The Global Environment Facility (GEF)/United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/United Nations University (UNU) PALM project is an initiative of the governments of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan which aims to restore, sustain and enhance the productive and protective functions of the transboundary ecosystems of the High Pamir and Pamir-Alai mountains, so as to improve the social and economic well-being of the rural communities and households utilizing the region's ecosystem resources to meet their livelihood needs, while preserving its unique landscape and globally important biodiversity.

Asia and the Pacific, for the purposes of this book, encompasses a vast territory extending from Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the south; from the Cook Islands in the east to Kuwait in the west (Map 1). The environmental diversity of Asia and the Pacific is therefore vast, and is contrasted by the region’s coldest and hottest deserts, verdant tropical rainforests, extensive steppe, desert steppe, grassland and rangelands, mountains and plains.

This Toolkit has been prepared to support the design and implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) programs. The specific purpose of the Toolkit is: to inform the user of the approaches that can be followed to analyze and value the economic costs of land degradation and the benefits of sustainable land management. ‘Land’ is interpreted broadly in the Toolkit, also including wetlands and coastal zones. The Toolkit contains five Tools that together present a detailed description of the various relevant ecological and economic assessment methodologies.

The Government of Namibia has identi ed land degradation as a serious problem which demands remedial intervention, and recognizes that integrated ecosystem management strategies are needed to e ectively address the underlying causes.The goal of the Country Pilot Partnership for Integrated Sustainable Land Management (CPP-ISLM) is to work towards combating land degradation by using integrated cross-sectoral approaches, which would enable Namibia to ensure environmental sustainability as well as the protection of dry land ecosystems and their functions.

US cities are at the forefront of the sustainable development challenge. They contain 80% of the country’s population, and therefore have the capacity to make or break SDG achievement (US Census Bureau 2016). But, while crucial to SDG attainment, they Executive Summary cannot accomplish this alone. While 80 percent of US residents live in urban areas, only 3 percent of land is urban; rural and urban areas are deeply interconnected (US Census Bureau 2016).

Human activities are the principal drivers of the processes of land degradation, desertification and climate change. Though highly complex and difficult to predict, interactions between climate change and land degradation are likely to affect a range of different ecosystem functions and the services they deliver, with consequent impacts on food production, livelihoods and human well-being. Society must therefore mitigate or reverse these stresses through innovative approaches.

Productive land is a critical natural asset for rural communities in developing nations, providing them with a wide range of ecosystem resources, such as water, fertile soils, plant and genetic diversity – on which they depend daily for survival. For many communities, the land is also an integral part of their cultural identity, helping to maintain social cohesion and stability, in addition to building resilience to socio-ecological shocks and risks such as those caused by climate change. But land is a vulnerable resource that must be managed and restored to ensure a sustainable future.

Land has many uses. It provides water, food and energy. It is used to create wealth and employment and grow economies. And it provides other, often less obvious and tangible, services such as conserving biodiversity, storing carbon, purifying and storing water. It even regulates the Earth’s climate, for instance, by absorbing the heat from the sun. All of its uses are undermined and destroyed when land is degraded. Degrading the land disrupts these functions and leads to severe food, water and energy shortages.

Key findings of the Sustainable Development Report 2019
World nations obtain their worst performance on SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). No country obtains a “green rating” (the report’s indicator for the achievement of an SDG) on SDG 14 (Life Below Water).

Understanding the cost of inaction and beneftis of action are important in order for all stakeholders to be able to make sound, informed decisions about the amount and type of investments in land they make. Even though techniques for sustainable land management are known, many barriers remain and the financial and economic aspects are often put forward as primary obstacles. If the full value of land is not understood by all stakeholders, it may not be sustainable managed, leaving future generations with diminished choices and options to secure human and environmental well-being.

Vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict. The accelerating damage could cost the global economy a staggering $23 trillion by 2050 - and rich countries as well as poor will pay the price.

Interview with Ibrahim Thiaw

Land Degradation Neutrality is one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets, requiring on-going degradation to be balanced by restoration and sustainable land management. However, restoration and efforts to prevent degradation have often failed to deliver expected benefits, despite enormous investments. Better acknowledging the close relationships between climate, land management and non-linear ecosystem dynamics can help restoration activities to meet their intended goals, while supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation.