Land resources are one of nature’s most precious gifts. They feed us and help our societies and economies to thrive. Land resources are one of nature’s most precious gifts. They feed us and help our societies and economies to thrive. Some 2.5 billion agricultural smallholders worldwide manage around 500 million small farms, providing more than 80 per cent of food consumed in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. These resources are being degraded at an alarming pace.

Land is an essential building block of civilization yet its contribution to our quality of life is perceived and valued in starkly different and often incompatible ways. Conflicts about land use are intensifying in many countries. The world has reached a point where we must reconcile these differences and rethink the way in which we use and manage the land.

How land is used affects a wide range of outcomes – from day-to-day quality of life, such as the length of commutes, to the environmental sustainability of urban and rural communities, including the possibility for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Moreover, the economic importance of land is immense. Land and the buildings on it are approximately seven times as valuable as all other assets taken together and land-use policies play a crucial role in determining land and property prices. Beyond economic value, land also has important sentimental value.

A review of needs at various scales for tools and processes that can help countries and stakeholders meet emerging challenges, address increasing degradation of and competition for resources, support the sustainable use and restoration of land and water resources, and ensure resilient ecosystems.

Land use change is a major global driver of pandemic risk. Land usechange is a significant driver of the transmission and emergence of infectious diseases 40,177-179. Land use changeis cited as the cause of over 30% of emerging infectious diseases, and correlates significantly withthe emergence of novel zoonoses globally 13,180. However, the mechanisms by which diseases emergeare context-specific and scale-dependent.

The objective of the study is to provide methodological instruments to governments in Latin America to facilitate the identification of the vulnerability of the physical infrastructure of coastal marine areas to climate change and facilitate the identification of adaptation options. It sets out the main ideas covered, that takes the experiences, lessons learned and best practices in the beneficiary countries of the EUROCLIMA programme in order to estimate and reduce the vulnerability of coastal marine infrastructures in the face of climate change.

The protection of fertile soils is a precondition for sustainable development. In the final document of the conference of the United Nations on sustainable development in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20 Conference), the international community thus agreed to strive for a “land degradation neutral world”. The legal study by Ecologic Institute, Berlin, firstly scrutinizes some national legislation (Germany/EU, USA and Brazil) in order to identify legal instruments which are suitable for the implementation of the goal of a “land degradation neutral world”.

Land degradation exacerbates the unique vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to environmental challenges, such as climate change, flash floods, soil erosion, lagoon siltation, coastal erosion and sea level rise, undermining their economic potential. Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in SIDS, preserving biodiversity and increasing resilience to climate change. Land degradation has a strong negative impact on climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, water resources management and coastal zone management.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are continuously under the threat from the adverse effects of climate change and land degradation impacts. Erratic climatic patterns have made daily weather previsions unreliable and are becoming a challenge for communities to take appropriate timely and preventive measures. Land degradation directly increases CO2 emissions, contributing to climate change and vice versa.

Many Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have committed to establishing national voluntary LDN targets. By establishing LDN targets, SIDS have defined their ambitions and key priorities to address land degradation. The LDN target setting process allowed national stakeholders to systematically analyze the causes and effects of land degradation and to come up with evidence-based decisions on what is desirable and feasible to avoid, reduce or reverse land degradation by 2030.

Torrential floods are the most frequent natural catastrophic events in Serbia, causing the loss of human lives and huge material damage, both in urban and rural areas. The analysis of the intra-annual distribution of maximal discharges aided in noticing that torrential floods have a seasonal character. The erosion and torrent control works (ETCWs) in Serbia began at the end of the 19th century.

A new report developed by GIZ highlights success factors and 7 practical entry points for mainstreaming Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) into policies and planning, based on 16 case studies from Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Philippines and Viet Nam in the following contexts:
1. National climate change policies (NDC, NAP)
2. National public investment allocation and project screening
3. Sectoral adaptation plans (water resources, protected areas, disaster risk reduction)
4. Land-use planning (spatial planning & landscape management)