Land degradation neutrality (LDN) is achieved if land degradation is avoided or reduced, and new degradation is balanced by reversing degradation elsewhere in the same land type through restoration or rehabilitation. The primary instrument for avoiding and reducing degradation is the application of sustainable land management (SLM) approaches and technologies. Because of its multifunctional roles and its sensitivity to land management, soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the three global indicators for LDN, so predicting and monitoring change in SOC is vital to achieving LDN targets.

Located in the arid and semi-arid areas of West Africa, the Sahel has undergone profound changes over the past 50 years. Known for the prevalence of land degradation processes, the Sahel is suffering from the combined negative effects of population growth, human activities and climate variability, resulting in recurrent droughts and the continued decline of natural resources and land productivity.

The 2019 edition of the Land for Life Award puts the spotlight on individuals and organizations that made outstanding contributions to achieve land degradation neutrality on a large scale, with long-term changes and dedicated actions for 25 years or longer. Those remarkable projects involve local people, communities and the society, raising the level of their ambition. Meanwhile, recent assessments remind us that two billion hectares of land are now degraded worldwide. This represents an area larger than the territory of the Russian Federation, the biggest country in the world.

Land degradation and biodiversity loss are among the most pressing environmental challenges facing humanity. Land degradation has reduced the productivity of nearly one-quarter of the global land surface, impacted the wellbeing of about 3.2 billion people and cost about 10% of annual global gross domestic product in lost ecosystem services. An estimated 23% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions derive from agriculture, forestry and other land uses, contributing to climate change.

Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation (BTFEC) in collaboration with National Soil Service Centre (NSSC), and Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) has undertaken the Evaluation and Learning (E&L) activity with financial support from Climate Investment Funds (CIF) for the project ‘Evaluation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and innovative financing to enhance climate resilience and food security in Bhutan’.

In the past few decades, a considerable number of old houses have been demolished in China’s urban redevelopment projects, which led to the disappearance of some historic buildings and the relocation of the original residents. Recently, the strategy of housing demolition (HD) in Chinese cities has been replaced by housing conservation and renovation (HCR). However, the transition from HD to HCR is not carried out well. This study aims to explore the key challenges in HCR practice by using a mixed method.

SLM CoP Presentation given by Tatenda Lemann at the SKIM Regional Workshop in Rabat, Morocco November 14th, 2019.

This is a presentation on the functionally context socio-ecological type (fCSET) approach to support out-scaling of agricultural innovation options, and empirical analysis across three Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco). As the result, distinguished fCSETs on rain-fed and grass/herbaceous-based land were defined, characterized and mapped.

Opening presentation of the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning, Data Management and Geo-informatics Option by Context - Learning Week in Tunisia, the 1st and 2nd of November.
The presentation discuss the importance of proper data curation from an institutional point of view.

Presentation on Global Overview of Land Use related Sand and Dust Storm impacts.

In many African countries and especially in the highlands of Ethiopia—the investigation site of this paper—agricultural land is highly fragmented. Small and scattered parcels impede a necessary increase in agricultural efficiency. Land consolidation is a proper tool to solve inefficiencies in agricultural production, as it enables consolidating plots based on the consent of landholders. Its major benefits are that individual farms get larger, more compact, contiguous parcels, resulting in lower cultivation efforts.

Increasing population and rural to urban migration are accelerating urbanization globally, permanently transforming natural systems over large extents. Modelling landscape change over large regions, however, presents particular challenges due to local-scale variations in social and environmental factors that drive land change.