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Europe’s soil resources are being lost and degraded as a result of the negative effects of development of economic sectors, including agriculture, households, industry, transport and tourism, as well as climate change and land-use change. The degree of soil degradation varies considerably from country to country, but the vulnerability of the region is evident and estimated to be increasing. In…

There is a widespread consensus that the pressing issues of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) are inadequately addressed in today’s political agenda at the global, regional and national levels. It is therefore of vital importance to raise awareness on the issues, not only on the negative impacts of DLDD in terms of socio-economic development, but also on the opportunities that…

Drylands are complex social-ecological systems, characterized by non-linearity of causation, complex feedback loops within and between the many different social, ecological, and economic entities, and potential of regime shifts to alternative stable states as a result of thresholds. As such, dryland management faces a high level of uncertainty and unpredictability.  To strengthen the…

This book is the result of a process to better understand the role of gender in agriculture that was initiated by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in 2009. Recognizing the importance of empowering women farmers, Sida commissioned a study of the gender aspects of five of its major agricultural programmes. The case studies from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique…

This collection of papers examines water management in two of the world’s prominent, arid transboundary areas facing similar challenges. In the Middle East, the chronically water-short Israeli-Palestinian region has recognized the need both to conserve and supplement its traditional water sources. Across the globe on the North American continent, Arizona—a state in the southwestern United States…

The World Social Science Report captures a world undergoing deep change, rocked by multiple crises, including in the environment. It builds on the previous World Social Science Report, published in 2010, which addressed the challenge of knowledge divides in the social sciences. On this foundation, the present Report tackles the key theme of “Changing Global Environments”. Like its…