Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement: An Introduction and Overview

Abstract

Land degradation is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries. However its impact is especially severe on the livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. Despite the severe impact of land degradation on the poor and the crucial role that land plays in human welfare and development, investments in sustainable land management (SLM) are low, especially in developing countries. This chapter summarizes the results from global and regional levels as well as 12 case study countries. The chapter also draws conclusions and implications for taking action against land degradation. Land degradation stretches to about 30 % of the total global land area and about three billion people reside in degraded lands. The annual global cost of land degradation due to land use/cover change (LUCC) and using land degrading management practices on static cropland and grazing land is about 300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22 %) of the total global cost of land degradation. Only about 46 % of the cost of land degradation due to LUCC-which accounts for 78 % of the US$300 billion lossis borne by land users and the remaining share (54 %) is borne by consumers of ecosystem services off the farm. This further illustrates that land degradation is a global problem even though its impact is much greater on poor land users. The cost of taking action against land degradation is much lower than the cost of inaction and the returns to taking action are high. On average, one US dollar investment into restoration of degraded land returns five US dollars. This provides a strong incentive for taking action against land degradation. This study shows that simul

Economics of sustainable land management

“…[3 ] for a review), most of these studies have considered only certain types of costs, for example, only losses due to lower crop productivity resulting from land degradation, while overlooking a wide range of other costs. The ELD conceptual framework presented earlier, and applied in [50], has been also used for conducting a dozen of country case studies around the world, providing with more comprehensive and up-to-date estimates of the costs of land degradation in these selected countries of the world [56 ]. To illustrate, Ref.…”

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in drylands and beyond – where has it come from and where does it go

“…The innovative element in the LDN practice therefore, is the attention to lands at the already degraded state, a charge more onerous and expensive than slowing the degrading process (Nkonya et al 2016). The rationale for this is rooted in the awareness of the increasing demands for non-degraded lands driven by increasing population and per capita consumption, and the trend of diminishing areas of the non-degraded, productive land.…”

Networked and embedded scientific experiments will improve restoration outcomes

“…In a recent global assessment, roughly one‐third (ie 29%) of all arable land was classified as degraded (Nkonya et al . ). Previous estimates of twice this figure (eg 66%; Bot et al .…”

“…However, if this most conservative estimate of degraded land (Nkonya et al . ) were to be consolidated into one geopolitical boundary – a landmass we might hypothetically call the “Federated States of Degradia” (Figure ) – it would exceed the size of Russia (~2 billion ha). Degradia's population would include more than 3 billion of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people (Nkonya et al .…”

“…Degradia's population would include more than 3 billion of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people (Nkonya et al . ), who would be restricted in their economic capacity to deal with the consequences of unsustainable land management on biodiversity and ecosystem services.…”