Listening to our Land - Stories of Resilience

Globally, land degradation adversely affects approximately 2 billion hectares of land – about one quarter of all landscapes that are under human use. The deterioration of soil fertility, loss of forest cover, and erosion of rangelands causes biodiversity loss and compromises the flow of ecosystem services that enable food production and support the livelihoods of millions of people.  If current trends in land degradation are not reversed, an estimated 135 million people may be displaced by 2045 because of desertification, with cascading social, economic and environmental consequences.

This publication tells stories of people’s work on the land.  Through descriptions of their relationship with their land and their efforts to improve its quality through sustainable land management (SLM) practices, this book highlights the impacts of SLM projects supported by UNDP and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in eight selected countries.  Each story has been chosen to demonstrate the effectiveness of a particular approach to sustainable land management, reflected through the personal perspectives of project beneficiaries. These accounts present evidence that investing in improved land stewardship is an effective tool for restoring and maintaining productivity and resilience of the land, strengthening adaptation to climate change, reducing conflict over natural resources and helping communities thrive.