The current pressures on land are huge and expected to continue growing: there is rapidly escalating competition between the demand for land functions that provide food, water, and energy, and those services that support and regulate all life cycles on Earth. A significant proportion of managed and…

The UNCCD defines land as “the terrestrial bio-productive system that comprises soil, vegetation, other biota, and the ecological and hydrological processes that operate within the system” ( Article 1 of the Convention ). This chapter looks at the meaning and value of land in various ways, including…

There is broad evidence to suggest that direct human alteration of terrestrial ecosystems by hunting, foraging, land clearing, agriculture, and other activities started about 12,000 years ago. Beginning around 8,000 years ago, agricultural land use expanded in Mesopotamia and in the Fertile Crescent…

The growing demand for food, fodder, fuel, and raw materials is increasing pressures on land and the competition for natural resources. At the same time, degradation is reducing the amount of productive land available. The drivers of land degradation can be categorized into two types: (i) direct or…

In the past, land degradation maps have been controversial; their value questioned due to the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon, the complexity of processes involved, and the difficulty of interpretation at a global scale. However, progress in the last two decades has improved the accuracy of…

Considerable evidence suggests that people are more likely to use land sustainably if they have secure tenure. Yet insecurity remains high in many countries and the growing phenomenon of “land grabbing” is making it worse. Gender inequalities put many women and their families at increasing risk,…

An outlook is a vantage point, a platform, a perspective; it broadens our vistas and allows us to examine our prospects, both present and future. It is within this broader frame of thinking that the Global Land Outlook aims to present a unique perspective on one of the Earth’s most precious assets:…

Given growing demands on land and emerging challenges from land degradation and climate change, policymakers require information on the possible consequences. This chapter explores trends up to 2050, through the Shared Socio-economic Pathways scenarios, based on the report ‘ Exploring the impact of…

Agriculture is the single biggest land use covering more than one-third of the world’s land surface, not including Greenland and Antarctica. The amount and quality of land available for food production is under pressure from the decisions and demands made by consumers, producers, and governments.…

Today the world faces growing problems relating to land-water interactions and water security, which have reached crisis levels in many countries and regions. Key issues include over-use and waste; fluctuations in abundance, with an increasing frequency of both droughts and floods; poor water…

Soil forms the basis of all terrestrial ecosystems, yet soil status and its biodiversity are often virtually ignored in environmental assessments. As an essential component of land resources, soil issues are given particular attention in this chapter. The term biodiversity refers to the total…

There has been a massive and unprecedented explosion in energy use since the 19th century; global energy use has grown by more than 20 times in the last 200 years, far outstripping the rate of population growth ( Grübler, 2004 ). In particular, the use of fossil fuels has increased dramatically,…

Rapid urbanization is taking place all over the world, driven largely by rural migration, resulting in urban sprawl and slum developments as well as in the development of high quality infrastructure and overall improvement in the standard of living. If current projections are accurate, 66 per cent…

Drylands cover 41 per cent of the land surface, produce 44 per cent of the crops, and contain over 2 billion people and half of the world’s livestock. Drylands include some of the most productive areas on the planet, but also some of the most fragile, where minor alterations in conditions can result…

Land is finite in quantity, however: the evidence presented in this Outlook suggests that, with changes in consumer and corporate behavior, and the adoption of more efficient planning and sustainable practices, we will have sufficient land available in the long term to meet both the demand for…

The loss in both the quality and quantity of healthy and productive land resources is an immediate global concern, especially in developing countries and those with a high proportion of fragile and vulnerable drylands. As a symbol and global champion of such concerns, the United Nations Convention…