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.

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.

The state of the environment, taken as a complex whole, fundamentally impacts the stability of human societies; it can enable or hinder peace and security through composite and interconnected dynamics. Most often, land acts as the catalyzing element. The security-environment relationship exists within the bounds of both planetary geographical interconnectedness, and global systemic interconnectedness.

This report provides a detailed analysis of how migration is connected to land ownership, land use change, and land degradation. It begins with an overview of general migration theories, and then quickly focuses on how environmental factors influence migration. After introducing a well-established conceptual model to guide further analysis, the report takes the reader through a large number of specific examples of migration associated with land degradation and droughts, from a range of countries and regions.

The Agrifood business (production, processing, transportation, and commercialization to final consumers) has changed dramatically in the last fifty years. Rather than being carried out via linear supply chains, agrifood business is now conducted in complex networks spanning the globe. It can, in other words, be said that modern agrifood business is conducted under the form of Global Value Chains (GVC). The main characteristic of a GVC is a fragmented production of goods and products across borders. An agrifood GVC can be defined as either buyer-driven or producer-driven.

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 working paper explores how land tenure systems in different ecosystems and bio-cultural regions around the world are linked to land degradation or sustainable land management.

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.

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.

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.

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.