Through the experiences of people who earn their livelihoods by tending the land, these eight ‘Stories of Resilience’ reflect how, in countries as varied as Namibia, Cuba, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, SLM is improving living conditions of communities and strengthening environmental resilience.

This book comprehensively describes the major ecosystem services in dryland environments that are provided by typical land use, including forestland, grassland and farmland, using the Loess Plateau, Northwest China as an example. It offers extensive information on land policy, implementation and…

Food production is key to achieving food security in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. Since agricultural productivity is limited, however, due to inherent agro-ecological constraints and land degradation, sustainable agricultural intensification has been widely discussed as an opportunity for…

As a partner to the Convention since 2011, IUCN supports progress towards policies and programmes that deliver Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) through the application of nature-based solutions (NbS) – actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems to address societal challenges.

When it comes to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change, keeping excess carbon out of the atmosphere is the prime target for improving the health of our planet. One of the best ways to do that is thought to be locking more of that carbon into the soil that grows our food. The scientific…

This indicator is defined as the amount of land area that is degraded. The measurement unit for indicator 15.3.1 is the spatial extent (hectares or km2) expressed as the proportion (percentage) of land that is degraded over total land area.

The GEF has quickly responded to decisions of UNCCD COP12 in Ankara (2015) and started to support Land Degradation Neutrality target setting and implementation through several projects in GEF-6, which are summarized in this brochure.

Land degradation and climate change pose enormous risks to global food security. Land degradation increases the vulnerability of agroecological systems to climate change and reduces the effectiveness of adaptation options. Yet these interactions have largely been omitted from climate impact…

The third edition of the World Atlas of Desertification (WAD3) takes a fresh look at land degradation – a phenomenon triggered by human land use that is likely to threaten our ability to make productive use of the Earth while still maintaining the critical global environmental goods and services in…

Land is an essential building block of civilization yet its contribution to our quality of life is perceived and valued in starkly different and often incompatible ways. Conflicts about land use are intensifying in many countries. The world has reached a point where we must reconcile these…

Capital city trees could deliver even more capital. Green fingers could convert urban grime into folding money and combat global warming at the same time.

The Turkish State Meteorological Service has just published a brochure publicizing the main results of its study titled 'Analysis of Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) between the years 2003 and 2016 in the Middle East'. The study concludes that there is a significant increase in the frequency of dust…

The end of Summer in North America is approaching fast, but gardeners, farmers, eaters, and cooks can preserve Summer’s bounty all year long. Fermentation, freezing, canning, and drying can all help prevent waste and make sure that families have an abundance of nutrients all year long.Here are six…

Are you a project promoter based in the EU, and want to reach potential investors worldwide? Register your project in the European Investment Project Portal (EIPP) and boost its visibility to a large network of international investors! Start today by submitting your project below. Or are you an…

Sand and dust storms pose a major challenge to sustainable development in arid and semi-arid regions of the planet. They occur when strong or very turbulent winds blow over dry, unvegetated soils and lift loose particles from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere. The concentration of airborne…

The study, published last month (July) in Scientific Reports, has developed the first-ever Global Rainfall Erosivity Database and a Global Erosivity Map. It notes that while rainfall provides moisture critical for plant growth, it is also one of the prime causes of soil degradation, referred to as…

The nomination process for the Glinka World Soil Prize 2017 is now open and organizations and individuals are invited to propose appropriate candidates. Supported by the Russian Federation, the Prize is awarded annually under the auspices of the Global Soil Partnership on World Soil Day, consisting…

For hundreds of millions of women, providing food to feed their families is a daily imperative. Many of them depend solely on the meager yields of small plots and farms, with little or no access to support when vital crops fail. At the same time, they shoulder the burden of household chores like…

Agriculture has a dominant role in rural land use in many countries, meaning that farmers control and manage much of the land, including its biodiversity and water resources. It is estimated that there are 570 million farms worldwide, of which 410 million are less than a hectare in size and 475…

The pressure on land is growing in many regions of the world, due to the increasing demand for arable crops, meat and dairy products, bio-energy and timber, and is exacerbated by land degradation and climate change. This policy report provides scenario projections for the UNCCD Global Land Outlook…

The new GPFS strategy supports the development and implementation of international frameworks and promotes innovative scalable solutions to overcome food insecurity and malnutrition, and it addresses emerging issues

How are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden moving towards renewable and lower-carbon energy use? A recent study suggests the key areas for progress, to ensure Nordic countries meet low carbon goals, include more renewable and decentralised electricity supply, the development of low-carbon…

Microbes and biocatalytic enzymes could offer useful tools for cleaning soils polluted with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), suggests a new review of remediation approaches. However, risk assessments and further work are needed before their use can be extended beyond the lab to real-world…

In the preoccupying context of land degradation – worsened by climatic variations, population growth and unsustainable ways of productions – leading to insecurity, we need to show innovation to give an answer to the current challenges and to give hope to the affected people. Among these answers, we…

A climate hazard that doesn’t disappear when the rainclouds gather, drought's lingering death can delay recovery a very long time.