Land restoration is an essential component of any building-forward strategy. Without land restoration, we will continue to face global crises. Ensuring food and water security, reducing emissions and conserving biodiversity will not be possible without concerted efforts to regenerate our natural…

The Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) response hierarchy of avoiding degradation, reducing degradation and restoring degraded land are also included in the forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach. It is defined as a long-term process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well…

“It is my experience that ecological restoration creates jobs, spurs innovation, and offers new opportunities in the green economy.” Ecological restoration of the abandoned Lizard Hill Sand Mine near Ocean City, in Maryland, United States, created a 32-acre mosaic of seepage wetlands (image before…

Definition Forest restoration supports the recovery or restoration of a degraded forest, with the aim to re-establish the forest structure and its ecological functioning, biodiversity, and productivity levels. The technology is applied to land with forest areas, such as forest/woodland. There are…

Restoring degrading lands can help us mitigate climate change. Land can be our greatest ally in fighting climate change, but first we need to restore it to full health. Solutions that slow climate change, restore nature and biodiversity, protect us against pandemics, allow us to produce more food…

Addressing land degradation and its impacts continues to be a challenge. Despite this, alternative options based on sustainable land-based approaches that promote LDN have been proven to have positive impacts on a number of sectors. Learn more: LDN for sustainable agriculture and food security LDN…

Land degradation can generate or reinforce poverty and inequality by disproportionally affecting populations that largely depend on land resources for their livelihood. Jointly developed by Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, Conservation International and German Development Institute, this briefing note…

Land remains the most fundamental asset for the majority of vulnerable populations living in developing countries, as their livelihoods are directly linked to agriculture. Land degradation is a pervasive systemic phenomenon that can take many problematic forms, including chemical contamination and…

Land degradation and biodiversity loss are among the most pressing environmental challenges facing humanity. Land degradation has reduced the productivity of nearly one-quarter of the global land surface, impacting the wellbeing of about 3.2 billion people and costing about ten per cent of annual…

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is a paradigm shift in land management policies and practices. It is a unique approach that counterbalances the expected loss of productive land with the recovery of degraded areas. It strategically places the measures to conserve, sustainably manage and restore…

Protecting mountain ecosystems, promoting sustainable use of natural resources and ensuring food security are all global priorities. SDG 15 aims to advance actions that ensure sound and sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems by controlling land degradation and maintaining a healthy vegetation…

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) contributes to achieving multiple SDGs in small island and developing states (SIDS), helping preserve biodiversity and increasing resilience to climate change. Land degradation has a strong negative impact on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water…

The Global Land Outlook regional thematic reports demonstrate that informed and responsible decision-making can help develop policies that respond to commitments to better manage and restore land resources, including SDG and associated objectives such as land degradation neutrality (LDN).

The Global Land Outlook (GLO) Working Papers Series is a supplementary set of publications that cover a wide variety of strategic issues related to land management and planning. The series aims to provide an expanded format as well as an additional vehicle for those authors invited to contribute to…

The diagnosis: Scientific Assessment to inform Policy Facilitator: Barron Joseph Orr Welcome address: Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary Introduction to session: Jean-Luc Chotte Land Restoration and Sustainable Development : Jeffrey Herrick, UN Environment International Resource Panel (IRP)…

Water scarcity is already widespread and remains on the rise in nearly every region in the world. Around 36 per cent of the world’s population is currently living in water-scarce regions. Avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation lead to positive long-term gains in water security. As land…

The Land of opportunities. A stable Sahel, with a population of over 300 million and a rising urbanization trend, offers immense opportunities for the global market. The Sahel, the vast semi-arid region of Africa separating the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannas to the south, is as…

Principles are provided to govern application of the framework and to help prevent unintended outcomes during implementation and monitoring of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). To achieve the broader development objectives of the UNCCD and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), LDN interventions…

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), officially known as “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, are an intergovernmental set of 17 aspiration Goals with 169 targets. The Goals are contained in paragraph 54 United Nations Resolution A/RES/70/1 of 25 September 2015…

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 promotes “Life on Land” and SDG target 15.3 states: ‘By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation–neutral world.’ This page explains why…

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) seeks to keep healthy and productive land in balance. It represents a major opportunity to contribute to the “paradigm shift for sustainable development” by scaling up good practices and pilot activities through large-scale transformative projects and programmes…

January 2021 marked a grim milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 2 million people dead. Since the new strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged on the global stage in early 2020, an historical and unprecedented effort has been deployed to quell this global health crisis. As we settle into a…

Soil forms the basis of all terrestrial ecosystems, yet soil status and its biodiversity are often virtually ignored in environmental assessments. As an essential component of land resources, soil issues are given particular attention in this chapter. The term biodiversity refers to the total…

Desertification is threatening the livelihoods of 1 billion people in over 100 countries, and each year 12 million hectares of arable land are lost to drought. The extent and severity of land degradation worldwide, combined with the negative effects of climate change, population growth and an ever…

Brazil is synonymous with the Amazon for most people. But Brazil’s vast rainforest and wide rivers have not just captured the imagination of ordinary people. It has also captured donor finances due to the invaluable ecosystem services they provide, ranging from influencing global rainfall patterns…