Agricultural land underpins food security, nutrition, rural livelihoods and essential ecosystem services, yet faces growing pressures from unsustainable land use and management, climate change, and rising demand for food and natural resources. In response, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the UNCCD jointly developed Living soils, productive lands, resilient landscapes – Guidance on avoiding, reducing and reversing agricultural land and soil degradation, in response to Decision 19/COP.16, taken at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

The decision called for guidance on promoting sustainable land use, responsible governance, and diversified production systems to prevent, reduce and reverse degradation of agricultural lands and soils, while strengthening food security and nutrition amid climate change. The guidance provides a framework for land degradation neutrality in agricultural landscapes through integrated land-use planning, sustainable land-use systems, resilient production systems, and an enabling environment. It promotes approaches that safeguard soil health, strengthen resilience, enhance food security and nutrition and support biodiversity conservation and climate action, recognizing national and local contexts. 

It emphasizes secure tenure, inclusive governance, evidence-based decision-making, policy coherence, institutional capacity and investment, encouraging coordinated action across sectors, alongside improved assessment, monitoring and knowledge systems. Complemented by a digital companion hosted on the ATIO Knowledge Base, the guidance offers a practical, adaptable resource for policymakers, practitioners, investors, farmers, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples and civil society organizations sustaining productive agricultural lands and supporting the transition to sustainable agrifood systems.