Vegetation coverage is an indicator used for exploring the growth of vegetation, which has attracted attention from ecologists owing to its significant role in ecological conservation and restoration. As an important component of the terrestrial ecosystem, changes in vegetation coverage reflect changes in the environment, especially with respect to arid areas. A change of vegetation coverage will trigger desertification, degradation of the eco-environment, and regional climate change.

Koiliaris River watershed is a Critical Zone Observatory that represents severely degraded soils due to intensive agricultural activities and biophysical factors. It has typical Mediterranean soils under the imminent threat of desertification which is expected to intensify due to projected climate change. High frequency hydro-chemical monitoring with targeted sampling for Rare Earth Elements (REE) analysis of different water bodies and geochemical characterization of soils were used for the identification of hydrologic and geochemical pathways.

Six national programs—including the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), Desertification Combating Program around Beijing and Tianjin (DCBT), Shelterbelt Network Development Program (SNDP), Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Protection Program (WCNR), and Industrial Timberland Plantation Program (ITPP)—were adopted as means to achieve the Chinese Government sustainable development national policy. While the programs have made promising progress circa 10 yr at the national level, problems exist at the regional and locals levels.

For the first time assessment and mapping of desertification have been performed in Russia at the 1 : 2500000 scale using data of geometrical sounding of the earth and in accordance with the approaches recommended by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It is shown that desertified areas, areas experiencing desertification, and areas threatened by desertification occupy about 1250000 km2. Nineteen causes of changes in natural and natural-artificial systems, seven degradation trends, and three progradation trends are recognized.

This article studies the influence of local knowledge on the impact of science on institutional change in ecological and environmental management.

Understanding forest regeneration at sites previously used for agriculture underlies the establishment of science-based woodlands management policies. This is especially relevant in semi-arid areas, where the tree cover is critical in ameliorating the effects of aridity and in preventing desertification and land degradation. Natural regeneration in semi-arid areas occurs very slowly, which in part explains why it has hardly been studied.

The Mediterranean region has been regarded as a critical hotspot for desertification due to the impact of soil degradation, the land‐use changes and the climate variations. Few large‐scale studies have been devoted to analyse trends in land sensitivity to desertification in the northern Mediterranean basin. The present paper contributes to this deserving issue by quantifying the level of land sensitivity to desertification in Italy at seven points between 1960 and 2010 at a fine spatial scale.

Sediments deposited by (paleo) flash floods can hold valuable information on processes of environmental change, land degradation or desertification. In order to assess the suitability of flash flood deposits as proxies for land degradation, we monitored a representative gully segment in North Ethiopia (Ashenge catchment), investigated a sequence of alluvial debris fans downstream of this segment and dated a neighbouring subaquatic debris fan using short‐lived ²¹⁰Pb isotope counting.

Over the past two decades, China has undertaken unprecedented forest programs in an effort to restore damaged ecosystems and increasing farmers’ income. Using survey results of 2070 rural households in 15 counties of six provinces, we estimate the effects of China's Priority Forest Programs (PFPs) on rural households’ income mobility. The effects of the area enrolled in the PFPs on rural households are mixed.

Land degradation and desertification are widespread in drylands, highlighting the need to restore them to reverse their negative effects. The restoration of degraded drylands is commonly initiated by restoring the vegetation using plantations of tree/shrub seedlings.

Desertification is the most disturbing and detrimental cause of rural vulnerability in Cape Verde, affecting families' material and environmental resources. Combating desertification in Cape Verde is complex because it involves addressing a mixture of endogenous (manual agriculture, fuel wood and fodder extraction, land tenure and steep slopes) and exogenous drivers (high rainfall variability, climate change, prolonged drought or heavy rainfall).

Site degradation occurs mainly through deterioration of the soil's capacity to capture and store water, as well as the loss of organic matter or the accumulation of salts or other toxic substances in the soil. This degradation process, leading to the reduction of the biotic potential of the site, is known as desertification. In this study, changes in bulk density, organic matter, and electrical conductivity are used as indicators of desertification in northeast Mexico.