The Land Imperative: From Sahelian Dust to Global Degraded Landscapes

There have been sufficient warnings that Climate Change would both enlarge and intensify existing arid and semi‑arid zones and generate new localised desert‑like patches within today’s drylands. K.G. Sharma, in this article below, pleads that the global community must move beyond political pledges to unlock the necessary finance and uphold secure land tenure rights for the communities who are the ultimate custodians of the land.

The Land Imperative: From Sahelian Dust to Global Degraded Landscapes

Krishan Gopal Sharma

As the global community sets its sights on CRIC 23 in Panama from 1-5 December, 2025, the time is ripe to delve into the evolution of international efforts to combat desertification and land degradation. This upcoming session of the UNCCD's implementation review committee will be crucial, positioned right after the major climate negotiations of COP 30, where the integrated solutions provided by land restoration—particularly the role of soil carbon in national climate commitments—received unprecedented focus. This article invites readers to anticipate the pivotal decisions ahead, exploring how decades of lessons, from past failures to modern concepts, are converging to shape the post-2030 strategy for a Land Degradation Neutral world.

The global effort to combat desertification was initially spurred by a harsh reality: the severe and widespread environmental and humanitarian crises, most notably the devastating Sahel Drought of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This event, which brought mass starvation and massive livestock death across North and West Africa, unequivocally placed land degradation at the centre of global security concerns. What began as a focused response to the alarming advance of the Sahara in the 1970s has today evolved into an encompassing framework, now tackling a complex, interconnected web of issues—all stemming from the unsustainable relationship between humanity and the land. This broader crisis, encompassing drought, floods, biodiversity loss, and climate change, calls for urgent and integrated global attention, forming the central mandate of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and its subsidiary bodies like the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 23).

The Early Alarms and Convention Genesis

The genesis of global concern emerged from human suffering. The disastrous environmental and social consequences of the Sahel crisis directly led to the first major international action: the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD), held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1977. This pivotal event adopted the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD), which defined the problem but struggled with implementation. The PACD's failure stemmed from three critical stumbling blocks. Firstly, it was non-binding and lacked a dedicated financial mechanism, relying too heavily on existing aid programmes. Secondly, the approach was often top-down, failing to integrate the traditional knowledge and participation of the local communities most affected. Thirdly, its focus was too narrow, viewing the issue primarily as a technical problem of planting trees rather than a complex socio-economic issue rooted in poverty and unsustainable land use. By the late 1980s, the consensus was that the PACD had largely failed to halt the global degradation trend. It was a clear demonstration of the principle articulated by Franklin D. Roosevelt: "A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself."

This failure led to a critical reassessment at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Recognising the escalating global scale of land degradation, the Rio delegates elevated desertification to a global political priority alongside climate change and biodiversity loss. This call directly resulted in the adoption of the legally binding United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 1994. The UNCCD is unique among the three Rio Conventions as it explicitly links environment, development, and poverty eradication, officially entering into force in 1996.

Shifting Focus: New Concepts and Broader Agreements

The UNCCD’s journey has been marked by a vital strategic evolution, moving from a remedial approach to a preventive and development-oriented one. A significant shift came with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, which established SDG Target 15.3: to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is now the UNCCD’s core principle. It is a scientific, measurable target based on the principle of ‘No Net Loss’ of healthy and productive land compared to a defined baseline. This means any anticipated losses in land productivity or quality must be balanced by equivalent, planned gains through rehabilitation or restoration within the same land type. This mechanism involves a clear response hierarchy: first avoiding new degradation, then reducing it where possible, and finally reversing it through restoration. This provides a crucial structure for accountability, with over 130 countries having now set voluntary national LDN targets.

To ensure this is measurable, the UNCCD utilises three globally agreed-upon indicators, which are critically interpreted using the precautionary 'One-Out, All-Out' rule (where a negative change in any one indicator signifies degradation). These are: Land Cover (LC), which measures physical changes in land use; Land Productivity Dynamics (LPD), which measures the biological capacity of the land to produce biomass; and Carbon Stocks (CS), specifically Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock, which is fundamental for soil health, fertility, and climate mitigation.

The Modern Drivers: Beyond Desert Sands

The contemporary land crisis is fuelled by acute, high-impact drivers that accelerate soil loss beyond traditional desertification. One major concern is Climate-Enhanced Erosion. Increased frequency and intensity of rainfall events due to climate change lead to catastrophic floods and landslides. Degraded land loses its "sponge-like" capacity, resulting in massive surface runoff that strips away fertile topsoil in a matter of hours. This destructive cycle sees degraded land making floods worse, and floods causing yet more land loss.

Another profound driver is Urbanisation and Infrastructure. This is an almost irreversible process involving the conversion of prime agricultural land and natural ecosystems into impervious surfaces like concrete and asphalt, permanently removing productive land and altering local hydrology. Furthermore, Unsustainable Mining and Quarrying cause physical destruction of land, extensive clearing of protective vegetation, and chemical contamination (such as acid rock drainage) that can render large areas toxic and unproductive for generations, destabilising slopes and accelerating soil erosion.

This holistic view is exemplified by the Great Green Wall (GGW) Initiative. This African-led movement spanning the Sahel-Sahara region has evolved into an integrated mosaic of green and productive landscapes. While an estimated 20 million hectares of land have been restored so far, achieving the target of 100 million hectares by 2030 requires overcoming significant financial and security challenges, highlighting the immense task ahead.

Persistent Hurdles: The Challenges Then and Now

Despite the conceptual progress, systemic challenges—many of which are echoes of the PACD era—continue to hinder effective implementation of the UNCCD.

Historically, the key obstacles were primarily financial resources and policy incoherence. Today, the crucial obstacle remains the Funding Gap. Restoration requires hundreds of billions annually, yet land-based solutions receive only a fraction of global climate finance, and there is persistent difficulty in attracting and de-risking private sector investment at the necessary scale. In terms of governance, the issue is Policy Coherence. While political will is present, the challenge is translating LDN targets into tangible, funded national budgets and cross-sectoral laws. The single most significant institutional barrier is Land Tenure and Rights. Farmers and pastoralists often lack secure, legal rights to their land, which removes the crucial long-term incentive to invest labour and resources into time-consuming restoration practices, directly undermining LDN efforts. An overarching threat is the Acceleration of Crisis: climate change (mega-droughts, floods) and instability often overwhelm the pace of planned restoration efforts.

The CRIC 23 Mandate: Accelerating Action

The 23rd session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 23)—scheduled to meet in December 2025—is the critical accountability forum for the UNCCD. Its work is defined by the rapidly approaching 2030 deadline for LDN and the necessity of planning beyond it. The agenda focuses on three core pillars:

Firstly, Reviewing Progress on the 2030 Targets. The central task is to critically assess national reports against the three LDN indicators, identifying which countries are on track and where strategic gaps require urgent intervention.

Secondly, developing the Post-2030 Strategic Framework. CRIC 23 will review initial findings from the Intergovernmental Working Group to define the new goals, structures, and financing mechanisms for the Convention after the current strategy expires.

Finally, tackling Drought and Resilience. CRIC 23 will focus on strengthening the implementation of national drought plans and policies, leveraging new data platforms, such as the International Drought Resilience Observatory, to enhance preparedness and early warning systems.

Conclusion: The Imperative for Integrated Action

The evolution of the fight against desertification is a narrative of escalating threat matched by an expanding, science-based understanding. What began as a crisis in the Sahel has become a global metaphor for ecological fragility? The shift from simply reacting to desert expansion to proactively striving for Land Degradation Neutrality marks a crucial maturation, demonstrating high originality of concept and a strong basis in fact-check science. To succeed, the global community must move beyond political pledges to unlock the necessary finance, uphold secure land tenure rights for the communities who are the ultimate custodians of the land, and integrate land health policies seamlessly with climate and biodiversity action. As former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated, "Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight." The outcome of CRIC 23 will be vital in determining if the world can meet the 2030 imperative and secure a sustainable future for the degraded landscapes we all depend upon.

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