Droughts are one of the starkest consequences of climate change and are becoming increasingly frequent, prolonged and intense. The extent of the short-, medium- and long-term damage they cause depends on the degree of vulnerability of the ecosystems, societies and economies affected. Those that are…

Achieving global restoration goals will require increasing enthusiasm and funding, as well as a common understanding of how to design and implement successful restoration projects that proactively and collaboratively engage local communities. SER’s International Standards provide essential tools and…

Immediate measures on agriculture, forestry, wetlands and bioenergy can cut down a third of the emissions to keep temperatures below 1.5°C

Climate change affects agriculture in a number of ways. Changes in temperature and precipitation as well as weather and climate extremes are already influencing crop yields and livestock productivity in Europe. Weather and climate conditions also affect the availability of water needed for…

Achieving human well-being and eradicating poverty for all of the Earth’s people—expected to number eight and a half billion by 2030—is still possible, but only if there is a fundamental—and urgent—change in the relationship between people and nature, and a significant reduction in social and gender…

Healthy land is key to achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, from reducing climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty, to increasing equality, decent work and food security for nearly eight billion people. That’s why, with the productivity of a quarter of our land already…

This guide represents the first effort to gather, in a practical and pragmatic manner, all relevant information related to the development and implementation of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Transformative Projects and Programmes. Countries can use this document for the identification and design…

A Manual for Gender-responsive Land Degradation Neutrality Transformative Projects and Programmes and Land Degradation Neutrality: Interventions to Foster Gender Equality.Women constitute the bulk of people who rely on land in many of the regions most affected by desertification, land degradation…

Healthy land is key to achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, from reducing climate change, biodiversity loss and poverty, to increasing equality, decent work and food security for nearly eight billion people. That’s why, with the productivity of a quarter of our land already…

The SPI works to translate current science into policy options that are relevant to the 197 Parties of the Convention resulting from assessment and synthesis of current science. In October 2017, the UNCCD Conference of the Parties (COP) requested that the SPI produce these reports as part of their…

Environmental Science & Policy journal special issue on Implementing Land Degradation Neutrality: from policy challenges to policy opportunities for national sustainable development. Edited by Graciela Metternicht, Mariam Akhtar-Schuster, Victor Castillo.

The Land Degradation-Neutrality (LDN) framework of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is underpinned by three complementary interactive indicators (metrics: vegetation cover, net primary productivity; NPP and soil organic carbon; SOC) as proxies for change in land-based…

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the popular perception of rangelands and their management is that these vast areas have major problems without solutions: the common narrative focuses on overgrazing, herds of undernourished livestock, erosion and desertification, drought, famine, and conflict. However,…

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals aimed to be the roadmap for society to move from the exploitation to the sustainable use of our planet’s resources and from inequality, poverty, and hunger to a proper education and good life for all. A…

Women and men have unequal opportunities to address land degradation. While adoption of Sustainable Development Goal target 15.3 leads the world to ‘strive towards land degradation neutrality (LDN)’ by 2030, gender concerns are sparsely considered in LDN programming to date.

Developed in collaboration between FAO and CIHEAM-Bari, WOCAT, ELD and University of Leeds. The course focuses on Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices, and their place within the global development agenda, specifically in order to achieve SDG target 15.3, which aims "to achieve a land…

Several multilateral environmental agreements include ecosystem restoration. These include Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s Aichi Biodiversity Targets 1431 and 15,32 the Sustainable Development Goals,33 and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s land degradation…

The Global Soil Partnership (GSP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has published the first in a series of region-specific policy briefs to support harmonized soil management approaches and contribute towards achieving the SDGs. Titled, ‘The Multi-faced Role of Soil in the…

GEO-6 is the world’s most comprehensive environmental report, covering a range of topics, issues and potential solutions. This flagship report shows how governments can put the world on the path to a truly sustainable future. It emphasizes that urgent and inclusive action is needed by decision…

Biodiversity for food and agriculture is indispensable to food security and sustainable development. It supplies many vital ecosystem services, such as creating and maintaining healthy soils, pollinating plants, controlling pests and providing habitat for wildlife, including for fish and other…

Since the concept of the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) emerged in global policy discourse, a key point of contention has been the development of market-based instruments to promote the LDN agenda. Much of this discussion has focused on the use of LDN-specific offset mechanisms and private-public…

The International Conference on “Successful Transformation toward Land Degradation Neutrality (Future Perspective)” in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the coming into force of the United Nations Conventions to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place on, 17-19 June 2019, in Ankara,…

The LDN Fund has been created in response to the great requirement (and opportunity) for more investment in sustainable land use and land restoration. It is an impact investment fund that will invest in profit-generating SLM and land restoration projects worldwide to reduce or reverse land…

The Puna region, located in NW Argentina, is a dry highland with many endemic species and significant traditional cultural heritage. The Puna was a pilot region for the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands project (LADA-FAO) which aimed at assessing desertification status in different land use…

WOCAT – The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies with its unique methodology and global Sustainable Land Management (SLM) database - can help promote scaling out of SLM and thus contribute to land degradation neutrality. This paper focuses primarily on three Land Degradation…