This working paper aims to identify shared challenges faced by both rural and urban areas, and documents the co-benefits that may arise from joint initiatives to address these challenges. Issues and recommendations are structured around natural, human, social, manufactured and financial capitals. A call for joint action concludes this paper, encouraging all stakeholders to take action on the ground in an attempt to holistically enhance the dynamics between rural and urban linkages. Land degradation impacts rural and urban habitats, and there are socio, economic and environmental opportunities to be found in the transboundary management of natural resources through a circular economy.