The lack of adequate data on costs of desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) and the benefits of sustainable land management (SLM) are major barriers to convincing policy makers of the urgency to invest in the land. A comprehensive study of the human, economic and environmental monetary and non-monetary costs of neglecting DLDD is therefore needed.
The first objective of this Conference is, therefore, to relate a better understanding of the landscape-scale dynamics that lead to improvements in nutrient and water cycling, to their impacts on the climate sensitivity of desertification.
This new knowledge is then set against the context of the complexity of increasing the resilience of dryland ecosystems particularly in relation to looming problems of food security and the expected costs and benefits to society of land degradation and sustainable land management respectively.
The conference intends to play an important role as a platform to elaborate scientific issues and make proposals to be presented at the forthcoming COP10 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to be held in South Korea in October 2011.
Sessions will address the themes of climate sensitivity of desertification; dryland resilience; how to generate baseline information for DLDD assessment; food security and food sovereignty in drylands; and the economics of land degradation and sustainable land management.
As part of Session 5, ‘The economics of land degradation and sustainable land management”, the GM will present the findings of its pilot valuation studies in Cambodia, Tanzania and Zambia, as well as outcomes and suggestions for scaling up. The GM’s economic valuation of land initiative, launched in 2008, hinges on generating evidence-based arguments to demonstrate the contribution of responsibly managed ecosystems to sustainable development and poverty reduction. A consortium of research and scientific institutions from the North and the South have contributed to this initiative by developing an innovative, integrated valuation methodology with three components:
- the valuation of the natural capital in line with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment approach:
- the assessment of impact from unsustainable use of natural resources, and
- the valuation of net benefits from the adoption of SLM-smart technologies and practices.
The conference is being jointly organized by European Science Foundation, DesertNet International and NRD Desertification Research Group (University of Sassari), with co-financing from GIZ (E-DLDD).
For more information on the conference and how to register: www.uniss.it/nrd
