The brief summarizes information from recent assessments and scientific sources, including the UNCCD Data Dashboard, to outline the challenges and opportunities of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in relation to land and drought. The brief warns that the SIDS’ land area affected by at least six months of extreme drought per year has increased to 17 per cent in the 2014–2023 period, up from 2 per cent between 1961–1970. Meanwhile, urbanization, unsustainable agriculture and extractive industries are fueling the degradation of precious land in some of the smallest, more isolated and poorest territories on the planet, which are also some of the most vulnerable to climate change.