Updating the MEDALUS‐ESA Framework for Worldwide Land Degradation and Desertification Assessment

Land degradation usually occurs on drylands (arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas). According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification held in Paris in 1994 (UNCCD, 1999), drylands are defined as those lands (other than polar and subpolar regions) where the ratio of annual precipitation to potential evapotranspiration falls within the range of 0.05–0.65. Land degradation causes reduction in the biological or economic productivity of those lands that may support cropland, rangelands, forest, and woodlands. Land degradation threatens culturally unique agropastoral and silvopastoral farming systems and nomadic and transhumance systems. The consequences of land degradation are widespread poverty, hunger, migration, and creation of a potential cycle of debt for the affected populations. Historical awareness of the land degradation was cited, mainly at the local and regional scales, by Plato in the 4th century B.C in the Mediterranean region, and in Mesopotamia and China (WRI, 2001). The occurrence of the “dust bowl” in the United States during the 1930s affected farms and agricultural productivity, and several famines and mass migrations, especially in Africa during the 1970s, were important landmarks of land degradation in the 20th century. It is estimated that more than 33% of the earth’s land surface and 2.6 billion people are affected by land degradation and desertification in more than 100 countries. About 73% of rangelands in dryland areas and 47% of marginal rain-fed croplands, together with a significant percentage of irrigated croplands, are currently degraded (WRI, 2001). In sub-Saharan Africa, land degradation is widespread (20–50% of the land) and affects some 200 million people. This region experiences poverty and frequent droughts on a scale not known anywhere else in the world. Land degradation is also severe and widespread in Asia, Latin America, as well as other regions of the globe. Continuous land degradation is accelerating the loss of agricultural productivity and food production in the world. Over the next 50 years, food production needs to triple in order to provide a nutritionally adequate diet for the world’s growing population. This will be difficult to achieve even under favorable circumstances.

Combating Land Degradation and Desertification: The Land-Use Planning Quandary

Land ◽

10.3390/land8020027 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 27 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Helen Briassoulis

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Land Degradation ◽

Land Use Planning ◽

Institutional Environment ◽

Critical Role ◽

Future Research ◽

Land Systems ◽

Development Goals ◽

Land Degradation And Desertification ◽

Global Threat

Land-use planning (LUP), an instrument of land governance, is often employed to protect land and humans against natural and human-induced hazards, strengthen the resilience of land systems, and secure their sustainability. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) underlines the critical role of appropriate local action to address the global threat of land degradation and desertification (LDD) and calls for the use of local and regional LUP to combat LDD and achieve land degradation neutrality. The paper explores the challenges of putting this call into practice. After presenting desertification and the pertinent institutional context, the paper examines whether and how LDD concerns enter the stages of the LUP process and the issues arising at each stage. LDD problem complexity, the prevailing mode of governance, and the planning style endorsed, combined with LDD awareness, knowledge and perception, value priorities, geographic particularities and historical circumstances, underlie the main challenges confronting LUP; namely, adequate representation of LDD at each stage of LUP, conflict resolution between LDD-related and development goals, need for cooperation, collaboration and coordination of numerous and diverse actors, sectors, institutions and policy domains from multiple spatial/organizational levels and uncertainty regarding present and future environmental and socio-economic change. In order to realize the integrative potential of LUP and foster its effectiveness in combating LDD at the local and regional levels, the provision of an enabling, higher-level institutional environment should be prioritized to support phrοnetic-strategic integrated LUP at lower levels, which future research should explore theoretically, methodologically and empirically.

Which practices co‐deliver food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and combat land degradation and desertification?

Global Change Biology ◽

10.1111/gcb.14878 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 1532-1575 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Pete Smith ◽

Katherine Calvin ◽

Johnson Nkem ◽

Donovan Campbell ◽

Francesco Cherubini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Land Degradation ◽

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

Land Degradation And Desertification ◽

Change Mitigation

Evaluation and Selection of Indicators for Land Degradation and Desertification Monitoring: Methodological Approach

Environmental Management ◽

10.1007/s00267-013-0109-6 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 54 (5) ◽

pp. 951-970 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

C. Kosmas ◽

Or. Kairis ◽

Ch. Karavitis ◽

C. Ritsema ◽

L. Salvati ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Degradation ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Land Degradation And Desertification ◽

Desertification Monitoring ◽

Selection Of