Land degradation threatens the livelihoods of billions of people around the world . This is particularly the case for populations living in rural areas where most of the poor people reside: estimates report that 80% of the extreme poor live in rural areas and 65% work in the agricultural sector. Land represents a key asset for the livelihoods of the rural poor, as it provides key resources such as food, energy, shelter, and fodder, among others.

In 2015, governments identified their priorities and objectives to achieve LDN, and then backed them with strong political statements. Reflecting that demand for urgent action, within a year, the Global Mechanism and the secretariat of the UNCCD and its international partners had established the LDN Target Setting Programme, which takes countries through a structured process to help leverage, assess, measure and achieve their commitments to LDN.

Vulnerability to food insecurity is related to a complex system of environmental, social and economic factors, which include, among others, land degradation, climate change, natural hazards, and insufficient access to infrastructure and services. These factors add to the already high exposure of mountain people to multiple risks and reduce their ability to cope with food shortages and other shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions adopted by countries to respond to it have amplified the existing vulnerabilities of mountain communities.

The Drought Resilience, Adaptation and Management Policy (DRAMP) Framework takes an integrated, multi-pronged approach to reduce risks and impacts of drought. Organized around six cross-cutting goals, the DRAMP Framework identifies pragmatic actions for countries to better prepare and respond to drought, and guides the design and implementation of drought policy at national to sub-national level.

The purpose of this document is to provide a model national drought plan that can serve as a background document for national experts in the process of developing their national drought plans.

The Strategic framework for drought risk management and enhancing resilience in Africa is an initiative of the FAO and UNCCD, and developed by Tsegaye Tadesse of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This report highlights six principles for a Drought Resilient and Prepared Africa (DRAPA). It was developed in the framework of the African Drought Conference held in August 2016 in Windhoek, Namibia.

This checklist is a tool prepared to help country-level project developers and their technical and financial partners to design effective Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Transformative Projects and Programmes. The checklist is optional, not prescriptive. It provides a pragmatic and scientifically grounded guide that encourages innovation. It aims to ensure consistency and completeness in the implementation of LDN, and to lead to a positive transformation. Usage of the checklist will ensure that the fundamental features of LDN are given full consideration.

Shaping an enabling environment for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) calls for integrated land use planning, inclusive and environmentally sound land access and governance, major reconfigurations of current institutional settings, financial backing, and ongoing dialogue between policy-makers, practitioners, and the scientific community.

Guiding through steps to take when high certainty data are required, depending on whether there are few, some, or extensive data available.

Providing guidance for obtaining SOC data for different levels of certainty. They guide you through which steps to take in the cases when high, medium or low certainty is required.

Land in Balance is a science-policy brief prepared by the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI). It gives an overview of the scientific conceptual framework for land degradation neutrality (LDN). The conceptual framework creates a common understanding of the LDN objective and consistency in approaches to achieving LDN.

Environmental change and carbon are intrinsically linked. When contained in greenhouse gases, carbon is a part of the problem. But in its organic form in the soil, carbon represents a major part of the solution. The first metre of soil contains more than twice the amount of carbon than the amount in the atmosphere, and about three times the amount that resides in the world’s vegetation. Increasing soil carbon builds a precious reservoir and helps to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

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. 

The LDN methodological note has been prepared based on the document developed during the UNCCD LDN pilot project and in the context of two Programmes implemented by the UNCCD Secretariat and the GM in cooperation with multiple partners, such as the Global Support Programme and the Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Programme (LDN TSP). The note aims at providing guidance to countries committed to set national voluntary LDN targets.

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 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.

Although the name “drylands” can diminish people’s appreciation of them, under different guises this land is often well-known and valued. Few doubt the importance to biodiversity of the world’s savannahs for example, or the value of fine fibers such as cashmere and alpaca wool, which are produced on dry grasslands. In countries of Central Asia, southern Europe and in the United States the drylands are acknowledged for their important cultural heritage. Yet in some countries drylands are equated with low productivity and they are starved of investment.

Land is the central component upon which the livelihoods of humanity rely. Our food, energy, and employments are associated with, and dependent on, its quality and well-being.

There is a risk that desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) disproportionally contribute to increased poverty, unemployment and inequality; and lead to the forced migration of those already most marginalized and vulnerable. Decisive action is therefore required to protect and restore vital land resources.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The words of Alison Anderson, Papunya elder and recently retired Australian politician, resonate. They resonate with all indigenous peoples whose relationship with their land is often more profoundly intimate than that of Western or eurocentric societies, and they resonate with a geologist. For Aboriginal people and geologists, the land tells stories – in different ways, of course, but the land is itself is viewed as a book whose narratives must be not only deciphered, but recounted.

This working paper examines the role of rural-urban linkages in the context of sustainable development and environmental protection, analyzing how harnessing linkages between urban and rural areas can potentially reduce spatial disparities. Emphasis is placed on examining the flows of people, goods, money and information between rural and urban areas, as well as upon the linkages that form between different economic sectors.