Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

How to halt the global decline of lands

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Sustainability

View current issue Submit your manuscript

The assessment of land degradation and restoration by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services shows that land degradation across the globe is a wide and severe issue and is showing no signs of slowing down. This trend must be halted and reversed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

illustration by Yuka Otsuki Estrada.

References

  1. IPBES The IPBES Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration (Secretariat of the IPBES, 2018).

  2. Foley, J. A. et al. Science 309, 570–574 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Newbold, T. et al. Science 353, 288–291 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Barbier, E. B. & Hochard, J. P. Land Degradation, Less Favored Lands and the Rural Poor: A Spatial and Economic Analysis. A Report for the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative (Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, 2014).

  5. Mace, G. M. et al. Nat. Sustain. 1, 448–451 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu, J. et al. Science 347, 1258832 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Washington, H. et al. Biol. Conserv. 228, 367–374 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Gardner, T. A. et al. World Dev. 121, 163–177 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gichenje, H., Muñoz-Rojas, J. & Pinto-Correia, T. Land 8, 115 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Implementation Plan for the Global Observing System for Climate in Support of the UNFCCC (2010 Update) (World Meteorological Organization, 2010).

  11. Garnett, S. T. et al. Nat. Sustain. 1, 369–374 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ens, E. J. et al. Biol. Conserv. 181, 133–149 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Verdone, M. & Seidl, A. Restor. Ecol. 25, 903–911 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Natural Capital Accounting: Overview and Progress in the European Union. 6th Report (EC, 2019).

  15. Crist, E., Mora, C. & Engelman, R. Science 356, 260–264 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Rosa, H. & Henning, C. The Good Life Beyond Growth: New Perspectives (Routledge, 2017).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the hundreds of people who volunteered their expertise in producing and reviewing the IPBES Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment. A full list of their names is presented in the Supplementary Information.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands

    Louise Willemen

  2. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Nichole N. Barger

  3. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, The Hague, the Netherlands

    Ben ten Brink

  4. School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Matthew Cantele

  5. Faculty of Natural & Agricultural Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Barend F. N. Erasmus

  6. Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Judith L. Fisher

  7. Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Toby Gardner

  8. University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Timothy G. Holland

  9. University of Tours, Tours, France

    Florent Kohler

  10. School or Resource Wisdom / Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Janne S. Kotiaho

  11. Smart Places, CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa

    Graham P. von Maltitz

  12. Wildlife Conservation Society, Kampala, Uganda

    Grace Nangendo

  13. UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

    Ram Pandit

  14. Research and Development, USDA Forest Service, Washington, DC, USA

    John A. Parrotta

  15. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Matthew D. Potts

  16. Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Stephen D. Prince

  17. Ecology & Evolution, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Mahesh Sankaran

  18. GRP Secretariat, Global Resilience Partnership, Stockholm, Sweden

    Anastasia Brainich

  19. Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Ispra, Italy

    Luca Montanarella

  20. Global Change Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Robert Scholes

Authors
  1. Louise Willemen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nichole N. Barger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ben ten Brink
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Matthew Cantele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Barend F. N. Erasmus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Judith L. Fisher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Toby Gardner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Timothy G. Holland
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Florent Kohler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Janne S. Kotiaho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Graham P. von Maltitz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Grace Nangendo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Ram Pandit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. John A. Parrotta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Matthew D. Potts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Stephen D. Prince
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Mahesh Sankaran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Anastasia Brainich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Luca Montanarella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. Robert Scholes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Louise Willemen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Willemen, L., Barger, N.N., Brink, B.t. et al. How to halt the global decline of lands. Nat Sustain 3, 164–166 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0477-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0477-x

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation