How to halt the global decline of lands

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.

Restoring the health of the land The United Nations (UN) has announced 2021 as the start of the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Find out ten strategies to overcome the five systemic policy barriers, and thus transform the effectiveness of land protection and restoration.

Prerequisites for credible information needed to guide effective decision making are the open sharing of data and libraries of proven land protection and restoration practices. Institutions at several scales, working closely with each other and with policy makers and land stewards, must develop standards, undertake systematic monitoring and facilitate access to data and tools. The successful example of the climate change community in defining and sharing ‘essential climate variables’ should be followed.

Springer Nature wants researchers to share content easily and legally. The Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative means that links to view-only, full-text subscription research articles can be posted anywhere - including on social media platforms, author websites and in institutional repositories - so researchers can share research with colleagues and general audiences. The shareable links can be posted anywhere, including via social channels and on other highly-used sites, institutional repositories and authors’ own websites, as well as on scholarly collaborative networks

Keywordsland degradation neutrality, land restoration, biodiversity, investment trends, pollution, consumption, trade opportunities, science and research