soil degradation

The report addresses greenhouse gas fluxes in land-based ecosystems, land use and sustainable land management in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation, desertification, land degradation and food security. Climate change has adversely impacted food security and terrestrial ecosystems, and contributed to desertificatin and land degradation. On the other hand, changes in land conditions affect the global and regional climate, Appropriate design of policies, institutions and governance systems at all scales can contribute to land-related adaptation and mitigation while facilitating the pursuit of climate-adaptive development pathways. »

This article reviews developments in the application of remote sensing technologies in sub-Saharan Africa with a explicit emphasis on soil erosion monitoring. The remote sensing of soil erosion has gained substantial consideration, with considerable scientific research work having been conducted in the past, due to technological improvements that have resulted in the release of robust, cheap and high resolution datasets with a global footprint »

This article investigates investment constraints on soil management technologies among smallholders. Land degradation is a major environmental problem in Ethiopia posing serious threats to agricultural productivity and livelihoods. »

This working paper examines how sustainable land management can be scaled up and out globally. With current rates of land degradation reaching ten to twelve million ha per year, there is an urgent need to scale up and out successful, profitable and resource-efficient sustainable land management practices to maintain the health and resilience of the land that humans depend on. »

This blog discusses the impact of the Sustainable Land Management Program. This is an innovative approach to restoring degraded land, which combines security of tenure for Ethiopia’s farmers with better management of the country’s natural resources. »

This report by Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment describes a current indigenous soil management system in West Africa, in which targeted waste deposition transforms highly weathered, nutrient- and carbon-poor tropical soils into enduringly fertile, carbon-rich black soils, hereafter “African Dark Earths” (AfDE). AfDE provide a model for improving the fertility of highly degraded soils in an environmentally and socially appropriate way, in resource-poor and food-insecure regions of the world. The method is also “climate-smart”, as these soils sequester carbon and enhance the climate-change mitigation potential of carbon-poor tropical soils. »