Since the commitments and reporting requirements of the SDGs ov erlap significantly with those of the UNFCCC and UNCCD, policy designe rs have mutually reinforcing incentives to advance this SDG commitment. When env ironmental degradation is minimized and restoration efforts are prioritized , ecosystems can sequester and store more carbon and lessen the impact of some c limate change effects.
What’s the goal here? To sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss. Two billion hectares of land on Earth are degraded, affecting some 3.2 billion people, driving species to extinction and intensifying climate change.
Facts and Figures: ➡ Every minute, 23 hectares of arable land are lost due to drought and desertification. ➡ Over the last two decades, approximately 20 per cent of the Earth’s vegetated surface has shown persistent declining trends in productivity, mainly due to unsustainable land and water use and management practices.
Restoring the health of degraded land is critical for overall human development as land is a vital life-supporting system, directly or indirectly influencing the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs). However, more than 33% of the global land is degraded and thereby affecting the livelihood of billions of people worldwide.
Environmental services of biodiversity, clean water, etc., have been considered byproducts of farming and grazing, but population pressures and a move from rural to peri-urban areas are changing land use practices, reducing these services and increasing land degradation.
Indicator 15.1.1: Forest area as a proportion of total land area
Land consolidation is a highly effective land management instrument that allows for the improvement of the structure of agricultural holdings and farms in a country, which increases their economic and social efficiency and brings benefits both to right holders as well as to society in general.
This practitioner’s guide explains how to promote gender-responsive forest tenure reform in community-based forest regimes. It is aimed at those taking up this challenge in developing countries. There is no one single approach to reforming forest tenure practices for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The current relationship between Syria and the West cripples any real prospect for reconstruction. Western sanctions on reconstruction as a political tool aimed at the regime, have wide-ranging negative impacts on the civilian population – while having little hope of political success.
Since the mid-1980s, the positive impacts of these simple, cost-efficient water harvesting techniques become clear, following their increasingly widespread adoption. Their use has allowed smallholders to reverse land degradation, improve soil fertility, sustainably increase crop production, achieve food security, and create more productive, diverse and resilient farming systems.
