Agricultural practices have adapted over millennia to regional and local variations in weather conditions. But as the effects of climate change become more noticeable, further adaptation becomes essential to ensure food security in Europe.

Land degradation is a widespread crisis, destabilizing nations and communities on a global scale. To be clear, food will be less plentiful (and thus more expensive) unless responsible land management and res- toration is given priority on the international political agenda. The commitment to halt and reverse land degradation will undoubtedly feature prominently in post-2015 development and climate agendas.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development has developed a comprehensive work program that can help its members better understand risks linked to inaction and opportunities for action, structuring its work program around the international discussions led by the UNCCD on LDN. In particular LDN is reflected in the WBCSD’s Action2020 targets of “restoring at least 12 million hectares per year of degraded land”, and a business solution on “Restoring Degraded Land” has been developed to provide a response to land degradation challenges and the LDN target.

Desertification is a silent, invisible crisis that is destabilizing communities on a global scale. As the effects of climate change undermine livelihoods, inter-ethnic clashes are breaking out within and across states and fragile states are turning to militarization to control the situation.

Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) will help countries understand how much of their land offers restoration opportunities, map where those opportunities are and determine which degraded landscapes offer the most value to society. Global analysis has found more than two billion hectares of land across the planet that could benefit from restoration. What do these opportunities look like at the necessary, landscape level?

A new post-2015 development agenda demands a new vision and a responsive framework with

Este informe examina los progresos que han realizado las autoridades para aplicar los elementos de restitución de tierras de la Ley 1448 con el fin de garantizar el derecho de los reclamantes de tierras a un recurso efectivo. Su objetivo es situar el actual proceso de restitución de tierras en el contexto de los intentos previos de los gobiernos colombianos de resolver los problemas asociados a la desigual distribución de la tierra y a la pobreza rural.

A dry and dusty savannah, Emaciated cattle plodding dejectedly past the last remaining scraps of grass that have survived the merciless heat and sandstorms. Such images are all too familiar. Across the globe, soil degradation and desertification cost about 490 billion euros per year, according to expert estimates. "About 12 million hectares of land are lost to this every year" says Wageningen soil physicist Coen Ritsema of Alterra Wageningen UR. ‘That is equivalent to half the land surface of the UK.’

This report suggests that a new and explicit goal of sustainable development to be agreed as a result of Rio+20 should be the reduction of the rate of land degradation to achieve land degradation neutrality, which we refer to as “Zero Net Land Degradation” or ZNLD.

These guidelines have been developed based on FAO’s and WOCAT’s extensive experience. The book draws, in particular, on WOCAT’s network and its database of SLM knowledge - as well as on WOC AT’s first overview book entitled ‘Where the land is greener’. These guidelines were implemented in the framework of the TerrAfrica partnership, whose main objective is to mainstream and upscale SLM in SSA, through the leveraging and harmonising of multisectoral investments at the local, country, subregional and regional levels.

Dryland mountains are among the least-known environments in the world, and certainly one of the most overlooked by decision- and policy-makers. Dryland mountains have an outstanding strategic value. They act as water towers for surrounding dry lowland areas, as shown by the examples of the Rocky Mountains of North America, the Central Andes, the mountains of the Mediterranean Basin, the Sahara and Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia

Different processes of land degradation have been the outcome in many parts of the world, having severe impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide and on human livelihoods. Land degradation is one of the key challenges facing mankind in order to achieve sustainable development, but the quest for sustainability of land management has proved to be a major challenge to most countries. This book takes the case of Iceland. It tells the remarkable story of more than century combating land degradation.