Vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict. The accelerating damage could cost the global economy a staggering $23 trillion by 2050 - and rich countries as well as poor will pay the price.

Interview with Ibrahim Thiaw

Faced with a new global paradigm of achieving the Sustainable Development goals by 2030 and especially on the issue of soils, goal 15.3, which says: “By 2030, fight desertification, rehabilitate degraded lands and soils, including lands affected by desertification, drought and floods, and seek to achieve a world with neutral soil degradation. ” In this regard, it is clear that the international community has taken up the sustainability approach as a “bet” to somehow remedy the problem of the degradation of the Earth's resources, and thereby create a better future.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the popular perception of rangelands and their management is that these vast areas have major problems without solutions: the common narrative focuses on overgrazing, herds of undernourished livestock, erosion and desertification, drought, famine, and conflict.

However, evidence compiled and analysed in this book show that such a view of rangelands – as being unproductive and mismanaged systems – does not reflect reality. It needs reconsideration and revision.