Among these billions of people are the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities who live on and manage approximately 65 percent of the world’s land area in customary or traditional systems. Despite existing laws that secure their rights, rarely do Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities have…

While the modern agricultural system has helped stave off famines and feed the world’s 7 billion residents, the way we eat and produce food is posing a threat to future populations’ food security. With an expected increase in population to 10 billion in 2050, ensuring food security is more important…

Agronomy for Sustainable Development (ASD) is a journal of the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE). It welcomes multidisciplinary articles that bridge agronomy, cropping and farming system research with ecological, genetic, environmental, economical and social…

A Method for Developing Forest Landscape Restoration Strategies by Rapidly Assessing the status of Key Success Factors

At the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, this 60th issue of ETFRN News is very timely, with the preface signed by UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, reflecting a focus on drylands that cover some 40% of the world’s land area and contain some of the most severely degraded…

This is not “pie in the sky,” as you might think. It is exactly what the European Commission has proposed as the basis for a €750 billion “European Green Deal.” The package would include major investments in protecting and restoring forests, soils, wetlands, and rivers as well as transforming…

Soils are the basis of human existence by being the substrate for food and crop production. Soils hovever, are increasingly threatened by degradation, pollution, erosion, loss of organic matter, salinization and other processes that render them unuseable for crop and food production. Soil…

The Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER19), ‘Stop soil erosion, Save our future’ will be held from 15-17 May 2019, at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Headquarters in Rome, Italy. This science-policy meeting is co-organized by the UN FAO and its Global Soil Partnership (GSP), the…

Better land management practices can sequester enough carbon to lower global temperatures

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…

With growing awareness of the economic costs of land degradation, political leaders are adopting ambitious targets to restore degraded forests and agricultural land. Building on the interest in forest landscape restoration generated by the Bonn Challenge, in 2014, countries adopted the New York…

Jun. 17 is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. A new report shows that climate change, overuse and conversion for agriculture, cities and infrastructure, which also drive drought and desertification, have already degraded one fifth of the planet’s land area.

Interactive infographic on key facts and figures on Land Degradation and Drylands by CGIAR/ICARDA

Soil organic matter (SOM) supports the Earth's ability to sustain terrestrial ecosystems, provide food and fiber, and retains the largest pool of actively cycling carbon. Over 75% of the soil organic carbon (SOC) in the top meter of soil is directly affected by human land use. Large land areas have…

In collaboration with FAO, through a GEF funding project, the Global Ecosystem Management Programme has been working with the Commission on Ecosystem Management to develop and test a methodology to assess and monitor rangeland and grassland health for the last 3 years.

One of the greatest sources of uncertainty for future climate predictions is the response of the global carbon cycle to climate change1. Although approximately one-half of total CO2 emissions is at present taken up by combined land and ocean carbon reservoirs2, models predict a decline in future…

The year 2021 will see the kick-off of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration — a culmination of growing global attention, agreements and ambitions for restoration and improved land management. Measures that help to restore land and improve its management can offer multiple benefits to…