Towards land degradation neutrality Maintaining or improving the condition of our land resources by securing healthy and productive land will dramatically reduce poverty, ensure food and water security and improve the living conditions of countless people around the world. Our future depends on the land and its resources. The sustainable management of our soil, water and biodiversity can help realize their economic, social and environmental benefits. LDN also includes the restoration of degraded natural ecosystems that provide vital services to people and working landscapes.”(Source: The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) promotes sustainable land management (SLM) and shares their knowledge. Their network of specialists facilitates the reporting, the dissemination and the implementation of locally adapted SLM practices.WOCAT WOCAT defines 4 categories of measures to prevent, mitigate and rehabilitate land degradation and restore ecosystem services. Agronomic measures improve the soil (mulching, manuring, conservation tillage). Vegetative measures consist in planting trees, shrubs or grasses. Structural measures change the structure of the land (terraces, dams, ditches). Management measures include change of land use, intensity, timing. Combinations of measures are possible. WOCAT, 2011 The Great Green Wall of Africa’s objective is to improve the resilience of human and natural systems in Sahel and Saharan areas faced with climate change through healthy ecosystem management and sustainable development of natural resources (water, soil, vegetation, fauna, flora), protection of tangible and intangible rural heritage, the development of rural production and sustainable development hubs, improvement of living conditions and livelihoods of people living in these areas Pierre GRARD - CIRAD

Restoration of 600 ha of rainforest in the Bulcão Farm, Minas Gerais, Brazil The Instituto Terra committed itself to the recovery of the rainforest in the completely devastated former cattle farm. Over 10 years, over two million seedlings of more than 290 species of trees were planted, recreating a forest of arboreal and shrub species native to the Atlantic Forest. While diverse soils are found of the farm, dark red ‘eutrophic’ soils predominate, that is, soils of great natural fertility, but highly susceptible to erosion and with little water infiltration capacity. By halting erosion of the soil, the replanting of the ground cover at the PNHR Bulcão Farm is fostering a revival of the farm’s water resources - both in quantity and quality. Fauna are turning: many species that were disappearing now find a secure home in Balcão Farm. Loess Plateau rehabilitation project Home to more than 50 million people, the Loess Plateau in China’s Northwest takes its name from the dry powdery wind- blown soil. Centuries of overuse and overgrazing led to one of the highest erosion rates in the world and widespread poverty. The Chinese government, with help from World Bank, rehabilitated a huge area in North-West China. The objective of the project was to help achieve sustainable development in the Loess Plateau by increasing agricultural production and incomes and improving ecological conditions in the tributary watersheds of the Yellow River through: (a) the introduction of more efficient and sustainable use of land and water resources; and (b) the reduction of erosion and sediment flows into the Yellow River. The project combined sustainable soil and water conservation with gains in farm incomes. Key elements of the project included: (a) the construction of terraces to create high-yielding leveled farmland for field crops and orchards on slopes of less than 20 degrees, thereby permitting the replacement of some of the areas devoted to crops on erodible slopelands; (b) the protection of slopelands from grazing and partial planting with a range of trees, shrubs and grasses to reduce soil loss and to produce fuel, timber and fodder; and (c) the provision of support to farmers in a range of income-generating farming activities, including livestock development in pens, dairy cattle, fruit and nut trees, and irrigated agricultural production, to provide sustainable income alternatives to destructive slopeland grazing. Some 80,832 ha of terraces were constructed. 115 key dams, 239 warping dams and 1,763 check dams were built or upgraded. The sediment reduction capacity created by the various project works is estimated to be about 25 million tons per year, of which some 45 percent is retained by the dams and the remainder is retained by the terraces and the various vegetative measures. Some 5,321 ha of irrigated land (110 percent of the PAD target) have been developed. 109,000 ha of forest trees and some 71,000 of drought-tolerant have been planted, with survival rates estimated above 80 %. Some 57,000 ha of slopeland were closed and protected for the purpose of natural regrowth of vegetation. As livestock were banned from the planted areas, natural regeneration occurred, providing a visual demonstration of the dramatic effect that the bans could have. Over 300,000 m² of sheds have been built and some 40,000 head of livestock have been provided. The introduction of new breeds of sheep and goats suitable for pen-feeding rapidly replaced local breeds and their improved productivity made livestock production a major contributor to household incomes. Almost 63,000 ha of "economic trees" and orchards were planted, mainly on the land already contracted to farmers before plantation, and the farmers used the early years to inter-crop with food crops, vegetables or fodder crops while the trees were young. Involving local communities improved the lives and livelihoods of more than 2.5 million people, and many more through replication. The physical and economic transformation of the Loess Plateau offers the clearest demonstration of what can be achieved through close partnership with the government, good policies, technical support and active consultation and participation of the people. Source: World Bank China - Second Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project. Washington, DC: World Bank.