Scaling Up Sustainable Land Management and Restoration of Degraded Land

With current rates of land degradation reaching
ten to twelve million ha per year, there is an
urgent need to scale up and out successful,
profitable and resource-efficient sustainable
land management practices to maintain the
health and resilience of the land that humans
depend on. As much as 500 million out of
two billion ha of degraded land, mainly in
developing countries, have restoration potential,
offering an immediate target for restoration
and rehabilitation initiatives.1 In the past,
piecemeal approaches to achieving sustainable
land management have had limited impact.
To achieve the ambitious goals of alleviating
poverty, securing food and water supplies,
and protecting the natural resource base, we
need to recognize the inter-connectedness of
the factors driving land degradation, so that
solutions can be taken to scale, transforming
management practices for millions of land users.
An analysis of the critical barriers and incentives
to achieve scaling up suggests that the most
appropriate options should be selected through
the involvement of stakeholders at all levels,
from local to national and international. New
incentives for land managers as well as the
public and private sectors are required to achieve
a land degradation-neutral world.