The deterioration of land resources in the world's arid and semi-arid regions is one of the gravest problems facing our planet and its people. Desertification, broadly defined, is one of the principal barriers to sustainable food security and sustainable livelihoods in our world today. It is not a future global threat; it is a devastating day-to-day local reality.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 commits countries to strive towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. LDN requires reductions in land quality to be balanced by efforts to restore or rehabilitate degraded areas. However, decisions need to be made as to where to invest given limited budgets and the impossibility of targeting all degraded land. Any prioritisation process is likely to be controversial and needs to be underpinned by transparent, justifiable, repeatable decision processes.

Established in 1994, the United Nations 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.

Faced with a new global paradigm of achieving the Sustainable Development goals by 2030 and especially on the issue of soils, goal 15.3, which says: “By 2030, fight desertification, rehabilitate degraded lands and soils, including lands affected by desertification, drought and floods, and seek to achieve a world with neutral soil degradation. ” In this regard, it is clear that the international community has taken up the sustainability approach as a “bet” to somehow remedy the problem of the degradation of the Earth's resources, and thereby create a better future.

Vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict. The accelerating damage could cost the global economy a staggering $23 trillion by 2050 - and rich countries as well as poor will pay the price.

Interview with Ibrahim Thiaw

Land Degradation Neutrality is one of the Sustainable Development Goal targets, requiring on-going degradation to be balanced by restoration and sustainable land management. However, restoration and efforts to prevent degradation have often failed to deliver expected benefits, despite enormous investments. Better acknowledging the close relationships between climate, land management and non-linear ecosystem dynamics can help restoration activities to meet their intended goals, while supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Biblio references- an attempt to compile some background information on SLM employment opportunities, can SLM create employment opportunities, examples of SLM jobs created, land and labor nexus, green jobs, youth employment with a focus on SSA, projects with number of jobs created.
DID YOU KNOW:

Land is the foundation for all life on Earth. How land is used and managed influences nature, food, water, energy, climate, and even our health. Today, the pressures on land and the wealth of resources it provides are greater than at any other time in human history.

Ecosystem services are substantial elements for human society. The central challenge to meet the human needs from ecosystems while sustain the Earth’s life support systems makes it urgent to enhance efficient natural resource management for sustainable ecological and socioeconomic development. Trade-off analysis of ecosystem services can

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