This e-book focuses on three initial landscape types, distinguished by landcover: 1) drylands, inclusive of rangelands which are located primarily in dryland areas; 2) forests; and 3) coastal areas. Additional landcover types and lenses may be added to future versions of this e-book, and the frameworks and solutions included will be relevant to all.
In highlighting these vulnerable regions and land types, it’s important to note the injustice of land degradation: those who are often least responsible (subsistence farmers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples) often suffer the most from its impacts. These communities also typically have the fewest resources to adapt or relocate. Moreover, these vulnerable landscapes – drylands, tropical forests, etc. – are often where the margins for error are smallest; when degradation pushes them past a certain threshold (e.g. vegetation cover below 30% in a dryland), the changes can become effectively irreversible on human time scales (a dryland can turn to true desert).
Rangelands cover more than half of the Earth’s land surface and support the livelihoods of around 2 billion people.
Source: UNCCDMore than half of the world’s rangelands and grasslands are degraded; these ecosystems provide one-sixth of the world’s food supply and store nearly one-third of the planet’s carbon stocks.
Source: UNCCDAbout 500 million people depend directly on pastoralism for their livelihoods.
Source: UNCCDForests provide more than 86 million green jobs worldwide.
Source: FAOMore than 90% of people living in extreme poverty depend on forests for at least part of their livelihoods.
Source: FAOAbout 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the coast.
Source: UNEPAround 80% of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas, and 65% work in agriculture.
Source: UNCCDAreas with the highest proportions of degraded land are also home to some of the most disadvantaged populations in terms of poverty and inequality.
Source: UNCCDNearly 80% of employed women in least developed countries rely on agriculture as their primary livelihood.
Source: UNCCDTwo-thirds of Africa is desert or drylands, and nearly three-quarters of that land is estimated to be degraded.
Source: UNCCDDryland areas are characterized as areas with limited water resources due to limited or sporadic rainfall and high temperatures that increase evaporation and transpiration rates, further limiting available water. Drylands occupy over 40% of land globally and are inclusive of a variety of ecosystems including dryland woodlands, savannahs, grasslands and shrublands. Africa and Asia have significant dryland areas – one of the most notable being the Sahel in north Africa (discussed below).
Drylands (including arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid zones) are ground zero for land degradation in many respects. These regions – spanning sub-Saharan Africa (Sahel, Horn of Africa, Kalahari), North Africa and the Middle East, Central and South Asia (e.g. the Thar Desert fringe, Central Asian steppes), Australia, parts of North America (southwest US) and Latin America (Chaco, Northeast Brazil) – naturally have low and variable rainfall, making them susceptible to overuse.An estimated 70% of global drylands have been affected by desertification- a process through which productive dryland ecosystems transition to barren, unproductive land - to some degree, and this is worsening with climate change. Drylands host approximately 2.5 billion people and half of the world’s livestock, making the stakes enormous. Africa’s drylands are particularly imperiled: the Sahara is expanding in some areas, the Sahel is experiencing more frequent droughts, and population in drylands is expected to jump from 2.7 billion in 2010 to 4 billion by 2050, adding pressure on already fragile lands (IPBES Assessment). Consequences are stark – for example, Lake Chad’s shrinkage and the southward march of desert dunes are crippling agriculture and livelihoods in Niger, Chad, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Dust storms originating from degraded drylands (like the Gobi or Sahara) have become more frequent, a visible sign of land degradation crossing borders. The importance of addressing dryland degradation is underscored by the recent focus on drylands at both the Global Landscape Forum and COP17. The video below illustrates why proper management of drylands is critically important
Hectares Restored
Jobs Created
Countries Involved
The Sahel region of Africa is a transition zone between the dry Sahara Desert in the north and the humid Sudanian savannah to the south, with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Red Sea to the east. The Sahel region covers about 1.2 million square miles across Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad (the G5). The G5 countries that comprise the semi-arid Sahel region are some of the least developed countries in the world, with multiple overlapping challenges resulting from a history of colonialism, conflict, and resulting political and economic instability. The semi-arid region is beset by poverty, a history of violent conflict and population displacement, food insecurity, environmental challenges such as desertification, and high vulnerability to climate change that impacts virtually all social, economic, and environmental sectors.
As the Sahara desert increasingly encroaches on the Sahel region, land that was once green and productive is turning to compacted desert that cannot sustain crops or vegetation and is more prone to erosion, leading to even more encroachment of the desert. The consequences of this land degradation have included greater food insecurity, migration to cities, and the loss of biodiversity. The Great Green Wall Initiative, established by the African Union in 2007, aims to reverse this pattern of land degradation and its consequences by created a green wall of vegetation across Africa. The goal of the Initiative is to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land and create 10 million jobs by 2030. Over 22 African countries are included, including the countries of the Sahel region. The videos below provide detail on the Great Green Wall Initiative and more broadly on regreening the Sahel.
Rangelands are a key land cover type within dryland ecosystems. While rangelands can exist in grassland, savannah, shrubland, wetland, and desert ecosystems, nearly 80% of rangelands globally are found within dryland ecosystems. Rangeland areas support 1/6 of food production globally and provide almost 1/3 of earth’s carbon stores (UNCCD). But up to 50% of rangeland areas are estimated to be degraded, which manifests as reduced vegetation cover, bush encroachment or invasive weeds, compacted soils, and depleted water sources. Pastoral communities such as those in the Sahel, Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, and Australian Outback are extremely vulnerable to desertification of rangeland areas.
The Horn of Africa’s rangelands have been devastated by a combination of overgrazing and recurrent drought – parts of northern Kenya, for instance, have seen up to 80% vegetation loss in recent droughts, leading to large-scale livestock die-offs. Central Asia’s steppe, once proverbially endless grassland, suffers from overstocking and now widespread dust storms (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc., have millions of hectares of degraded pasture). When rangelands degrade, pastoral livelihoods collapse, triggering food insecurity and conflict between herders and farmers over remaining fertile spots. An example is the increasing farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, partly fueled by herders migrating farther south as northern grazing lands dry up. Rangeland degradation also has wildlife impacts, for example, the Sahel’s degraded lands support far fewer wild herbivores than decades ago, affecting predator species and the balance of these ecosystems.
In its DataBank, the World Bank’s definition of “forest area” is: “Forests are lands of more than 0.5 hectares, with a tree canopy cover of more than 10 percent, which are not primarily under agricultural or urban land use. Forests are determined both by the presence of trees and the absence of other predominant land uses. The trees should be able to reach a minimum height of 5 meters in situ” (World Bank DataBank 2026). Forests cover about 30% of earth’s land surface and store almost 300 gigatons of carbon (FAO). Forests provide numerous ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration and storage, habitat provision and support of immense biodiversity (forests provide the habitat for almost 80% of terrestrial species, and water filtration (forested watersheds provide 75% of global freshwater (United Nations). Forests are also a critical resource for 1.6 billion people who rely on forests for their livelihoods (United Nations). The video below discusses sustaining the ecosystem services forests provide.
Forest ecosystems include temperate, tropical and boreal (taiga) forests. Some of the most significant forested areas globally include the tropical Congo Basin, Borneo (Indonesia, Malaysia) and Amazon rainforests; the temperate Valdivian Rainforest in Chile and Argentina; and the Siberian Taiga forest in Russia. The map tool below from Global Forest Watch allows users to access a wide variety of data on the state of forests around the world.
Tropical and subtropical forest frontiers – areas at the edge of intact forests experiencing rapid clearance – are highly vulnerable to degradation. This includes the Amazon basin and Gran Chaco in South America, the Congo Basin in Africa, and Indonesia/Malaysia and Papua New Guinea in Southeast Asia. In these regions, primary forests are being logged or burned, often illegally, leading to exposed soils, erosion, and an invading cycle of degradation (fire -> grass -> scrubland). For example, the Amazon has lost around 17% of its forest cover in the past 50 years, much of it in the last two decades due to cattle ranching and soy farming. This not only degrades that land (nutrient-poor rainforest soils quickly degrade when the forest is removed), but also has downstream effects: reduced rainfall, more intense dry seasons, and spreading fire risk that degrade adjacent areas. Forest loss in Southeast Asia (for palm oil and timber) often leaves behind degraded peatlands that smolder in fires and subside once drained. In Madagascar, centuries of slash-and-burn have left much of the highland with lateritic soils and lost productivity. Mountain forest frontiers (e.g. in the Himalayas, Andes, East African highlands) are also critical – deforestation on slopes rapidly leads to soil erosion, landslides, and loss of productive terraced land. These forest frontier areas are usually biodiversity hotspots too, so degradation here has outsized ecological impacts. The video below describes the crisis of deforestation.
Tropical and subtropical forest frontiers – areas at the edge of intact forests experiencing rapid clearance – are highly vulnerable to degradation. This includes the Amazon basin and Gran Chaco in South America, the Congo Basin in Africa, and Indonesia/Malaysia and Papua New Guinea in Southeast Asia. In these regions, primary forests are being logged or burned, often illegally, leading to exposed soils, erosion, and an invading cycle of degradation (fire -> grass -> scrubland). For example, the Amazon has lost around 17% of its forest cover in the past 50 years, much of it in the last two decades due to cattle ranching and soy farming. This not only degrades that land (nutrient-poor rainforest soils quickly degrade when the forest is removed), but also has downstream effects: reduced rainfall, more intense dry seasons, and spreading fire risk that degrade adjacent areas. Forest loss in Southeast Asia (for palm oil and timber) often leaves behind degraded peatlands that smolder in fires and subside once drained. In Madagascar, centuries of slash-and-burn have left much of the highland with lateritic soils and lost productivity. Mountain forest frontiers (e.g. in the Himalayas, Andes, East African highlands) are also critical – deforestation on slopes rapidly leads to soil erosion, landslides, and loss of productive terraced land. These forest frontier areas are usually biodiversity hotspots too, so degradation here has outsized ecological impacts.
Coastal areas are areas where land and water meet – specific definitions of coastal zones vary. More specific definitions involve distances from average high tides or sea levels. The World Bank has provided the following helpful definition of coastal areas: “Although there is no single definition to encompass the complexity of coastal environments, they are generally identified with the area delimiting the border between the marine environment and the land.Coastal areas are complex systems with seaward and landward zones of influence that stretch far out into the sea or inland. They are at the receiving end of impacts from both the sea and the land. Impacts can be triggered far from the arbitrary boundaries of coastal areas, and therefore their effects may be delayed. Because of ecological links between coastal areas and upstream environments, as well as horizontal linkages between economic sectors and demographic patterns, a landscape or ecosystem-based approach is helpful in understanding the local dynamics of the system and the impacts of offsite activities or broad economic policies” (World Bank 2010).
Coastal zones are affected by ocean dynamics – sea levels, waves, wind – as well as land-based social, environmental and economic processes such as increasing population and tourism and other economic activities. Over 10% of the global population – around a billion people - reside in low elevation coastal areas (less than 10 meters above sea level) (ESSD 2024).
Given the large and growing population in coastal areas, rising sea levels are already impacting over a billion people. NOAA’s Sea Level Rise Viewer below visualizes sea level rise globally.
Agriculture in coastal areas both impacts coastal waters and is impacted by them. When practiced with heavy applications of fertilizer and pesticides, agricultural cultivation in coastal areas can bring high levels of pollution to waterways that drain into the sea. Coastal farmlands and irrigated drylands can also be degraded by saline intrusion from coastal waters through a process called salinization. In South and Southeast Asia, millions of hectares of deltaic farmland (Bangladesh, Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, etc.) are experiencing saltwater intrusion and soil salinity increase, reducing arability. In the Middle East, heavy irrigation in arid climates (Iraq, Iran, Pakistan’s Indus plain) without proper drainage has led to salt buildup – e.g., large parts of Iraq’s Mesopotamian plain have seen crop yields plummet due to salinity. These areas are vulnerable because once salt levels reach a threshold, land may be abandoned.Rising sea levels and storm surges driven by climate change compound coastal salinization, making this a growing threat for fertile delta regions.
Managing development is coastal areas is complicated by complex, interacting land uses and ecosystems, multiple overlapping jurisdictional boundaries, and upstream and downstream stakeholders with potentially diverging interests.