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May 18, 2015 - Modern science, local knowledge and policies could aid sustainable land use. Scientists have recommended
LAND SCAN - What's New – May 2015 UNCCD Library information service - All about desertification, land degradation, drought, drylands, sustainable land management, and more related issues compiled from the Web

FROM THE NEWS HEADLINES 

Tudor Rose and UNCCD are collaborating to publish a book in 2015 for the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification (2010–2020). Living Land will be a fully illustrated 200-page book with over 60 authors relating their work in active efforts to stop desertification with the key subject matter being land degradation through climate change, unsustainable agriculture, poor management of water resources, urbanization, demographic pressure, youth employment, migration and business opportunities. http://www.unccd.int/Lists/SiteDocumentLibrary/UNDDD/LivingLandUNDDDmediafly er.pdf  Data and local know-how for sustainable land use Increasing land degradation in Africa, Asia and Latin America requires action A meeting has called for involvement of multiple actors in halting it Modern science, local knowledge and policies could aid sustainable land use Scientists have recommended a need for integrating local knowledge and global data on how ecosystems interact to help improve sustainable land use and conservation. Experts say increasing land degradation in regions such as Africa, Asia and Latin America requires urgent action. “When ecosystems are degraded they will take thousands of years to rebuild, and human beings have a responsibility to ensure they are taken care of,” said Bernard Hubert, chair of the Scientific and Traditional Knowledge for Sustainable Development Consortium, at the 3rd United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Scientific Conference in Mexico in March this year (9-12 March). http://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/conservation/news/data-and-local-knowhow-for-sustainable-land-use.html  UNCCD at the Global Soil Week For Monique Barbut's opening remarks titled, “Soil. The Substance of Transformation", delivered at the Global Soil Week visit: http://www.unccd.int/Lists/SiteDocumentLibrary/secretariat/2015/GSW3%20Open%20Remarks%20ES%2015%20April%20revised-final.pdf A brief report of the meeting, including the Science-Policy Interface and the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) discussion, in a joint session, about the interlinkages in their mandates and possibilities for working more closely together is available here: http://www.unccd.int/en/mediacenter/MediaNews/Pages/highlightdetail.aspx?HighlightID=382.

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Carbon Pricing Is Expanding: Initiatives Now Valued at Nearly $50 Billion

The new Carbon Pricing Watch compiles the latest data on formal carbon pricing initiatives around the world. Several carbon taxes and one of the world's largest emissions trading systems started in the past year and a half, and more are planned in the coming years. The new and existing systems are also evolving. California and Quebec linked their markets. China has been learning from its seven local carbon markets as it plans for a national emissions trading system. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/05/26/carbon-pricing-initiativesnearly-50-billion?cid=ISG_E_WBWeeklyUpdate_NL



Climate Change Joins Terrorism, the Economy as a Top Diplomatic Issue For the first time, climate change has received full treatment in an important State Department planning document, joining terrorism, democracy, and the global economy among the nation’s top diplomatic priorities. It’s the clearest sign yet that the warming climate has the full attention of the Obama administration. In May, Secretary of State John Kerry released the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, the once-every-four-years strategic planning document for America’s diplomatic corps. The QDDR is a wonky initiative begun by Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State and modeled off a similar process that the Defense Department uses. At that time, her team prioritized energy diplomacy and frequently mentioned climate change in a list of complex challenges, but this week’s document ups the ante significantly. http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/04/30/secretary_of_stat e_john_kerry_highlights_climate_change_as_a_top_diplomatic.html?utm_c ontent=buffer0ab80&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_ campaign=buffer http://www.state.gov/s/dmr/qddr/ 

Vatican Symposium on Climate Change On April 28, 2015, the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, SDSN, and Religions for Peace organized a scientific symposium on "Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Humanity." Leaders from science, major religions, business, civil society, and governments, including the President of Italy, attended the one day event. Pope Francis met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before the Secretary-General gave the opening address at the symposium. read more »

http://unsdsn.org/news/2015/04/30/press-coverage-roundup-of-vatican-climatesummit/?utm_source=SDSN&utm_campaign=1bc304d480April_Newsletter_4_26_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_23021000591bc304d480-177775801

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OPINIONS and ANALYSIS 

Organic farming can reverse the agriculture ecosystem from a carbon source to a carbon sink

Approximately 35% of global greenhouse gases (GHGs) come from agriculture. Some argues that human can reverse global worming by sequestering several hundred billion tons of excess CO2 through regenerative, organic farming, ranching and land use. Increasing the soil's organic content will not only fix carbon and reduce emissions, it will also improve the soil's ability to retain water and nutrients and resist pests and droughts. To mitigate GHG emissions and retain soil fertility, organic agriculture might be a wise choice for decreasing the intensive use of synthetic fertilizers, protecting environments, and further improving crop yields. Recent research showed that replacing chemical fertilizer with organic manure significantly decreased the emission of GHGs. Organic farming can reverse the agriculture ecosystem from a carbon source to a carbon sink. See the article: Haitao Liu, J.L., Xiao Li, Yanhai Zheng, Sufei Feng, Gaoming Jiang. 2015. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through replacement of chemical fertilizer with organic manure in a temperate farmland. Science Bulletin, 60(6), 598-606. Science China Press http://www.scichina.com/ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/scp-ofc042915.php

IN THE BLOGS 

Pastoralists produce food in the world’s harshest environments, and pastoral production supports the livelihoods of rural populations on almost half of the world’s land. They have traditionally suffered from poor understanding, marginalization and exclusion from dialogue. The Pastoralist Knowledge Hub is an initiative bringing together pastoralists and the main actors working with them to join forces and create the synergies for dialogue and pastoralist development Key facts  Several hundred million people are pastoralists, mostly in Africa and Asia.  Pastoralists manage rangelands covering about a third of the Earth’s terrestrial surface.  Pastoralists are able to produce food where crop production is not possible.  Pastoral livestock convert large amounts of resources non edible by humans into high value animal-source foods.  Pastoralists produce more than half of the agricultural GDP in some countries; this includes products such as livestock sales, meat, milk, hair and hides.  Globally, the value of ecosystem services provided by rangelands amounts to 75% of that of croplands and to nearly double of that of woodlands.

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Habitat provisioning, nutrient cycling, and control of bush encroachment and weeds are the most recognized ecosystem services provided by livestock grazing in rangelands. Pastoralist societies have strategies and social structures that optimize their production system. They depend on communal land, social networks and mobility to track variable resources.

http://www.fao.org/pastoralist-knowledge-hub/en/

REPORTS/RESEARCH ARTICLES/PAPERS  The securitisation of climate change in the European Union” In the OECD’s recent report “Global Security Risks and West Africa: Development Challenges,” there is a very interesting chapter by Rodrigues De Brito devoted to exploring the implications of the “securitisation” of climate change in the European Union. After examining the literature on the subject, which ranges from “climate change is a major security issue” to “we should never treat climate change as a security issue!” De Brito comes to the conclusion that the conceptualization of climate change as a security issue has been beneficial for EU policy on mitigating and adapting to climate change. http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/global-security-risks-and-westafrica_9789264171848-en;jsessionid=597ho1cp3hbrs.epsilon http://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dfid__uk_department_for_international_development__bahn_refugee_camp_50km_from_the_liberia-ivory_coast_border.jpg 

Climate Law and Policy and the GIZ REDD/CCAD Regional Programme are happy to announce the release of a new Report presenting initial experiences and lessons learned from tropical forest countries currently developing Country-Led Safeguards Approaches (CSA) to meet international safeguard requirements related to REDD+.

Following its adoption at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 19th Conference of the Parties (COP19) in 2013, the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ consolidates the requirements that must be met by countries in order to receive results-based payments. However these requirements were intentionally left somewhat broad in the interests of flexibility and preserving national sovereignty. This is particularly true in the case of the REDD+ safeguards, which must be “addressed and respected” when implementing all activities and during all phases of REDD+. The question is how best to do this? The report is available here: http://climatelawandpolicy.com/files/files_publications/CSA_early_experiences_and_l essons_learned.pdf The report is also available in Spanish from our website: http://climatelawandpolicy.com/knowledge-and-resources/our-knowledgeproducts.html#country-safeguard-approaches-for-redd---experiences-and-lessonslearnt

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New Publications of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) 

Hess, Janto S. / Pieter Pauw / Elissaios Papyrakis Can the tourism industry contribute to international adaptation finance? Briefing Paper 2/2015 What can the international tourism industry contribute to adaptation finance in Small Island Development States (SIDS)? This question is addressed in the context of the annual USD 100 billion of climate finance that developed countries pledged to mobilize to support developing countries. Read more... http://www.die-gdi.de/briefing-paper/article/can-the-tourism-industry-contribute-tointernational-adaptation-finance/ 

Hein, Jonas / Karen Meijer / Jean Carlo Rodríguez de Francisco What is the potential for a climate, forest and community friendly REDD+ in Paris? Briefing Paper 3/2015 How can we mitigate climate change, protect the shrinking tropical forest and support local communities? This paper assesses different prospects for REDD+ within a post-2015 Paris agreement and suggests a middle road based on regulatory measures and result-based finance. Read more... http://www.die-gdi.de/briefing-paper/article/what-is-the-potential-for-a-climateforest-and-community-friendly-redd-in-paris/ 

READING: Decarbonizing Development ( the new WB Report)

Incentives for Land-Use-Based Mitigation FROM page. 89 Although carbon-pricing schemes seldom cover land uses—exceptions include carbon markets in California, Kyoto, and New Zealand—many countries have implemented performance-based payments that mostly involve public funds to reward landscape actors for reducing emissions or sequestering carbon. Currently, more than 300 payments for ecosystem service schemes have been established worldwide to support carbon sequestration, biodiversity, watershed services, and landscape beauty. p.146 Land-Use-Based Mitigation—Impacts Depend on Design As for land-use-based mitigation, its impact on equity depends on how the policies are designed (Barbier 2014). The key issues that arise are access to and returns from land and demand for labor-intensive activities. Both national and global schemes can be designed to be pro-poor, although global large-scale, land-usebased mitigation is more complex, as it affects income distribution through changes in commodity prices (box 7.3), which are not in the control of countries designing national mitigation actions. Access to land. Land-use-based mitigation policies can be designed to protect poor rural communities’ access to land or even to strengthen their land titles. Often poor people depend on ecosystems for food, fuel, materials, and income generation (Angelsen et al. 2014). In particular, indigenous people’s livelihoods frequently depend on nonmanaged lands, which store large stocks of carbon (Ricketts et al. 2010; Walker et al. 2014). http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/Climate/dd/decarboni zing-development-report.pdf

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and MORE publications: 

The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/

 A new report on “The Role of the 2015 Agreement in Enhancing Adaptation to Climate Change” from the OECD/IEA Climate Change Expert Group is available at http://www.oecd.org/environment/cc/Role-of-2015-Agreement-in-EnhancingAdaptation-to-cc-2015(1).pdf  Immune to the Shocks of Climate Change: How Farmers are Creating Resilient Local Food Systems http://foodtank.com/news/2015/05/lexicon-farming-and-resilience-localfood-systems  “HLPE Report on Water for Food Security and Nutrition : Important points from the report : Water is integral to food security and nutrition“. http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/hlpe/hlpe_documents/HLPE_Repor ts/HLPE-Report-9_EN.pdf  “ What Equity and Real Estate Investors Need to Know About Sustainability“. http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/gbiginsight/1074906/sustainability-andreal-estate-debt-elephantback?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sustaina ble+Cities+Collective+%28all+posts%29

THE LIBRARY FOCUS 

Regreening Africa Could Help Stem the Tide of Migration

European Union leaders have been wrestling in recent weeks with the surge of the “boat people,” tens of thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East crossing the Mediterranean in overloaded boats in the hopes of finding a better life. Many of these migrants died during the journey. Refugees like the boat people are fleeing poverty and the loss of their livelihoods in the wake of political instability, conflicts and more deeply rooted issues like land degradation and food insecurity. While media reports have focused on the political

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crises, rural communities in the drylands of the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and Syria face crop failures linked to declining soil fertility and droughts. As European leaders respond to the refugee crisis, it would be good to consider more than a military crackdown on migrant smugglers, increased surveillance of illegal migrants or allocation of additional resources for resettlement. The situation provides an opportunity to think deeply about what can be done to alleviate underlying, systemic problems of degraded land and food insecurity in the countries of origin. A new WRI report shows that a new “green revolution” in Africa could be a solution. Scaling Up Regreening Success These successes can be replicated on a larger scale, but it requires the engagement of governments, farmer associations, community-based organizations, as well as development agencies, the private sector, the media and other stakeholders. WRI’s new report, Scaling Up Regreening: Six Steps to Success, contains practical guidance and examples of activities in six key areas that are critically important to successfully scaling up forest and landscape restoration. The report lays out a path to facilitate and accelerate the widespread adoption of regreening, agroforestry and other practices that can restore degraded lands and transform rural lives. http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/05/regreening-africa-could-help-stem-tidemigration?utm_campaign=socialmedia&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=worl dresources&utm_content=smgraphic http://www.unccd.int/en/resources/Library/Pages/Keyword-Search.aspx http://www.unccd.int/en/resources/Library/Pages/SearchDetail.aspx?priref=536&dat abase=fullCatalogue



Revaluing Ecosystems: Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making by Lauretta Burke, Janet Ranganathan and Robert Winterbottom - April 2015 The ideas explored include mainstreaming ecosystem values in national economic accounts; building capacity for more pragmatic ecosystem assessments; highlighting the benefits of investing in natural infrastructure; investing in ecosystems to reduce risk in the food and beverage sector; using financial tools similar to green bonds to restore ecosystems in agricultural landscapes; and using knowledge and communication tools to promote more resilient communities, particularly after disasters. These ideas represent complementary pathways to scale up the inclusion of ecosystem values in public and private decision making. Nature’s assets are, after all, what all life depends on. This brief by WRI might be of interest for you and Land Scan subscribers ... Especially with regard to the restoration of agricultural landscapes We claim ecological restoration is profitable and therefore I think, for scaling up purposes, it should be attractive for investment. from Page 35 see 5. RESTORATION BONDS: A CATALYST TO RESTORE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES http://www.wri.org/publication/revaluing-ecosystems http://www.wri.org/sites/default/files/Revaluing_Ecosystems_April_2015_2.pdf

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FOR YOUR EASE OF REFERENCE  The Costs of Climate Adaptation, Explained in 4 Infographics How much money will the world need to protect itself from the impacts of climate change? By some estimates, about $300 billion a year by 2050. Learn more. http://wri.org/blog/2015/04/costs-climate-adaptation-explained-4infographics?utm_campaign=wridigest&utm_source=wridigest-2015-0428&utm_medium=email&utm_content=learnmore  UNCCD Library Updates Can a novel or poem make a more sustainable world? For the World Book and Copyrights Day on 23 April we offered an annotated list of literary works (among which a few nonfiction ones) on environmental problems and disasters. To find our first choice – a world classic novel - and others follow the link here (http://bit.ly/1PmsHzN). Do you know of a great environmental novel that should be on this list? Send us a line to [email protected]. Knowledge products page ( Knowledge for land> K4LAND) < http://bit.ly/1bUhCXK>, or go directly to our new pages, which will be updated on a daily basis



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Land Scan- about land and more ( a monthly compilation of freely available information resources related to DLDD and SLM prepared by UNCCD library)



Did you know? For your ease of reference , provides useful resources on DLDD and SLM , databases etc which you can use on a daily basis for your work and research



Land related terminology and glossaries , important references to terminology for web-based research, catalogue search, science and knowledge on land



Factsheets and facts on land degradation , useful references to data you can use



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Library catalogue , presents our online collection of publications, maps, web-resources, infographics, articles etc ...work in progress

You may wish to have a look also at our latest additions in the Biblio references section :  Environmental problems reflected in world's literature. Annotated Bibliography (23.04.2015)



Can sustainable land management create job opportunities?



Land and Security

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Why societies collapse?  The new GLOBAL HUNGER MAP: Global hunger has continued to decline to an estimated 795 million undernourished people, but where are the hungry in the world? Food insecurity can be further deepened and self-perpetuating as people use up their reserves of food, finance and other assets, and turn to unsustainable coping mechanisms, such as selling off productive assets and taking up activities that lead to land degradation to meet immediate food need Download the new UN FAO hunger map: http://bit.ly/1AvGP6K



FROM the latest and forthcoming EVENTS

 FAO: Promoting SLM Principles for Effective Land Use Policies Beirut - From 18 to 22 May 2015, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) is organizing a Training of Trainers on "Participatory Local Level Land Use Planning in the Context of Landscape and Territorial Planning: Livelihoods and Climate in Lebanon Mountains", in Riviera Hotel in Beirut, Lebanon. The training is attended by 20 participants from various ministries, government administrations, universities and academic research centres. By introducing SLM principles and practices, the training aims to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture in order to better-develop effective land use policies for the sustainable management of land, thus improving livelihoods and ecosystems. http://www.zawya.com/story/FAO_Promoting_SLM_Principles_for_Effective_Land_Us e_Policies-ZAWYA20150519102018/  Beating Famine’ participants commit to fighting land degradation The 500-plus participants in the Beating Famine, Southern Africa Conference have endorsed a declaration that commits them to implement 17 action plans to reverse land degradation and support smallholder farmers across the Southern African region. http://beatingfamine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Beating-Famine-ConferenceFinal-Declaration.pdf The conference, which was co-hosted by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and World Vision, took place in Lilongwe, Malawi from 14-17 April. The 535 participants included representatives of governments, farmers’ associations, businesses, civil society, and the media. http://www.worldagroforestry.org/newsroom/highlights/%E2%80%98beating -famine%E2%80%99-participants-commit-fighting-land-degradation  

Bonn Climate Change Conference 2015 http://www.preventionweb.net/english/email/url.php?eid=42616 European Development Days 2015 http://www.preventionweb.net/english/email/url.php?eid=44178

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Innovative Approaches in scaling up Community Resilience at the European Development Days http://www.preventionweb.net/english/email/url.php?eid=44431 Resilient cities 2015: Sixth global forum on urban resilience and adaptation http://www.preventionweb.net/english/email/url.php?eid=40232 At UN meteorological forum, experts meet to discuss post-2015 action plan, climate change http://www.preventionweb.net/english/email/url.php?eid=44498 WMO: Climate and disaster resilience key to sustainable development http://www.preventionweb.net/english/email/url.php?eid=44509

DID YOU KNOW? FAO 100 facts in 14 themes linking people, food and the planet http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/mdg/100_facts/100facts_EN.pdf

DID YOU KNOW? FAO 100 days to Rio +20, 100 facts Making the link between people, food and the environment LAND FACTS 60 South Asia is using 94 percent of its potentially arable land. In contrast, in subSaharan Africa only 22 percent of potentially arable land is under cultivation. 61 Expansion in the area of land used to cultivated food crops between 1960 and 2010: 12 percent. 62 The increase in world agricultural productivity during 1960-2010 was in between 150-200 percent. 63 The extent of total cultivated land (rainfed + irrigated) in 1961 was 1.4 billion hectares. 64 The extent of total cultivated land (rainfed + irrigated) in 2006 was 1.5 billion hectares. 65 The cultivated area where irrigation was practiced in 1961 was 139 million hectares. 66 The Cultivated area where irrigation was practiced in 2006 was 301 million hectares. 67 The average number of hectares of cultivated land needed to feed one person in 1961 was 0.45 hectares 68 The average number of hectares of cultivated land needed to feed one person in 2006 was 0.22 hectares 69 The total world land area suitable for cropping is at 4.4 billion hectares 70 Arable land per person is shrinking. It decreased from 0.38 hectares in 1970 to 0.23 hectares in 2000, with a projected decline to 0.15 hectares per person by 2050. 71 Percent of the total world cultivated area that is rainfed: 80 percent (1.2 billion hectares)

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72 Total land area currently being cultivated: 1.6 billion hectares of which 20 percent (0.3 billion hectares) is on marginally suitable lands. 73 Share of world land sources that are degraded: 25 percent. 74 Eight percent of land is moderately degraded 75 The share of land that is improving is 10 percent. 76 In several regions, soil quality constraints affect more than half the cultivated land base, notably in sub-Saharan Africa, Southern America, Southeast Asia and Northern Europe. 77 Percentage of the world’s land area that is covered by low-income countries: 22 percent. 78 The average availability of cultivated land per capita in low-income countries is less than half that of high-income countries and the suitability of cultivated land for cropping is generally lower. 79 High-income countries, as a group, cultivate more than twice the land area per capita (0.37 hectares) than either middle income (0.23 hectares) or low income (.017 hectares) countries. 80 Between 1974 and 2010 the area cultivated using conservation agriculture grew from just under 3 million hectares to more than 117 million hectares. http://www.fao.org/climatechange/3177709a83cdc194ce209a6690bc8579f14bc8.pdf

DID YOU KNOW? Migration: Are more people on the move than ever before? By Paul Adams BBC News From the Mediterranean to the Andaman, it's been a season of despair, the faces of migrants haunting television screens and dominating headlines. Harrowing stories have emerged of death, starvation and abuse at the hands of people smugglers. And from the world's new and continuing conflict zones, there have been new mass movements, across borders and within states. Half a million Yemenis have been internally displaced since March. One hundred thousand Burundians have fled into neighbouring countries since April. The statistics can be numbing - 7.6 million Syrians, homeless inside their own country, now make up a fifth of all internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world. Are more people on the move than ever before? Today's map of the world is a complex spider's web of movement. Our map only represents the larger recent trends. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-32912867

DID YOU KNOW? 30 business books every professional should read before turning 30 There’s always a significant adjustment to make when transitioning from school to the workforce, with the sudden realization that no matter how smart or talented you are, you’re starting at the bottom. https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/04/30-business-books-every-professional-shouldread-before-turning-30/

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