Global warming, climate change, desertification, land degradation and drought are amongst the most significant issues of our time. These are the problems that threaten not only the environment, but also our economy, security, development, food supply and social life. As the population increases day by day, the question of how to meet the unprecedented food and water demand with the limited, degrading, and decreasing resources becomes more vital. Given that an annual average of 12 million hectares of fertile land today is still subject to degradation, it is absolutely imperative to take due precautions in order to halt and reverse this situation.
Early in 2015, even before the global agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a number of UNCCD country Parties embarked on a pilot project to explore how our LDN concept could be put into practice. The plan was to see how a voluntary LDN target, if developed and delivered, could underpin a number of SDGs and deliver practical, tangible results on the ground in terms of food security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and biodiversity conservation. Fourteen countries, from all regions, in different ecological and socio-economic conditions, were at the forefront of this exciting experiment.
Some of the biggest lessons learned from the pilot and the recommendations for the UN SDG process are showcased in this publication. We found that land degradation is a universal problem. It takes a variety of forms and affects communities and ecosystems differently in different climatic zones. But with the right combination of management options, remarkable results are within our reach.