Land for Life: Securing Our Common Future | Land Portal
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Date of publication: 
January 2011
Resource Language: 
Pages: 
121
License of the resource: 
Copyright details: 
© 2011 Global Environment Facility. The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a
 violation of applicable law. The Global Environment Facility encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission
 to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with
 complete information to secretariat@theGEF.org

Land is the foundation for all life-sustaining processes on Earth. Through its physical, chemical, and biological attributes, land underpins a wide range of ecosystem goods and services that humanity depends on for survival. These include provision of food and water that we consume; regulation of environmental risks such as fl oods and drought to which we are often vulnerable; supporting natural processes such as soil formation and nutrient cycling on which our production systems depend; and cultural services such as recreational, spiritual, and other nonmaterial benefi ts that we enjoy as a society.


Land use in agriculture, livestock production, and forestry plays an important role in global prosperity. All told, land benefi ts billions of people, including a large proportion that depends entirely on farming and forest products for their livelihood. Agricultural land makes up an estimated 40 percent of the global land surface,3 and accounts for 95 percent of all animal and plant protein, as well as 99 percent of calories consumed by people. Maintaining sustained and productive use of land is thus a global imperative.

Authors and Publishers

Corporate Author(s): 

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa (UNCCD) is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.


 

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, the GEF has provided $14.5 billion in grants and mobilized $75.4 billion in additional financing for almost 4,000 projects. The GEF has become an international partnership of 183 countries, international institutions, civil society organizations, and private sector to address global environmental issues.


Publisher(s): 

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, the GEF has provided $14.5 billion in grants and mobilized $75.4 billion in additional financing for almost 4,000 projects. The GEF has become an international partnership of 183 countries, international institutions, civil society organizations, and private sector to address global environmental issues.


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