NSF awards $36.6 million in new food-energy-water system grants

The thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification has concluded with the adoption of 37 decisions. The meeting launched the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund and the UNCCD flagship publication, the ‘Global Land Outlook’. Brazil, India, and Liberia…

Speeding up efforts to reverse or prevent land degradation in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is vital in the next few years if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved. That was the message at an event hosted by FAO last week during the 13th session of the Conference of the…

The Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and private sector asset manager Mirova have launched the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Fund, co-promoted and structured by the two partners since December 2015. The Fund is described as the first-ever privately managed…

Large parts of Southern Europe have suffered from drought this summer as a result of ruthless heat and low rainfall. A new near-real-time soil moisture data set developed as part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) uses space-derived information to support drought…

On 12 September 2017, the UNCCD launched its new flagship report titled, 'The Global Land Outlook' (GLO), which assesses the current and future state of the world’s land resources. Along with the GLO, the UNCCD released a series of working papers meant to "provide an expanded format as well as an…

During the first week of the thirteen session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) gave an update on its land degradation and restoration…

In conjunction with the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has launched a publication focused on land restoration and achievement of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)…

To achieve the target of a land degradation neutral world (SDG target 15.3) by 2030, large amounts of financial resources must be mobilized. Public resources alone will not suffice, as acknowledged in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. New financial instruments and intermediaries, as well as enabling…

This book comprehensively describes the major ecosystem services in dryland environments that are provided by typical land use, including forestland, grassland and farmland, using the Loess Plateau, Northwest China as an example. It offers extensive information on land policy, implementation and…

Through the experiences of people who earn their livelihoods by tending the land, these eight ‘Stories of Resilience’ reflect how, in countries as varied as Namibia, Cuba, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, SLM is improving living conditions of communities and strengthening environmental resilience.

Food production is key to achieving food security in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa. Since agricultural productivity is limited, however, due to inherent agro-ecological constraints and land degradation, sustainable agricultural intensification has been widely discussed as an opportunity for…

“Consumption of the earth's natural reserves has doubled in the last 30 years, with a third of the planet's land now severely degraded. Each year, we lose 15 billion trees and 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil. Smallholder farmers, women and indigenous communities are the most vulnerable, given…

As a partner to the Convention since 2011, IUCN supports progress towards policies and programmes that deliver Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) through the application of nature-based solutions (NbS) – actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems to address societal challenges.