The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems in 2019 (www.ipcc.ch/srccl). We refer to the IPCC’s report in short here as the Special Report on Climate Change and Land. The Special Report was a response to proposals from governments and observer organisations to the IPCC.

Asia and the Pacific, for the purposes of this book, encompasses a vast territory extending from Mongolia in the north to New Zealand in the south; from the Cook Islands in the east to Kuwait in the west (Map 1). The environmental diversity of Asia and the Pacific is therefore vast, and is contrasted by the region’s coldest and hottest deserts, verdant tropical rainforests, extensive steppe, desert steppe, grassland and rangelands, mountains and plains.

This Toolkit has been prepared to support the design and implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) programs. The specific purpose of the Toolkit is: to inform the user of the approaches that can be followed to analyze and value the economic costs of land degradation and the benefits of sustainable land management. ‘Land’ is interpreted broadly in the Toolkit, also including wetlands and coastal zones. The Toolkit contains five Tools that together present a detailed description of the various relevant ecological and economic assessment methodologies.

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.

The Arab region is a diverse one when it comes to sustainable development. In recent years and decades, we have seen both major success stories in prosperity and stability, but we have also witnessed tragic conflicts and wars. At the same time, the 22 countries of the region are bound together by a common history, language and culture. We share many similar challenges and opportunities. Instability and human insecurity are in no one’s interest.

Pressing issues such as water and food security, health, peace, and poverty are deeply linked to land degradation. The authors use China’s major land restoration programs as a case offering perspective on the existing problems in China’s major policies for improving degraded land and maintaining land resources in three dimensions.

Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.

This collection of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices was compiled as part of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) funded project ‘Scaling up SLM practices by smallholder farmers: working with agricultural extension services to identify, assess and disseminate SLM practices’ implemented by the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern, Switzerland, hosting the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) Secretariat, in partnership with Uganda Landcare Network (ULN) and close collaboration with the IFAD-support

Land provides crucial ecosystem services for human existence and human well-being, including provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services. Those services provide among others the production of fresh air, food, feed, fuel and fibre. They regulate the risks of natural hazards and climate change, offer cultural and spiritual values to our society, and support key ecological functions such as nutrient and water cycling, filtering and buffering, and are central to economic vitality.

The article reviews the most recent research surrounding the potential role of organic agriculture in providing food for the planet. It challenges the claims of organic agriculture’s environmental superiority compared to well-managed, conventional agriculture.

The SWSR is a reference document on the status of global soil resources that provides regional assessments of soil change. The information is based on peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with expert knowledge and project outputs. It provides a description and a ranking of ten major soil threats that endanger ecosystem functions, goods and services globally and in each region separately. Additionally, it describes direct and indirect pressures on soils and ways and means to combat s oil degradation.

Land degradation remains a serious threat to livelihoods in Eastern Africa. The total population of sub-Saharan Africa is currently estimated at 750 million people, but it is projected to exceed the one billion mark by 2020. The demand for food is putting increasing pressure on the natural resource base. The current debate on the land degradation situation in Eastern Africa is short of consensus because of misunderstanding misinterpretation and discrepancies in the available information.