Responses to halt land degradation and to restore degraded land

Abstract

This chapter of the IPBES Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment evaluates the effectiveness of current response strategies both for avoiding or mitigating land degradation and for restoring previously degraded lands. More specifically: it develops a framework to assess the effectiveness of existing interventions designed to avoid and reduce land degradation processes and to rehabilitate or restore various types of degraded lands (e.g., croplands, rangelands, forest lands, urban lands and wetlands) through the recovery of biodiversity, ecosystem structure and services; assesses how responses to land degradation and restoration vary according to site-specific characteristics, including the type and severity of degradation, underlying direct and indirect drivers, and effects on ecosystem services and quality of life; evaluates the effectiveness of various response options to direct drivers (e.g., better land management techniques, access to training) and indirect drivers (e.g., institutions, governance systems) of land degradation; examines the relative success of different institutional, governance and management response options to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation across a range of economic, social, environmental, cultural, technical and political scenarios; and assesses different institutional, policy and governance responses to research and technology development.

Citation

Pandit, Ram;  Parrotta, John; Anker, Yakov; Coudel, Emilie; Diaz Morejón, Crstobal F.; Harris, Jim; Karlen, Douglas L.; Kertész, Á.; Mariño De Posada, Juana L.; Ntshotsho Simelane, Phumza; Tamin, Noriani M.; Vieira, Daniel L.M. . 2018. Responses to halt land degradation and to restore degraded land. Pages 435-528 In: The IPBES assessment report on land degradation and restoration. Montanarella, L., Scholes, R., and Brainich, A. (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany. 744 pages.