Desertification and land degradation are not just natural phenomena. They are the outcomes of a long-term over-exploitation and mismanagement of fragile ecosystems. Eighteen years after the creation of the UNCCD, the world’s deserts would seem to be growing. Yet “we know what to do to reverse this and how to do it” — and we can see many positive examples, and many efforts to scale up the results.
Sustainable agriculture in dry and degraded areas is about the resilience of farmers and ecosystems. With examples from different parts of the world, issue 28.4 of Farming Matters shows the importance of local knowledge and appropriate policies.
