This chapter looks at some of the wider human security issues related to the condition of land. Many of the underlying pressures on land resources are not immediately obvious. Considerable evidence suggests that people are more likely to use land sustainably if they have secure tenure. Gender…

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. Future changes in the condition of land…

Agriculture and livestock cover over one-third of the world’s land surface, dwarfing all other land uses. Intensification, driven by a lucrative but largely inefficient food system, has boosted production. However, it has also disturbed cultural landscapes, sustained over thousands of years, and…

An integrated approach to land and water resource management is essential: this entails reducing demand and increasing use efficiency, protecting and restoring wetlands and watersheds in our working landscapes, providing incentives for sustainable use, and designing more sustainable cities

We depend on living soil and the biodiversity that underpins functioning ecosystems and supports productive land-based natural capital. Threats are increasing which require a committed and sustained response. A mixture of protection, sustainable management and, where necessary, restoration is needed…

The millennia-old relationship between town and country is being transformed. 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…

Rural communities in drylands are often poorer than elsewhere and the land is more vulnerable to degradation from climate change and direct human pressures. Poor management can lead to desertification. We know how to manage drylands sustainably, but often do not achieve this in practice; policies…

Part Three presents pathways for change, summarizing the critical recommendations from Part Two and outlining strategic priorities for implementation recognizing that decisions and investments made today will influence land use and management tomorrow. We expect that this concluding part of the…

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is the new paradigm for managing land degradation, introduced to halt the ongoing loss of healthy land as a result of unsustainable management and land conversion. The goal of LDN is to maintain the land resource base so that it can continue to supply ecosystem…

Changes in land productivity are the result of environmental conditions and/or land use and management that impacts the quantity and quality of terrestrial ecosystem services. A persistent decline in land productivity points to the long-term alteration in the health and productive capacity of the…

Agriculture is expected to face increasing water risks that will impact production, markets, trade and food security - risks that can be mitigated with targeted policy actions on water hotspots.

A new book which summarizes the most recent evidence on how to use agrobiodiversity to provide nutritious foods through harnessing natural processes.

Agriculture is one of the more significant contributors to global warming. Nitrogen-based fertilizers and farm animals generate greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. Conventional farming depletes soil of carbon, while planting and managing forests can help offset carbon emissions…

This report contributes to the discussion of interconnections between scarce resources by highlighting the nexus between land, water and energy (the LWE nexus). It focuses on a dynamic, integrated, and disaggregated analysis of how land, water and energy interact in the biophysical and economic…

FAO is ‘custodian’ UN agency for 21 indicators. Find out more about each indicator - key results, focal points, methodology and data.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) launched today 26 September 2017 a report focusing on “Reducing Displacement Risk in the Greater Horn of Africa”. The publication presents the first baseline for displacement risk associated with sudden-onset disasters in the countries of the…

This paper represents a contribution to the Global Land Outlook in terms of discussing the complex dimensions of land and water resources management. Per the Terms of Reference for its production, the paper explains complex interactions between land and water resources management. Hot spots of land…

This report is a first step towards a uniform mechanism for business to report on their contribution to and impact on the SDGs in an effective and comparable way. It contains a list of existing and established disclosures that businesses can use to report, and identifies relevant gaps, where…

While being broadly framed as 17 separate and diverse elements, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated targets inherently interlink with one another making up indivisible parts of sustainability from a systemic perspective. Actions or measures taken for achieving one goal may be…

This practical guide is addressed to policy makers and development practitioners working on Green Growth and Business Environment Reform. Business Environment Reform (BER) and Green Growth (GG) are both important parts of and strategies for sustainable development of emerging economies. While these…

The World Bank Group has released the report 'Results-Based Climate Finance in Practice'. The report reviews 74 results-based climate financing (RBCF) programs implemented in developing countries with an objective to: assess the characteristics and overall volume of funding flowing through RBCF…

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has released the 2017 African Forestry Investment Conference (AFIC) report 'Unlocking Capital Flows for Forest Sector Development in Africa'. The event brought together key players from the financial services and plantation forestry industries, government…

The International Journal on Green Growth and Development is an effort to stir a debate around emerging ‘green’ concepts and development. The publication aims at building knowledge through stakeholder engagement on policy-relevant issues to understand the many facets of green growth and development…

Dryland vegetation is characterised by discrete plant patches that accumulate and capture soil resources under their canopies. These “fertile islands” are major drivers of dryland ecosystem structure and functioning, yet we lack an integrated understanding of the factors controlling their magnitude…

United Nations recently released a report titled "State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017," identifying a five-percent increase in global hunger from 2015 to 2016. Although this report signifies a setback towards achieving the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals, there are many…