Disasters – from droughts and dust storms to hurricanes and floods – are becoming more frequent and more severe as our planet warms. They bring a high cost to human life, economies, and ecosystems. But how we deal with these disasters is not keeping pace. Drought, for example, affects every region of our globe. In the last few months, North Korea saw its worst drought in 37 years, Alaska saw its first extreme drought, and Australia had to import wheat for the first time in 12 years as drought ate into grain production. Despite their frequency, however, we deal with these events the same way we always have. We respond to the disasters, struggling to cope with the damage to economies, health, property, infrastructure, and security – but we don’t do enough to prevent these calamities from happening in the first place. We have repeated this cycle for years.

It doesn’t have to be this way. By shifting to proactive strategies that put sustainable land-management and restoration at the heart of disaster preparedness, we can help communities increase their resilience and help countries manage soaring response and recovery costs.