This publication supports processes related to rural communities’ resilience in implementing land restoration of the Great Green Wall Programme on the ground. It serves a dual purpose of consolidating biophysical operations and socio-economic assessments, and is mainly built on five-year interventions and practical experiences gathered through Action Against Desertification. The first part of the publication is a practical manual expressly created for stakeholders, partners, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations. Its purpose is to guide the implementation of restoration operations at scale on the ground, as well as to provide detailed practical instructions based on the successful results obtained by Action Against Desertification. The manual describes how to implement an innovative approach to the large-scale restoration of degraded land for small-scale farming. This innovative approach consists of combining enrichment planting of native woody and fodder grass species and the preparation of large-scale land for rainwater harvesting and soil permeability. The second part of the manual introduces a methodology for socio-economic assessments. This easy to-to-use approach is based on household surveys and can be used by socio-economic experts to monitor, evaluate and assess the socio-economic impacts of the large-scale restoration interventions. Household surveys are not only used for impact assessment but can potentially serve to collect useful data needed to plan a restoration intervention. Quantitative information is collected through carefully chosen standardized questions to households as samples.

Dryland degradation and desertification now affect almost a billion people around the world. Tragically, the biological resources and productivity of millions of acres of land are lost to desertification each year because people remain unaware of strategies and techniques that could improve yields, reduce risk, and begin healing the world's deserts. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration is the first book to offer practical, field-tested solutions to this critical problem. Author David Bainbridge has spent more than 25 years actively involved in restoring lands across the American Southwest. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration presents the results of his years of fieldwork, as well as research and experience from scientists and practitioners around the globe. The book discusses the ecology of desert plants, explores the causes of desertification and land abuse, and outlines the processes and procedures needed to evaluate, plan, implement, and monitor desert restoration projects. It sets forth economical and practical field-tested solutions for understanding site characteristics, selecting and growing plants, and ensuring that they survive with a minimal amount of water and care. Each chapter represents a guide to a critical topic for environmental restoration; extensive photographs, diagrams and drawings give detailed information for immediate application, and additional resources are included in appendixes. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration is the first comprehensive book focused on restoring arid regions, and clearly demonstrates that arid lands can be successfully rehabilitated. In addition to restorationists, the book will be an invaluable resource for anyone working in arid lands, including farmers, ranchers, gardeners, landscapers, outdoor recreation professionals, and activists.

The “Action Against Desertification in support of the implementation of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, the UNCCD action plans in Fiji and Haiti, and South–South Cooperation in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States” project (AAD) worked with eight countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to tackle the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification (2014 to 2020). It was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners, with majority of funding from the European Union and co-funding from diverse partners. The project contributed to improving the conditions and productivity of agrosilvipastoral landscapes and the capacity to plan land restoration and manage forest and land resources. Livelihood improvements and concrete positive incidence on household income, food security, crops and milk production, and community interactions. It increased awareness and support policy makers developing intervention strategies that address D/LDD. The large-scale, heavy machinery-based technical intervention logic was found appropriate to address desertification/land degradation and drought (D/LDD) in specific conditions and countries. The geospatial study estimated the contribution of Action Against Desertification (AAD) to carbon sequestration to be between 384 000 and 1.27 million tonnes of carbon sequestered. The evaluation recommendations include further investments in training; building awareness and addressing climate change and land degradation; increasing political and policy coherence; guaranteeing sustainability and buy-in from beneficiaries; building in sustainable financing mechanisms at all stakeholder levels; increasing opportunities; and developing non-timber forest product (NTFP) value chains to create and develop viable markets for the products.

According to this paper, by the time this project concludes in 2019, it will have resulted in the restoration of more than 35000 ha of degraded land in the countries where it has been implemented, benefiting over 500000 small-scale farmers.

Land Restoration: Reclaiming Landscapes for a Sustainable Future provides a holistic overview of land degradation and restoration in that it addresses the issue of land restoration from the scientific and practical development points of view. Furthermore, the breadth of chapter topics and contributors cover the topic and a wealth of connected issues, such as security, development, and environmental issues. The use of graphics and extensive references to case studies also make the work accessible and encourage it to be used for reference, but also in active field-work planning. Land Restoration: Reclaiming Landscapes for a Sustainable Future brings together practitioners from NGOs, academia, governments, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to exchange lessons to enrich the academic understanding of these issues and the solution sets available. Provides accessible information about the science behind land degradation and restoration for those who do not directly engage with the science allowing full access to the issue at hand. Includes practical on-the-ground examples garnered from diverse areas, such as the Sahel, Southeast Asia, and the U.S.A. Provides practical tools for designing and implementing restoration/re-greening processes.

This book presents state-of-the-art scientific evidence and technological innovations to restore lands on the Loess Plateau of China, known worldwide for its serious land degradation and desertification problems. Supported by a rapidly developing Chinese economy and the dissemination of effective technology, the Grain-for-Green Project and Western Development Action launched by the Chinese government have resulted in successful ecological restoration and protection over the past 30 years. These programs have contributed not only to conservation of soil and water, but also to economic development. At the same time, however, these developmental interventions have brought new challenges that have not yet been fully addressed. The book describes (1) case studies of success and failure in practice, including rare success stories of combating desertification; (2) technical issues such as erosion control and breeding of stress-tolerant plant species, and socioeconomic measures taken by the Chinese government and lending policies with support from the World Bank; and (3) comprehensive measures against desertification, such as water and wind erosion, salinization, and deforestation. This volume is recommended for researchers and students above the undergraduate level in diverse fields including soil science, rural engineering, social technology and civil engineering, biology, ecology, climatology, physical and human geography, and developmental economics, among others. It also serves as a valuable resource for engineers, government officials, and NPOs and NGOs involved in afforestation, ecological restoration, combating desertification, disaster prevention, and sustainable rural development.

By using a multimethod strategy, we seek to generate more rigorous evidence on landscape restoration and its impacts at the household level. Using pre-restoration remote-sensing data, a machine-learning algorithm is used for the identification of similar pieces of land to Action Against Desertification (AAD) restoration sites. Comparison households were then selected from communities bordering these sites through a replication of the AAD targeting process. Finally, the impact analysis is based on propensity score adjustment techniques, applied to survey data. Overall findings suggest that participation in landscape restoration influenced household-livelihood strategies towards climate-resilient options, including a reduction of crop sales accompanied by an increase in the commercialization of livestock and livestock by-products. Households also planted more trees on their individual land, because of the restoration of communal and public lands. While this occurred without harming food security, we don’t observe a substantial increase in food security within treatment households. This suggests that food security support could be strengthened as part of restoration activities and/or that impacts of opportunity-led diversification may need a longer period to accrue. Larger impacts observed within the early takers of the programme reinforce these conclusions. Overall, the analysis also provides an innovative approach to ex-post evaluation settings.