Land is an essential building block of civilization yet its contribution to our quality of life is perceived and valued in starkly different and often incompatible ways. Conflicts about land use are intensifying in many countries. The world has reached a point where we must reconcile these differences and rethink the way in which we use and manage the land.

Protected areas (PA) are critical tools in maintaining biodiversity and, if well managed, are proven to be effective for both conservation and maintaining the ecosystem services on which human livelihoods and welfare depend. The modern protected area system was developed largely during the latter part of the twentieth and in the twenty-first century, and can be maintained under a range of management and governance types.

This working paper calls for urgent actions to protect human health and wellbeing. Lack of awareness of land degradation and its drivers and impacts can become a barrier to action. Raising knowledge and awareness of the driving forces and consequences in the social, economic and environmental dimensions is crucial, and should be implemented at every level. Actions across jurisdictions and sectors are needed at every stage of the pathways from land degradation drivers, their exposures and their human health impacts.

Optimizing land-based interventions for multiple benefits requires the capacity to do the right thing, in the right place, at the right time, at the right scale. Organic carbon is central to healthy productive soils and the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, but it is not easy to manage without effective measurement.

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 services such as provision of food and regulation of water and climate, while enhancing the resilience of the communities that depend on the land.

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 degradation as well as hot spots of water scarcity are presented in a series of global maps that have been previously published.

The LDN Target Setting Programme supports countries to define national LDN targets and associated measures. The bellow document “Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting – A technical guide” has been prepared by the GM and the Secretariat of the UNCCD to provide operational guidance on how to define national baselines, identify voluntary targets and associate measures to achieve LDN by 2030, and monitor progress towards LDN targets.

The achievement of land degradation neutrality (LDN) can lead to multiple environmental, social and economic benefits, but only through the establishment of an enabling environment.

Land is a major overarching theme connecting the three Rio Conventions covering climate change (UNFCCC), biodiversity (CBD), and desertification and land degradation (UNCCD). Land management plays a key role in attaining their goals and targets. Furthermore, a large number of the Sustainable Development Goals have strong links to land and land management, and tradeoffs between sustainability ambitions often materialise on land.

This brochure provides a brief overview of the UNCCD’s LDN target setting programme and an analysis of response actions identified by 86 countries, highlighting the potential for actionable synergies with the Food Systems Summit. Leveraging LDN Commitments to Boost Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security. The greatest prospects for reversing land degradation, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss lie in transforming how we use and manage human, financial and natural capital to produce, distribute, and consume food.

This paper identifies and compares the land impact of all terrestrial energy forms. It also focuses on the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use and supply of energy, as well as the maintenance and enhancement of terrestrial carbon sinks that are essential to mitigating climate change, as set forth in SDG 13 and the Paris Agreement of 12 December 2015. Meeting these goals will require a rapid scale up of low-carbon, sustainable energy sources and their efficient distribution. Many of these activities have significant implications for land use, management and planning.

An outlook is a vantage point, a platform, a perspective; it broadens our vistas and allows us to examine our prospects, both present and future. It is within this broader frame of thinking that the Global Land Outlook (GLO) aims to present a unique perspective on one of the Earth’s most precious assets: land.

This working paper aims to identify shared challenges faced by both rural and urban areas, and documents the co-benefits that may arise from joint initiatives to address these challenges. Issues and recommendations are structured around natural, human, social, manufactured and financial capitals. A call for joint action concludes this paper, encouraging all stakeholders to take action on the ground in an attempt to holistically enhance the dynamics between rural and urban linkages.

This working paper analyzes the role of land use and spatial planning tools, processes and approaches to improve socio-economic opportunities through sustainable management of land resources (i.e., soil, water, and biodiversity).

This paper will discuss emerging trends in gender dimensions of land degradation, making an argument for the importance of taking gender roles into account when making policies and laws to promote land degradation neutrality.  Women comprise 43% of the world’s agricultural labor force, rising to 70% in some countries.4 In Africa, for instance, 80% of agricultural production comes from small-holder farmers, who are mostly rural women.

The Scientific Conceptual Framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) provides a scientific foundation for understanding, implementing and monitoring LDN. It has been designed to create a bridge between the vision and the practical implementation of LDN, by defining LDN in operational terms. The conceptual framework is a product of the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface. 

Responsible Land Governance to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality: This thematic report highlights case studies from East Africa that illustrate the critical role of land governance in achieving LDN, and the role of tenure security as a particular challenge for the region. The examples traverse the region from the northern plains in Africa’s largest country of Sudan, eastwards to the volcanic plateaus of Ethiopia, and down to the lush mountain valleys of Rwanda.

Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation: Timely action to prevent, reduce and reverse land degradation can improve food and water security, contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and avoid conflicts and migration. In this regard, the initiative for land degradation neutrality promoted by the UNCCD should be highlighted.

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 Outlook will help foster a new vision and agenda for action to ensure a more secure future.

The report provides scientifically sound practical guidance for selecting SLM practices that help address DLDD, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and for creating an enabling environment for their large-scale implementation considering local realities. It targets a broad audience from scientists, policy makers, landowners, community stakeholders and enterprises.

Neutralité en matière de dégradation des terres : Bénéfices pour la sécurité humaine : Un autre Sahel est possible avec la NDT, en valorisant tout le potentiel productif de ses terres, en tirant avantage des acquis techniques existants et du dividende démographique pour créer des opportunités et de la richesse à partir des ressources naturelles, aboutissant à une transformation économique, sociale et environnementale inclusive et durable

Integrated landscape management (ILM) has emerged as an innovative approach to land management that reduces land use conflicts, empowers communities, and achieves development objectives at the landscape scale. ILM is built on the principles of participation, negotiation, and cooperation; as such, it requires long-term collaboration among diverse stakeholders. This paper presents ILM as a viable means of achieving sustainable and equitable development.

Partnerships to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality: In the Northeast Asia sub-region, environmental pollution, transboundary sand and dust storms (SDS), agricultural expansion, deforestation, and overgrazing are growing challenges that are being further complicated by the impacts of climate change.

Climate- and human-induced land degradation endangers the future survival of our planet. A new focus on achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) seeks to spark and grow transformative efforts to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation through gender- and socially-equitable means.

Land degradation neutrality (LDN) is achieved if land degradation is avoided or reduced, and new degradation is balanced by reversing degradation elsewhere in the same land type through restoration or rehabilitation. The primary instrument for avoiding and reducing degradation is the application of sustainable land management (SLM) approaches and technologies. Because of its multifunctional roles and its sensitivity to land management, soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the three global indicators for LDN, so predicting and monitoring change in SOC is vital to achieving LDN targets.