Nature-based Solutions (NbS) work with nature to benefit both natural ecosystems and the people that depend on them. By putting nature at the centre, NbS address a range of societal challenges: protecting, sustainably managing or restoring natural or modified ecosystems and supporting their health, function and biodiversity.

The research collated in this brief confirms that NbS deliver simultaneously multiple benefits and shows the wide-ranging beneficial impacts of scaling up their implementation across Europe.

Since the commitments and reporting requirements of the SDGs ov erlap significantly with those of the UNFCCC and UNCCD, policy designe rs have mutually reinforcing incentives to advance this SDG commitment. When env ironmental degradation is minimized and restoration efforts are prioritized , ecosystems can sequester and store more carbon and lessen the impact of some c limate change effects.

What’s the goal here? To sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss. Two billion hectares of land on Earth are degraded, affecting some 3.2 billion people, driving species to extinction and intensifying climate change. Goal 15: Life on land Human life depends on the earth as much as the ocean for our sustenance and livelihoods. Plant life provides 80 percent of the human diet, and we rely on agriculture as an important economic resources.

Facts and Figures: ➡ Every minute, 23 hectares of arable land are lost due to drought and desertification. ➡ Over the last two decades, approximately 20 per cent of the Earth’s vegetated surface has shown persistent declining trends in productivity, mainly due to unsustainable land and water use and management practices. ➡ Every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost that are home to more than 80 per cent of all land-based species and which provide livelihood to 1.6 billion people.

Ecosystems and Biodiversity Facts and Figures # The IPBES Report (5) stated that “around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history”.

Indicator 15.3.1: Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area
 

Environmental services of biodiversity, clean water, etc., have been considered byproducts of farming and grazing, but population pressures and a move from rural to peri-urban areas are changing land use practices, reducing these services and increasing land degradation. A range of ecosystem markets have been reversing this damage, but these are not widely institutionalized, so land managers do not see them as “real” in the way they do for traditional food and fiber products.

Restoring the health of degraded land is critical for overall human development as land is a vital life-supporting system, directly or indirectly influencing the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). However, more than 33% of the global land is degraded and thereby affecting the livelihood of billions of people worldwide. Realizing this fact, the 73rd session of the UN Assembly has formally adopted a resolution to celebrate 2021–2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN-DER), for preventing, halting, and reversing degradation of ecosystems worldwide.

Indicator 15.1.1: Forest area as a proportion of total land area
 

This practitioner’s guide explains how to promote gender-responsive forest tenure reform in community-based forest regimes. It is aimed at those taking up this challenge in developing countries. There is no one single approach to reforming forest tenure practices for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. Rather, it involves taking advantage of opportunities that emerge in various institutional arenas such as policy and law-making and implementation, government administration, customary or community-based tenure governance, or forest restoration at the landscape scale.

The current relationship between Syria and the West cripples any real prospect for reconstruction. Western sanctions on reconstruction as a political tool aimed at the regime, have wide-ranging negative impacts on the civilian population – while having little hope of political success. For agriculture the repercussions of sanctions on reconstruction are severe, affecting refugee returns, livelihood recovery, food security and stabilization.

Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs), also referred to as innovation platforms or learning alliances, is a form of governance that utilizes pooled resources to address existing regulatory, participation, resource and learning gaps bringing together the strengths of private, public, and nonprofit partners . This document provides a synthesis on the major outcomes, elements of success, challlenges and opportunities for multi-stakeholder platforms in land restoration and sustainable land management in Tanzania.