Climate change and desertification: Anticipating, assessing & adapting to future change in drylands

Climate change and land degradation are closely interlinked and most acutely experienced by ecosystems and resource-dependent populations in regions affected by desertification and drought. It is essential to understand and address the dual challenges of climate change and land degradation if we are to meet targets such as the proposed Sustainable Development Goals, tackle poverty and address many of the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st Century. Although much is known about the processes and effects of land degradation and climate change, less is understood about the links between these two processes. Less still is known about how climate change and land degradation processes are currently interacting in different social-ecological systems around the world, or how they might interact under different scenarios in the future. The numerous and often contradictory feedbacks inherent in both processes, operating differently in different habitats and under different forms of land management, means that links between climate change and land degradation are highly complex and difficult to predict. This may give rise to a number of potentially important but possibly unforeseen impacts on ecosystems and populations in regions affected by desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD). Moreover, our poor understanding of feedbacks among these processes limits our capacity for anticipatory adaptation. There is an increasingly urgent need for research to elucidate these links, so that land users and policy-makers can respond in timely and effective ways. This impulse report is designed to inform debate at the 3rd UNCCD scientific conference, which will be held during the 4th special session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-4) of the UNCCD. It synthesizes current knowledge and raises questions in relation to each of the three major challenges that the conference will address: 1) diagnosis of constraints; 2) responses; and 3) monitoring and assessment. The report considers how land users, the policy and research communities, and other stakeholders can work together to better anticipate, assess, and adapt to the combined effects of climate change and land degradation. It also considers the behavioural, governance and policy changes that may be needed to facilitate effective adaptation at national and international scales. It takes an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to climate change and land degradation, treating them as interlinked concepts that have biophysical and human drivers, impacts and responses