Land degradation and desertification reduce the provision of ecosystem services by lands and soils. This constrains development, reduces water, food, and energy security, and triggers resource conflicts. Although biophysical processes and economic impacts are increasingly understood, efforts to combat degradation have been failing thus far to prevent further losses of land productivity, a cost estimated at 42 billion USD/year (Dregne & Chou, 1992; Requier-Desjardins, 2007).

Human activity and related land use change are the primary cause of accelerated soil erosion, which has substantial implications for nutrient and carbon cycling, land productivity and in turn, worldwide socio-economic conditions. Here the authors present an unprecedentedly high resolution (250 × 250 m) global potential soil erosion model, using a combination of remote sensing, GIS modelling and census data. The authors challenge the previous annual soil erosion reference values as our estimate, of 35.9 Pg yr−1 of soil eroded in 2012, is at least two times lower.

Change in land management practices and governmental policies is urgently needed to reverse the continuing decline of marginal drylands. Marginal drylands are fragile ecosystems that sustain the livelihoods of millions of poor people in developing countries. However, their capacity to provide these services is continuously declining due to desertification, resulting in dwindling land productivity, and affecting human well-being and development opportunities in many marginal drylands.

The land use sector represents almost 25% of total global emissions. These emissions can be reduced. There is also great potential for carbon sequestration through the scaling up, and scaling out, of proven and effective practices. Improved land use and management, such as low-emissions agriculture, agro-forestry and ecosystem conservation and restoration could, under certain circumstances, further reduce the remaining emissions gap by up to 25%. These climate-smart land management practices nearly always come with adaptation co-benefits.

Land degradation is becoming a serious environmental issue threatening fertile agricultural soils and other natural resources. There are many driving forces behind land degradation. The expansion of artificial surfaces due to various economic activities, such as housing, industry, and transport infrastructure, known as soil sealing, constitutes one of the most intensive forms of land degradation in urban regions. Measures to halt and reverse land degradation require both strong land-use management policies, as well as effective spatial planning mechanisms.

This UNCCD-SPI technical report provides well-established scientific evidence for understanding the strong linkages between land use and drought and how management of both is connected through water use. It introduces a new concept of Drought-smart land management (D-SLM) and organizes relevant approaches and practices in fourteen groups across four major classes of land use.

The UNEP foresight report contains a description of the 21 emerging environmental issues identified through the UNEP Foresight Process. The process resulted in a list of 21 emerging environmental issues tagged 21 Issues for the 21st Century covering the major themes of the global environment including food, land, freshwater, marine, biodiversity, climate change, energy, waste, and technology, as well important cross-cutting issues ranging from the need for better environmental governance, to the need for human behavioral change towards the environment.

Agricultural soils offer multiple soil functions, which contribute to a range of ecosystem services, and the demand for the primary production function is expected to increase with a growing world population. Other key functions on agricultural land have been identified as water purification, carbon sequestration, habitat biodiversity and nutrient cycling, which all need to be considered for sustainable intensification.

The report’s findings suggest that policies and programmes of governments and the development partners could include a stronger focus on the development of peri-urban areas and smaller cities and towns. The rapid pace of change in peri-urban areas throws into relief any underlying issues in land tenure arrangements, land administration/planning and governance, such as overlapping mandates, conflicts in tenure systems, weak land administration/planning capacity and wider political economy issues that can block positive reforms.

Federal investments in ecosystem restoration projects protect Federal trusts, ensure public health and safety, and preserve and enhance essential ecosystem services. These investments also generate business activity and create jobs. It is important for restoration practitioners to be able to quantify the economic impacts of individual restoration projects in order to communicate the contribution of these activities to local and national stakeholders.

Soil ecosystem services, as all ecosystem services (ESS), are fundamental for meeting societal needs such as food and energy provision and for overcoming societal challenges like climate change mitigation and adaptation. The MAES (Mapping and Assessment on Ecosystems and their Services) Soil Pilot aims to increase awareness on the importance of soil functions and related ecosystem services and to show their value. The pilot shows the need for protection, management and restoration of soil ecosystems and the need to make a more sustainable and efficient use of it.

This infographic builds on the Regional Dialogue on Women’s Inclusion in Landscape Management,
organized by WOCAN in partnership with RECOFTC and The Forests Dialogue, 7-9 Oct. 2014, Thailand