Regenerating Land and Soil

Regenerating Land and Soil: A Getting Started Guide

Without urgent changes to land management and the restoration of soil health, we risk destabilising our food systems, face increased water stress, disrupted rainfall patterns, and countless other impacts to the systems that shape our lives. Anchored in research, our Regenerating Land and Soil: A Getting Started Guide aims to support your company as it begins or revisits a sustainable land use strategy. It helps build a foundational understanding of the issue and provides clarity on the work ahead.

Restoring Forests and Landscapes: The key to a sustainable future

The Bonn Challenge and New York Declaration on Forests’ goal of restoring 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 could yield up to $9 trillion of net economic benefits, not to mention the incalculable value from vital ecosystem services restored, but how do we get there? This report from the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) emphasises the need for bold restoration targets to achieve the objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It provides facts and figures that will help you to understand the damage from degradation; the benefits of restoration; and brief case examples to highlight what restoration in action looks like.

Science Based Targets

Building on the momentum of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN) is a collaboration of 45+ global non-profits and mission-driven organizations working together to develop guidance to set science-based targets for all of Earth’s systems. Science Based Targets has created a five-step target-setting framework that helps you to assess; interpret and prioritise; measure, set, and disclose; act upon; and track your science-based goals. They have also created sector-specific guidance and target monitoring for companies and financial institutions.

At present, Science Based Targets helps companies to develop their goals based on the latest science: SBTi specifically focuses on GHG emission reduction goals, and SBTN specifically focuses on nature positive goals, with target-setting guidance for land, biodiversity, and freshwater. Their respective websites provide comprehensive resources, cases, and support for taking credible action.

New Data Shows What’s Driving Forest Loss Around the World

This brief article from WRI can help you to better understand the extent of global tree cover loss, as well as where and why this loss is occurring. It explains the current, key drivers of tree cover loss (permanent agriculture, hard commodities, shifting cultivation, logging, wildfires, settlements and infrastructure, and other natural disturbances), as well as the different impacts these drivers are having on forest and land integrity.

The global threat of drying lands: Regional and global aridity trends and future projections

Global warming is making droughts worse and more frequent, and the results are devastating. Most of the world’s land - more than three-quarters - has become permanently dryer in recent decades, resulting in growing loss of productive, fertile land. Rising aridity now threatens people and environments in almost every global region. This comprehensive report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification can help you to better understand and take action on desertification.

The report is divided into five chapters, providing an introduction to the topic of aridity, including key concepts and definitions; current and future trends in aridity; current and future aridity impacts; aridity adaptation and future approaches; and policy proposals for strengthening aridity management and sustainable land use. The report argues for sectoral adaptation approaches linked to sustainable agriculture and water management, as well as for education, awareness, and governance of aridity and aridity responses. This report will be most beneficial to sustainability and strategy professionals.

A Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas

This guidebook from IUCN sets out globally agreed criteria for the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) worldwide. The standard establishes a science-based, threshold-informed process for KBA identification, and will help you to grow your understanding of why particular sites are especially important for preserving vital biodiversity, as well as how to identify vulnerable and at-risk ecosystems.