Monitoring and assessment of land degradation and desertification: Towards new conceptual and integrated approaches

Abstract

The implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) needs agreed, scientifically sound and practical methodologies for monitoring and assessing the state and trend of land degradation as well as for monitoring the performance of management programmes. The lack of sufficient and integrated monitoring and assessment (M&A) has in the past been identified as a major constraint for combating desertification. Implementing efficient M&A programmes, however, requires careful analysis of the information needs of the different stakeholders, a clear scientific concept of the processes and drivers of land degradation and an analysis of the theoretical and practical possibilities for adequate M&A. This paper briefly analyses the information needs of diverse stakeholders, reviews existing M&A systems, and highlights key aspects for a scientifically sound approach to monitoring and assessment. Analysis of existing approaches shows that in spite of their relevance, standardised procedures for their implementation at operational scales are lacking. This is partly attributable to the lack of agreed and clear definitions, related difficulties in defining and hence in measuring the attributes chosen to represent land degradation and desertification and the varying degrees of paucity of field data. There is also the urgent need to better integrate bio-physical and socioeconomic aspects of desertification through a suitably robust scientific framework that links the drivers, processes and symptoms of desertification. Such a framework will allow for the identification of key variables to be monitored and will provide a basis for an improved forecasting and assessment of vulnerability, thereby providing highly important information for policy-and decision-making.

Navigating challenges and opportunities of land degradation and sustainable livelihood development in dryland social–ecological systems: a case study from Mexico

“…This phenomenon has become rather frequent in many rural areas of the world [109] (emergent property at a large spatial scale). This will allow livestock farmers to increase stocking rates and to expand the rangelands into the forest ecosystem with obvious environmental consequences (pushing the system at larger spatial scales into an increasingly vulnerable K-phase) risking desertification [21], and the loss of the life-support system of Amapola. This trend of extending rangeland into forest can be observed in the Sierra San Miguelito, where an increase in shrubland vegetation in the former grassland suggests shrub encroachment and forest deterioration as a consequence of overgrazing (see the electronic supplementary material, appendix S5, figure S5.1).…”

“…livestock production, irrigation, deforestation, land-cover reduction), ultimately leading to different syndromes of desertification [22][23][24][25]. Longterm mitigation efforts to combat desertification and to rehabilitate or restore degraded or desertified land [21] have rarely been successful. For instance, government help programmes are economy-and/or productivity-driven, not system-based [26].…”

Zero net livelihood degradation – the quest for a multidimensional protocol to combat desertification

“…Desertification is not an exception, and different theoretical and methodological issues are still under debate (e.g. Thomas, 1997;Verón et al, 2006;Vogt et al, 2011). Research contributions to biophysical degradation assessments (e.g.…”

Impact of pastoral land use on central Namibian savanna vegetation - Methods for indictor development and perspectives for their application

“…Die Auswirkungen der Degradation infolge von Überbeweidung oder nicht angepasster Beweidung sind sowohl im bio-physikalischen als auch im sozio-ökonomischen Kontext zu verstehen (Vogt et al 2011; Domptail in Artikel 2;…”