Dry forests play an important role in preventing land degradation and desertification, conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem goods and services and mitigating and adapting to climate change and the impacts of drought. To make use of the promising potential of forests and agroforestry schemes in arid areas they need to be fully included in the REDD+ mechanism with a special focus on the co-benefits.

Land degradation is accelerating and drought is escalating worldwide. At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders clearly acknowledged that desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) are challenges of a global dimension affecting the sustainable development of all countries, in particular developing countries. In view of this, they committed to strive to achieve a land-degradation neutral world in the context of sustainable development and to monitor land degradation globally (paragraphs 205–207 of “The future we want”).