Past assessments of land degradation have focused on the biophysical impacts rather than on the overall societal and economic costs and benefits of degradation prevention. Additionally, past studies have largely addressed how land degradation impacts on-site productivity while paying limited attention to its off-site costs, which often make it a transnational and global issue. To address these and other gaps, a framework to measure the economic costs of land degradation must be established.In a new book, The Economics of Land Degradation: Toward an Integrated Global Assessment, the authors propose a framework to implement the costs-of-action-versus-costs- of-inaction approach and emphasize the need to take into account direct and indirect costs and benefits of terrestrial ecosystem services in the process.