The Sahel region holds both challenges and opportunities for smallholder agriculture/agropastoralism. Market opportunities for food producers in the region have improved due to population growth, urbanization, income growth, dietary diversification and higher output prices.

The importance of equity has been emphasized in climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and ecosystem restoration. However, equity implications are rarely considered explicitly in restoration projects. Although the role of equity has been studied in the context of biodiversity conservation and environmental governance, environmental variables are often ignored in equity studies, and spatial analyses of equity are lacking.

Land- and nature-based approaches in the agroforestry and forestry sectors provide a unique opportunity to generate win-wins against the interrelated environmental crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and land degradation. Harnessing synergies among these environmental goals, reflected in the Rio Conventions, critically hinges on land-use decisions, which are influenced

Understanding the different perceptions of the local community regarding the use and management of common pool resources, such as exclosures, could better support targeted interventions by government and development partners.

The report, “Forests, Trees and the Eradication of Poverty: Potential and Limitations,” shows that forests and trees support human well-being and are critical to end poverty. It finds that forest-poverty dynamics are affected by a range of social, economic, political, and environmental context factors, such as rural outmigration, gender norms, remittance flows, and elite capture. The report’s key messages are highlighted below. Forests and trees can help the poor face global changes such as climate change. Benefits from forests and trees to human well-being are unevenly distributed.

Land degradation – the reduction or loss of the productive potential of land – is a global challenge. Over 20% of the Earth’s vegetated surface is estimated to be degraded, affecting over 1.3 billion people, with an economic impact of up to US$10.6 trillion. Land degradation reduces agricultural productivity and increases the vulnerability of those areas already at risk of impacts from climate variability and change.

Land degradation – the reduction or loss of the productive potential of land – is a global challenge. Over 20% of the Earth’s vegetated surface is estimated to be degraded, affecting over 1.3 billion people, with an economic impact of up to US$10.6 trillion. Land degradation reduces agricultural productivity and increases the vulnerability of those areas already at risk of impacts from climate variability and change.

Land degradation – the reduction or loss of the productive potential of land – is a global challenge. Over 20% of the Earth’s vegetated surface is estimated to be degraded, affecting over 1.3 billion people, with an economic impact of up to US$10.6 trillion. Land degradation reduces agricultural productivity and increases the vulnerability of those areas already at risk of impacts from climate variability and change.

As investments in nature are needed more than ever, and are increasingly gaining traction, the challenge is to identify environmental and social risks and to demonstrate positive impacts associated with investing in nature-based projects in a standardized and comparable manner. To help create a clear track record of projects that can be assessed on risk-return-impact profiles, a certain degree of standardization is needed, while maintaining scientific rigor.

This publication introduces SLM and its principles and presents how good SLM practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina were documented, evaluated, selected and scaled through participatory land use planning processes. High demand for agricultural products and raw materials produced on land is under adverse social and economic conditions and a lack of adequate investment.

Peatlands cover only 3 percent of the world's surface yet contain as much carbon as all of its vegetation, dramatically underscoring their pivotal role in global climate regulation. Their degradation, by drainage or fire or other forces, triggers their conversion from slow carbon sinks into fast sources capable of releasing carbon stored over millennia in a few decades. To avoid their degradation and effectively plan their restoration, peatlands should be urgently mapped and monitored.

These guidelines support GEF project developers in formulating projects that contribute to the LDN ambitions of countries and in ensuring that other projects not directly targeting LDN are compatible with LDN objectives and approaches. The guidelines complement and expand the Checklist for Land Degradation Neutrality Transformative Projects and Programmes.They are intended to be applied during project development and at the problem definition and intervention design stages; they are also relevant to monitoring the achievement of LDN goals.