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Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals requires drylands sustainability. Treating drylands as global environmental commons enables better tailored governance responses. Key nested governance elements for drylands involve setting goals, monitoring and delivering sanctions across scales. The present global governance system for drylands only partially delivers these elements. Drylands require a…

Given current land degradation trends, Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN, SDG Target 15.3) by 2030 could be difficult to attain. Solutions to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation are not being implemented at sufficiently large scales, pointing to land governance as the main obstacle. In this paper, the authors review dynamics in agricultural land governance, and the potential…

Land markets are evolving in response to increasing population pressure in Africa. High population pressure leads to land use intensification on very small farms. Population growth in densely populated rural areas leads to increasing rural–urban youth migration. Tenure security enhancing land reforms enhance investments and sustainable land use intensification. Pro-poor…

The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has resulted in global lockdowns, sharply curtailing economic activity. It is a unique experiment with substantial impacts that will form the agenda for research. There are five sets of questions: the short-term impacts on emissions, the natural environment and environmental policy, including regulations and COP26; longer-term consequences from the deployment of…

A new narrative on the Sahel can be developed from its natural resources to sustain a growing prosperity. Proper management and valuation of natural resources can accelerate green and climate-smart growth in the Sahel. There are many mechanisms that can attract investment on natural products while supporting land restoration. Rethinking the Sahel can trigger transformation from…

Una de cada cuatro hectáreas de tierra productiva ha quedado inutilizable, la sequía ya afecta a 169 países del mundo y el cambio del uso del suelo es la principal vía de transmisión de las enfermedades infecciosas emergentes. Hablamos de todo ello con Ibrahim Thiaw, responsable en Naciones Unidas de la lucha contra la desertificación. El mundo pierde 24.000 millones de toneladas de suelo…