This tool was designed to: Enable companies to better assess the significance of land to their business. Create awareness of the importance of land degradation and catalyze actions towards the implementation of sustainable land management projects. Not require an intensive data collection effort to…

Recent article published in the Journal of Migration and Development for people who are working on human migration and urban land usage and land cover change, might be interested in this study. As rural-urban human migration occurs in big cities, we often don't fully recognize their impact on the…

Loss of biodiversity and pressures on ecosystem services are global challenges. Land cover change is the best measure available to monitor pressures on terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. The OECD is developing new indicators on land cover changes and conversions.

A new study has quantified the economic impact of reducing avoidable food waste in Germany, Poland and Spain. The researchers modelled impacts on production, GDP and employment. The results show that reducing food waste from households has the greatest impact, although policy measures should be…

The publication is devoted to the deserts of the world and desertification as a global phenomenon of land degradation. Encyclopedia contains more than 1000 articles, which describe the deserts of the world; Large lakes and transit rivers crossing the deserts; general terms on climate, vegetation…

The policy requests to develop trends in soil erosion changes can be responded developing modelling scenarios of the two most dynamic factors in soil erosion, i.e. rainfall erosivity and land cover change. The recently developed Rainfall Erosivity Database at European Scale (REDES) and a statistical…

When people are forced to leave their homes, they usually also leave behind their means of economic activity. In their new location, they may not be able, or permitted, to work. This has wide-ranging implications. This issue includes 22 articles on the main feature theme of Economies: rights and…

Improvements in land use and management are needed at a global scale to tackle inter‐connected global challenges of population growth, poverty, migration, climate change, biodiversity loss, and degrading land and water resources. There are hundreds of technical options for improving the…

The report — Mechanized: Transforming Africa’s Agriculture Value Chains—summarizes the findings of a systematic analysis of what countries at the forefront of progress in mechanization have done right. It analyzes which policy decisions were taken and which interventions were implemented to…

North Africa was the birthplace of the Arab uprisings in late 2010. This movement affected all the countries in the region, albeit to varying degrees. And while protestors asked in unison for deep political and economic changes, the various governments in North Africa responded differently to their…

Most emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) are linked to the use of nitrogen (N) fertiliser in agriculture, highlighting a need for agricultural management practices that reduce emissions while maintaining agronomic productivity. A new study has assessed the long-term impact of conventional tillage (CT —…

The European Commission (EC), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies (NEREUS) have launched a new report consisting of 99 stories from European public authorities that showcases how they benefit from Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth…

Original Research Article published in the latest Journal of Arid Environments

Almost four years ago, CIFOR organized a side event on the tropical dry forests of Africa at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa. At that event, we identified the major issues affecting dry forests in Africa and…

It pays particular attention to three dimensions: economic and financial volatility, the role of the private sector, and the domestic resource mobilization.

Global environmental change is rapidly altering the dynamics of terrestrial vegetation, with consequences for the functioning of the Earth system and provision of ecosystem services.

This paper evaluates the feasibility of introducing a Land Degradation Neutral (LDN) scheme as an activity of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance.

Engaging the private sector has become a common motto for the development community. This, in itself, is a major evolution, as private forces have too long been dismissed, when not chastised, by many development actors! It is now well recognised that the vast majority of employment is provided by…

The objective of LDN is to maintain or even improve the amount of ecologically healthy and productive land resources over time, and to do it in line with national sustainable development priorities. Businesses, through their operations, impact land and depend on land according to their business…

Why climate researchers are so excited about landscapes....? In the recently published book, Climate-Smart Landscapes: Multifunctionality In Practice

A new report by the Sustainable Development Goal Fund (SDG Fund), in collaboration with its Private Sector Advisory Group and the UN Global Compact, focuses on the notion of universality as a potential driver to impact engagement with the private sector.

Thirty kilometres from the bustle of downtown Abu Dhabi, lies a remarkable undertaking that could one day change the environmental impact of air travel. Set on a two-hectare farm down the road from the IRENA Headquarters building, a pilot project conducted by Masdar Institute’s Sustainable Bioenergy…

"Restoring Life on Earth: Private-sector Experiences in Land Reclamation and Ecosystem Recovery," is No.88 from the CBD Technical Series explains that, while many restoration activities and initiatives are being undertaken or planned, they must be scaled up to realize the Aichi Biodiversity Targets…

The number of documented international land investments (aka land-grabbing) has been on the rise since 2000. Investors, whether private or governmental, are particularly interested in large-scale tracts of land located in the less-developed countries of the Global South. Inevitably, such investments…