The aim of the paper is to explore the possibilities of detection and reduction of land degradation in Smarde municipality rural territory (56°57′18″ N; 23°20′17″ E). To carry out land degradation prevention measures, initially the territories of degraded land should be determined. This paper highlights the field inspection method. For territory inspection a model was used that gave the opportunity to identify degradation types with their characteristic features and possibilities to reduce the land degradation.

The article presents the analysis of the current situation of the damaged land in Klaipeda County. The study found that the number of affected areas in the county – 266. Because the damaged areas consist of mineral quarries and territories occupied by dumps, the article contains the description and condition of these areas. It was found that mostly sand deposits (60) predominate in Klaipeda County, of which only 8 are used. The smallest number of the deposits – the salt deposits (2). The mainly used deposits in the county are sand and gravel deposits – 29, unused – sand deposits (52).

One of the goals of a sustainable environment adopted in the United Nations General Assembly resolution (September 25, 2015) was «to restore degraded lands and strive to achieve a world neutral to land degradation». The problem was identified at the international and European level, but it is also a very pressing problem in Latvia. With regard to the risks of land degradation and their prevention in Latvia, the Law «On Land Management» came into force on January 1, 2015.

The main idea of the project on the cross-border cooperation of Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus, as well as a unified methodology for its implementation, is based on cooperation between local and regional authorities and the use of innovative technologies: current remote sensing data (space images, aerial photographs and images from unmanned aerial vehicles), land information system, GIS and WEB-technologies.

The article considers the role and importance of the borderline position of the Belarusian-Lithuanian region, which influences the transformation processes of territorial structures. Particular attention is paid to the areas of coordinated activities on the formation and functioning of transboundary protected natural areas, as well as spatial planning activities for the sustainable use of their constituent natural complexes. The resulted results of researches are received within the limits of realization in 2014-2015.

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.

One of the tools for management of balanced development of rural areas is spatial planning – a kind of activity regarding to organization of use and protection of land at the national, regional and local level. The issues of conservation and restoration of natural resources in rural areas are extremely relevant for Ukraine. Main environmental problems in rural areas are: degradation of agricultural land, loss of biodiversity and pollution of land, overground and underground water. In recent years a new environmental problem has emerged − desertification.

The global economic growth results in the increase of intensity of land use, which is one of the main natural resources. The degradation processes of land and soil occur as a result of economic activities and natural conditions creating degraded territories. Restoration of degraded territories and degradation risk prevention is an important task of each local government for sustainable development of a territory. It is determined by international and national legislation.

Utilised agricultural area is one of the most important natural resources in Latvia, which provides population with food and promotes the operation of agricultural companies. Unfortunately, appropriate land management is a problem for the majority of agricultural land owners, thereby adversely affecting the efficiency of resource use and increasing possibilities for the resource depletion. Constantly new solutions are searched for in Latvia to avert inefficient use of utilised agricultural areas and reduction of land as resource.

The Fertile Crescent (FC) is a high biodiversity region where most temperate-zone agricultural species originated and were first domesticated. A favourable environment, a special plant community and an adaptive population combined to initiate the transition from a hunter-gatherer economy to one based on agriculture and food production in the Fertile Crescent.

Land provides a host of ecosystem services, of which the provisioning services are often considered paramount. As the demand for agricultural products multiplies, other ecosystem services are being degraded or lost entirely. Finding a sustainable trade-off between food production and one or more of other ecosystem services, given the variety of stakeholders, is a matter of optimizing land use in a dynamic and complex socio-ecological system. Land degradation reduces our options to meet both food demands and environmental needs.