By 2050 we would need to double global food production to keep up with the projected population increase. Meanwhile the land from which our food comes from is decreasing in quality. Land degradation is a major global concern as our demands for food, fodder, and fuel continue to accelerate. Drylands…

Two-thirds of the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have already submitted or are preparing to submit to the United Nations their land degradation goals, to combat a problem that threatens agriculture and the lives of their people. In 2015, the parties to the United Nations Convention…

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…

Under the umbrella of the EU funded project Reversing Land Degradation in Africa through Scaling-up EverGreen Agriculture

The Land and Poverty conference will present the latest research and practice on the diversity of reforms, interventions, and innovations in the land sector around the world. The 2018 conference theme will be: Land Governance in an Interconnected World

Healthy and productive land resources form the basis of societal livelihood systems. Entire populations are directly dependent on the ecosystem services provided by land resources for their well-being. It was estimated in 2011 that up to 25% of the world’s land and soil resources can be classified…

The new UNCCD reporting process has been launched. To accommodate the highly technical nature of the new reporting process and enhance national capacity to generate, analyze, interpret and use Earth observation data, UNCCD has developed a series of online tutorials on how to use the available…

Trends.Earth (formerly the Land Degradation Monitoring Toolbox) is a platform for monitoring land change using earth observations in an innovative desktop and cloud-based system. The three sub-indicators for monitoring achievement of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN, Sustainable Development Goal…

Special Issue Title: The Economics of Land Degradation and Desertification (UNCCD Second Scientific Conference)

Restoring degraded land could inject $84 billion a year to the global economy, according to researchers, but public resources fall short of unlocking this potential.

"Land degradation is estimated to cost the global economy from $2 to $4.5 trillion a year, while economic benefits of restoration efforts are an estimated $84 billion a year, according to a report in Environmental Research Letters, and statistics from World Resources Institute. The purpose of the…

Given that land and soils are increasingly threatened by degradation, this project investigated how SDG target 15.3, which strives to achieve a land degradation neutral world by 2030, can be implemented. The report suggests necessary steps towards the implementation of Land Degradation Neutrality…

The Lancet Planetary Health is a new online-only title in The Lancet’s growing family of specialty journals, joining The Lancet Public Health and The Lancet Global Health to provide a third pillar in The Lancet’s open-access programme. Building on the foundation of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet…

The LDN Country Profiles provide evidence-based arguments that contribute to making the case for investing in measures to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation. These profiles demonstrate the importance and multiple benefits of taking actions to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality. The country…

Governments should invest in healthy, living soils by channeling agricultural subsidies towards sustainable farming methods. If done right, agriculture can conserve the diversity of species found in soils, helping halt land degradation and desertification. This in turn helps countries ensure future…

In March this year, an unusual sand and dust storm nicknamed ‘Mars on Earth or Orange Snow[1]’ transported and deposited dust that transformed European landscapes into a surreal orange-tinted scenery. An even more drastic dust storm swept over India recently and left behind a trail of casualties.[2]…

At a major Bonn Challenge event in Brazil in March, Lina Pohl, El Salvador’s minister of environment and natural resources, joined Brazil in urging the international community to support a decade of landscape restoration. Now, international momentum is building in support of the initiative, a…

Viewing humans as drivers of change operating outside the natural environment is unhelpful for defining interventions that effectively manage change and complexity. Indeed, there is now broad agreement that environmental governance needs to consider integrated social-ecological systems (SES) in…

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 commits countries to strive towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. LDN requires reductions in land quality to be balanced by efforts to restore or rehabilitate degraded areas. However, decisions need to be made as to where to invest given…

The International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy is a book series exploring critical questions under law and policy regarding the protection and sustainable management of soil and land at the international, national and regional level. Now in its fourth volume, the International Yearbook of Soil…

In the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food, health, water, and climate, an increase in pressure on land is highly likely. To avoid further land degradation and promote land restoration, multifunctional use of land is needed within the boundaries of the soil…

The Science-Policy Interface (SPI) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) wishes to invite you to participate in a survey on the potential contribution of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) to enhancing the well-being and livelihoods of people as well as the state of the…

UNA-UK has released a major report on implementing the new climate deal agreed by UN member states in Paris in 2015. Climate 2020 – Degrees of Devastation is the fourth in the series of major reports on the Paris Agreement on climate change. It equips policy-makers, practitioners and interested…

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…

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.