processes. According to our phytoindicational assessment, use of cluster analysis of these biotopes of afforestation belts, proved their considerable similarity taking into account all ecological factors, and the distribution is mainly due to the predominant tree species. As a result of ordination analysis, it was found that the factors that most correlate with the ordinal axes are light regime, soil nitrogen and humidity. Phytocoenoses of afforestation belts are a very specific component of the forest biome in this region, because they have been artificially created.

The rapid and unplanned urbanisation in Africa has resulted in unprecedented and turbulent effects which include prolonged drought, massive floods, economic losses, increased food insecurity among small-scale and subsistence farmers and increased vulnerability because of rapid climate change. This has been exacerbated by the irrefutable fact that governments in Africa have been ill-prepared and incompetent to effectively deal with the adverse effects of increased urbanisation. In this light, in the overview of this literature study, the researcher set out to explore the theoretical underpinnings and empirical dimensions of the effects of urbanisation on food security in Africa. The study further captures, analyses, and synthesises the literature on best practice applied by governments in Africa in proactively responding to the effects of urbanisation on food security. Furthermore, patterns on the adverse effects of urbanisation relating to food security are unpacked from scholars, and various solutions investigated. This was achieved by rigorously reviewing eleven empirical and relevant journal which were selected from Google Scholar and ResearchGate. The interesting themes that emerged in this study include poor government interventions and decision-making processes, inadequate or absent land-use planning, and high incompetency levels among urban planners. This has led to environmental degradation and unsustainable food security as the result of prime agricultural land being used for infrastructure or housing developments. Solutions suggested for urban food insecurity include public–private partnerships, the alignment of policies with urban agriculture, participatory and strategic land-use planning, and the empowerment of women.

The article emphasizes the importance of organic production development in the agricultural sector of the Ukrainian economy and substantiates that one of the important priorities of agribusiness is organic production, which is mainly export-oriented, and therefore is the fundamental basis for the sustainability of the foreign economic activity of its farmers. An increase in organic production, in particular cattle products, is accompanied by additional methane emissions (but lower than those from nonorganic production), while Ukraine, having joined the Global Methane Pledge initiative to reduce methane emissions, has committed to taking measures to reduce its methane footprint and consequently the decision to invest and/or provide government support for development programs should be based on historical analysis using a decoupling approach. The trends of changes in the average annual livestock population, the livestock production volume and dynamics of methane emissions have been studied for the period of 1990-2019. A decoupling analysis has been carried out of the gap between trends of the economic growth rates of the livestock industry and the rates of anthropogenic pressure on the environment. The study demonstrated that the decoupling effect in cattle breeding has changed abruptly from strongly negative to weak decoupling. The dynamics of the export volume of dairy and meat products were analysed for the agribusiness of Ukraine during 2004-2021 and a forecast of changes in production volumes, as well as a forecast for the export volume of milk and beef were made for the period up to 2030.