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 loss—
is 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-taneously enhancing local and national level governments, land tenure security, and
improving market access is the most effective strategy for addressing land degradation.
Given that LUCC accounts for the largest share of cost of land degradation,
there is a need for developing land use planning that will ensure that forests and
other high value biomes are effectively protected. Empirical evidence has shown
that involvement of local communities in managing forests and other high value
biomes and creating mechanisms for them to directly benefit from their conservation
efforts lead to more effective protection than is the case with centralized protection.
The assessment in this volume is being conducted at a time when there is an
elevated interest in private land investments and when global efforts to achieve
sustainable development objectives have intensified. This means, results of this
volume will contribute significantly to the ongoing policy debate and efforts to
design strategies for achieving sustainable development goals and other efforts to
address land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Keywords Economics of land degradation and improvement  Sustainable land
management  Cost of action  Ecosystem services