Sustainable land management (SLM), ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) and nature-based solutions (NbS) are widely-applied approaches that tackle certain drivers of these challenges in a goal-oriented way, in particular land degradation, climate change impacts and disasters due to natural hazards.

UNCCD Decision 19/COP.14 paragraph 42 seeks to encourage coherence and alignment in the way these approaches are categorized. Based on this, the UNCCD secretariat contracted UNU-EHS to conduct an assessment of these approaches and provide information on their specificities, similarities and differences.