All publications and documents

Soil erosion is a serious threat to soil functions leading to land productivity decline and multiple off-site effects. Here we show, using a multi-model approach, the spatial risk of soil erosion by water, wind, tillage and harvesting and where the co-occurrence of these different processes is observed. Moreover, we analysed where these locations of multiple erosion co-occurrence are likely to…

Sustaining the organisms, ecosystems and processes that underpin human wellbeing is necessary to achieve sustainable development. Here we define critical natural assets as the natural and semi-natural ecosystems that provide 90% of the total current magnitude of 14 types of nature’s contributions to people (NCP), and we map the global locations of these critical natural assets at 2 km resolution…

Undertaking an analysis of the gender impacts of de- sertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) requires looking at the socio-economic issues that affect women and men differently when the land is degraded or when drought occurs. It means looking at how they are impacted, as well as at the coping mechanisms that they are able to develop in a given socio-cultural and economic…

This study launched at the Gender Caucus during the UNCCD COP15 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, demonstrates that desertification, land degradations and drought (DLDD) is not only about the land but about people. Climate, ecosystems and human societies are interdependent. Women make valuable contributions to land restoration efforts through recovery of traditional adaptation practices…

Climate policy has thus far focused solely on carbon stocks and sequestration to evaluate the potential of forests to mitigate global warming. These factors are used to assess the impacts of different drivers of deforestation and forest degradation as well as alternative forest management. However, when forest cover, structure and composition change, shifts in biophysical processes (the water and…

Biodiversity in arid-lands is very sensitive to some forms of perturbation and very slow to recover. Arid-lands are vulnerable to agriculture such as grazing of cattle and irrigation, which need certification standards to ensure best practice and reduce impact. Combined efforts of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and local communities are needed to adopt a socio…