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In most EU Member States, agricultural land area is expected to decrease in coming years due to land abandonment (alongside other factors such as urban expansion). A better understanding of the extent and location of abandoned land is needed to estimate local effects and adapt policy to suit. This study presents a method to anticipate the occurrence of agricultural abandonment, using a…

As the global population increases, the benefits of increased agricultural production are distributed unequally, partly due to inequality in access to water resources. However, even in some countries where hydrological resources are abundant, water is not always readily available for agriculture, due to economic, institutional or infrastructural reasons. A study explores economic water…

Humanity faces a herculean task to reverse climate change and protect the natural world that supports us. We must retool human society to live in harmony with nature – all while leaving space for people in developing nations to prosper and grow. We want this to happen immediately. But we must be realistic. Even if everyone starts immediately to turn their promises on climate change…

An area of land roughly the size of China needs restoring if the planet’s biodiversity and the communities who rely on it are to be protected, UN agencies said on Thursday. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) call to reinstate at least one billion degraded hectares of land by 2030 must also be matched by a similar commitment to the oceans…

Investing in landscape restoration is key to help the world meet the 1.5°C climate target. Increasing investments will require making the case for restoration projects - and showing they work. Here are four ways to set-up the infrastructure for transparency, trust and investment. Around the world, 3.2 billion people are affected by degraded landscapes, land that…

Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s folk-hero president, once marshalled a nation to halt the spread of the Sahara. Decades after his brutal death, a pan-African project of epic scale and ambition is aiming to reverse the creeping desertification that threatens to engulf a vast region, accelerating climate change, migration and conflict. Burkina Faso, a landlocked country lashed by the…