Arable land is a vital resource for humankind. Cultivation of this land generates food to meet the daily needs of the world’s population. This land is limited and the area is constantly shrinking—2 ha/inhabitant in 1900 versus 0.4 in 2010— due to the impact of human activities and population growth. Arable land is not a naturally renewable resource on the time scale of human evolution and is invaluable as it cannot be manufactured. This land therefore has to be properly managed. It is thus essential to understand the actual land degradation status so as to be able to draw up protection, restoration and/or sustainable management policies.
In 1990, the results of the first global land assessment were incomplete because of a lack of common assessment procedure. This CSFD Dossier describes a streamlined land degradation assessment method that can be applied on different spatial scales—farm to country—and in all climatic zones in worldwide.
A land degradation assessment and mapping method
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