The Government of Namibia has identi ed land degradation as a serious problem which demands remedial intervention, and recognizes that integrated ecosystem management strategies are needed to e ectively address the underlying causes.The goal of the Country Pilot Partnership for Integrated Sustainable Land Management (CPP-ISLM) is to work towards combating land degradation by using integrated cross-sectoral approaches, which would enable Namibia to ensure environmental sustainability as well as the protection of dry land ecosystems and their functions.

This paper first provides a brief overview of what are and what represent forest ecosystem services. Then it considers the issues of price and valuation, and shows that valuation itself is not a solution but merely a tool. Considering then the reasons of the overall degradation of forest ecosystem services it shows that the main reasons tend to be fundamental: deforestation most often happens because it pays for local people - not so much because the institutionally created arrangements are perverse.

Desertification occurs in drylands,which span a third of the earth ’s land surface in over 110 countries.It influences the lives of about 500 000 people – the so-called environmental refugees –including many of the world ’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Each year 12 million hectares (ha)are lost to deserts.That is enough land to grow 20 million tonnes of grain.