Climate And Land Degradation

Based on an International Workshop held in Arusha, Tanzania, this book presents state-of-the-art papers, real world applications, and innovative techniques for combating land degradation. It offers recommendations for effectively using weather and climate information for sustainable land management practices.

Although much is known about the processes and effects of land degradation and climate change, little is understood about the links between them. Less still is known about how these processes are likely to interact in different social-ecological systems around the world, or how societies might be able to adapt to this twin challenge. This book identifies key vulnerabilities to the combined effects of climate change and land degradation around the world. It identifies triple-win adaptations that can tackle both climate change and land degradation, whilst supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. The book discusses methods for monitoring effects of climate change and land degradation, and adaptations to these processes. It argues for better co-operation and knowledge exchange, so that the research, land user and policy communities can work together more effectively to tackle these challenges, harnessing the "wisdom of crowds" to assess vulnerability and adapt to climate change and land degradation, whilst protecting livelihoods and biodiversity.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) is the most comprehensive and up-to-date scientific assessment of the multiple interactions between climate change and land, assessing climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. It assesses the options for governance and decision-making across multiple scales. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Land degradation which is caused by multiple forces-extreme weather conditions and anthropogenic activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility-negatively affects food production, livelihoods, and the provision of other ecosystem goods and services. Land degradation can also lead to climate change and affect human health. The problem is more pronounced in least developing countries due to overdependence of natural resources for survival. Sustainable ways to reduce land degradation and desertification demand research and advocacy of sustainable land management practices. This book is organized into two sections. The first section covers three major aspects, viz., an understanding of patterns of land degradation and desertification for developing mitigation strategies, land-atmosphere interaction from response of land cover to climate change effects of Karst rocky desertification, and the effect of unprecedented human activity into land degradation and desertification processes using natural and human-induced landscape research. The last section dwells on the relationship between soil degradation and crop production and an examination on how land degradation impacts the quality of soil in communal rangelands. Environmentalists, land-use planners, ecologists, pedologists, researchers, and graduate students will find this book to be an essential resource.

Desertification offers a comprehensive overview of the subject and clearly emphasizes the link between local and global desertification processes and how past and current policy has affected arid environments and their populations. This text adequately applies the research undertaken during the last 15 years on the topic. Desertification has become increasingly politicized and there is a need to present and explain the facts from a global perspective. This book tackles the issues surrounding desertification in a number of ways from differing scales (local to global), processes (physical to human), the relationship of desertification to current global development and management responses at different scales. Desertification has been mainstreamed and integrated into other areas of concern and has consequently been ignored as a cross cutting issue. The book redresses this balance. Making use of much original data and information that has been undertaken by many scientists andpractitioners during the last decade in different parts of the world, Desertification, Land Degradation and Sustainability is organised according to the principles of adaptive management and hierarchy theory and clearly explains desertification within a framework of evolving and interacting physical and socio-economic systems. In addition to research data the book also draws from the National Action Plans of different countries, the IPCC Fourth Assessment on Climate Change and the Millennium assessments. Clearly structured throughout, the content of the book is organised at different scales; local, regional and global. It also specifically explains processes linking top-down and bottom- up interactions and has a strong human component. The historical, cultural and physical context is also stressed. Clearly organised into the following distinct sections: a) Concepts and processes b) Data c) Impacts d) Responses e) Case studies. This text is essential for anyone studying desertification as part of an earth and environmental science degree.

Based on an International Workshop held in Arusha, Tanzania, this book presents state-of-the-art papers, real world applications, and innovative techniques for combating land degradation. It offers recommendations for effectively using weather and climate information for sustainable land management practices.

This book focuses on the global effects of land degradation, but emphasizes other important levels of land degradation: at the field level, it may result in reduced productivity; at the national level, it may cause flooding, and sedimentation; and, at the global level, it can contribute to climate changes, damaging bio-diversity, and international waters. The effects on climate changes are explored, and the report questions the extent to which land degradation on agricultural land, affects climate change. Does it increase emissions of greenhouse gases? Does it affect land's capacity to serve as a carbon sink? Can appropriate management enhance both land's productivity, and its capacity to store carbon? The carbon cycle in soils is analyzed, indicating land degradation is likely to reduce the ability of soils to serve as carbon sink, and release stored carbon into the atmosphere, and, bio-diversity effects are likely to be adverse. Global benefits of land degradation control, include afforestation, to allow increased carbon sequestration, and provide adequate bio-diversity habitats; and, community-based wildlife management, can provide alternatives to some marginal areas. Although integrating global dimensions into land degradation control projects, may reverse the field level, or national problems it is causing, difficulties and constraints will likely contribute to the failure of these projects.

This publication, which WMO produced especially for COP-7 of UNCCD, highlights the importance of different climatic factors that contribute to land degradation around the world.--Publisher's description.