Desertification, land degradation and drought affect more than 2 billion people and the situation might worsen due to the unsustainable use of soil and water under present scenarios of climate change. The UNCCD 10-year strategy points out the importance of science, knowledge sharing systems and awareness raising to support policymakers in reversing this trend. Sustainable land management practices, including sustainable agriculture, provide important local, regional and global benefits.

Established in 1994, the United Nations to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.

This report provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities in addressing road safety in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region.

China is experiencing rapid and large scale urbanization, and the resulting local and global urban environmental challenges are unprecedented. The Chinese Government has fully recognized these challenges and is aiming to promote more sustainable urbanization in line with the objectives of the eleventh five year plan, which calls for 'building a resource-conserving and environmentally friendly society'. Various initiatives are being pursued to support this objective, both at the national and local levels.

The drylands of Africa, exclusive of hyper-arid zones, occupy about 43 per cent of the continent, and are home to a rapidly growing population that currently stands at about 325 million people. Dry zones, inclusive of hyper-arid lands, cover over 70 per cent of the continent’s terrestrial surface. Outside of the cities many dryland inhabitants are either pastoralists, sedentary or nomadic, or agro-pastoralists, combining livestock-rearing and crop production where conditions allow.

Agricultural sectors play a key role in the economics of climate change. Land as an input to agricultural production is one of the most important links between economy and the biosphere, representing a direct projection of human action on the natural environment. Agricultural management practices and cropping patterns have a vast effect on biogeochemical cycles, freshwater availability and soil quality. Agriculture also plays an important role in emitting and storing greenhouse gases.

The Bali Action Plan identified two key areas for the forest sector to contribute significantly to global climate change mitigation. One area concerned approaches and incentives relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD). The second area focused on the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. REDD+ has become synonymous for a combination of these two areas.

The 450 million people living in and around Asia-Pacific forests hold a vital stake in the success of REDD. For effective reductions in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, such schemes must:

This paper explores how a 'conflict and violence sensitive' framework in project assessment, design and implementation facilitates early identification and mitigation of negative consequences of competition and dispute, and promotes sustainable development over the longer term. It discusses the role of renewable resources in perpetuating conflict and violence, and distills lessons from selected development programming experiences in managing conflict risks associated with these dynamics.

Covers the rush to acquire land in Africa by foreign governments and private investors, fuelled by fears for global food security in the face of climate change and volatile food prices on the international market. Warns that the political and economic risks of these land purchases are colossal and outweigh any gains, and argues that African governments must make food security and sufficiency for their own people paramount.

The study discusses land-degradation in pastoral communities and depicts land-use system and associated human and livestock population pressure as the major determinant of vegetation cover, surface run-off, soil erosion, and species richness. The study recommends use of enclosures to reverse range degradation, and diversification of pastoral economies to reduce poverty and relieve pressure on land as the primary source of livelihood in the semi-arid rangelands of Kenya

These Regulations, consisting of 13 sections and two Schedules, applies to cultivate agricultural land the Conservation areas, declared by Order published in Gazette Extraordinary No. 1550/9 of 22 May 2008, as specified in the Schedule to these regulations. They establish requirements to that a person shall not cultivate annual crops on any land area, which consists of a slope of more than sixty 60%.