Restoring Degraded Landscapes blog posts

Received wisdom on forest conservation tells us that working forests are bad for the environment: good forests are "pristine." However, there is no such thing as a pristine forest, and would-be conservationists have much to learn from those who have lived and worked in productive forests.

It is impossible to view any one of the Sustainable Development Goals as an isolated issue. The Water-Energy-Food Nexus platform takes an integrative approach, considering how water intersects with other potential challenges.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encompass a vast set of development targets. A draft framework from the International Council for Science (ICSU) presents a concrete way to understand SDG interactions and the resulting trade-offs and synergies.

As part of WLE's partnership with The Economist Events' Sustainability Summit, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre explore how sustainability can be evaluated to improve decisions in development and business.

 Proper water management is a particularly tricky balancing act to achieve. There must be sufficient access to clean and safe water for consumption, sanitation, and agriculture, while communities must have enough disaster-risk infrastructure in place to deal with drought, flooding, and any other water-related issues. Too little and we have a problem, too much, and again, it’s a problem: this is a Goldilocks dilemma.

Climate change activists were all smiles at the conclusion of the Paris Agreement last weekend. But what about those wanting an agreement that would restore and sustainably manage landscapes?  What did the deal say about forests and forest dwellers?  Did it give a boost to “climate-smart agriculture”?  Or do we just face a blitz of low-carbon hydroelectric dams?

For over 40 years as an international soil scientist, I have been hearing more and more what I call “The Soil Scientists’ Lament” – the cry that “soils are neglected”, “soils are under-valued”, “inaction on soil degradation is costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year”, “but those who make public policy are not listening to us”. 

It’s one of the classic problems in agricultural development: how to scale innovations to reach millions of smallholders on thin budgets? The unstoppable rise of easy-access technology and focus on farmer-to-farmer approaches are breathing new life into a familiar strategy: video extension.

Soil, and what it means for human survival, hasn’t gotten this much attention since the 1970s and 1980s.  But as soils return to the high tables of policymaker, who will be the winners?  Fertiliser companies or smallholders?  Land grabbers or the hungry?

Droughts and floods cost us hundreds of billions of dollars each year in food loss and property damage. What’s worse? The costs stand to rise as water variability increases in many parts of the world. 

New innovations are revolutionizing the measurement of water productivity. Farmer Ahmed may not know it yet, but he is a water productivity champion in Morocco. 

What information is needed to make better development decisions? Which set of interventions will maximize a nation’s capacity to meet the new Sustainable Development Goals and how will we measure progress?