Land is our lifeblood. About 95 percent of our food is either directly or indirectly produced on land, yet desertification and drought threaten to dry out fertile soils and leave millions food insecure. The United Nations has raised the alarm, reporting that one-fifth of the Earth’s land area – more than 2 billion hectares – is degraded, including more than half of all agricultural land, and that over 90 percent could become degraded by 2050 if we do not change the way we manage soil.
Rural communities in arid and semi-arid regions are particularly at risk, as human-caused land degradation combined with increasingly low and erratic rainfall decrease the land’s productivity, reduce water availability and put a strain on people’s livelihoods.
But we can combat this threat. “As we take our first steps into the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, we need to harness the regenerative power of nature and recognize it as our first line of defence against desertification and drought,” says Eduardo Mansur, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation’s (FAO) Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment.
As one of the two leading UN agencies in the implementation of the Decade, FAO is ramping up its efforts to restore the degraded lands, ecosystems and ecosystem services people depend on for their well-being. Three FAO-led Green Climate Fund (GCF) projects in El Salvador, Jordan and Sudan show how countries are tackling the drivers of land degradation while enhancing people’s ability to adapt to climate change by promoting sustainable land-use practices, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, restoring landscapes and building resilience to water scarcity.
Restoring degraded ecosystems to protect water sources
El Salvador, for example, is located in what is known as Central America’s Dry Corridor, an area prone to drought and highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Just over a million rural smallholders depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but increasing temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and more frequent extreme weather events threaten to push these rural communities further into poverty.
To address this challenge, FAO and the Government of El Salvador have teamed up to work on a GCF project – Upscaling climate resilience measures in the dry corridor agroecosystems of El Salvador (RECLIMA) – that focuses on improving rural communities’ access to water and building local capacity to manage natural resources sustainably. This is done by restoring and reforesting degraded ecosystems, which protects water sources and replenishes water levels, thus increasing the climate resilience of small-scale farmers and improving food security. With about USD 127.7 million in climate investments allocated to the project, RECLIMA is expected to improve the livelihoods of around 1.3 million rural people.
Rooftop rainwater harvesting and innovative irrigation systems for increased water security
Located in one of the world’s most water-scarce regions, Jordan faces the dual challenge of increasing access to water to meet growing population demands, and at the same time, adapting to increasingly limited water resources due to climate change. As a drought-prone country with the fifth highest level of water stress in the world, Jordan needs innovative solutions to combat desertification and drought.
Working alongside FAO and its partners, the Government of Jordan is putting a GCF project worth USD 33.3 million into action: Building resilience to cope with climate change in Jordan through improving water use efficiency in the agriculture sector (BRCCJ). This project promotes new, gender-responsive ways to increase water supplies: recycling wastewater and harvesting rainwater from rooftops; improving cropping and irrigation practices; and championing women as agents of change with targeted training on better water management strategies.
Expanding Africa’s Great Green Wall to combat desertification and drought
In Sudan, desertification poses a serious threat to land productivity and food security. The country is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as temperature-driven moisture loss, yet vulnerable communities depend on rainfed agriculture for their livelihoods. Rural communities in the Kordofan States are particularly exposed to weather and climate threats: average temperatures increased by almost 2° Celsius between 1989 and 2016 in the area, and 98 percent of agriculture is rainfed.
Acacia trees (Acacia senegal) are on the front line of Sudan’s efforts to combat the growing threats of desertification and climate change. The Government is working with FAO and its partners to restore agroforestry systems with acacia trees that reduce GHG emissions and provide income for men and women who harvest gum from the tree’s stems and branches. The Gums for Adaptation and Mitigation in Sudan (GAMS) project – funded by GCF and led by FAO – will direct USD 10 million towards expanding Africa’s Great Green Wall, enhancing the resilience of rural communities, restoring degraded lands, and at the same time, slowing desertification.
Climate investments for healthier land
Through its partnership with GCF, FAO fosters collective action to combat desertification and drought by mobilizing the resources and expertise rural communities need to enhance climate action as well as restore degraded land and promote a green recovery. Healthier land delivers benefits for nature and people alike, building communities’ resilience to climate and other shocks (such as the COVID-19 pandemic), improving livelihoods and protecting biodiversity.
FAO is accelerating its efforts to help countries catalyse climate investments to achieve the mitigation and adaptation commitments outlined in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – which are at the heart of the Paris Agreement.
Nature is our ally in the fight to slow climate change, prevent biodiversity loss and improve livelihoods. Turning degraded land into healthy land is key to building back better from the ground up and paving the way for a low-emission, sustainable future.