Sustainable Development Goals and Drylands: Addressing the Interconnection

Abstract

Sustainable dryland practices and drought risk management are the centerpieces for sustainable management systems as well as measures to sustainable land use, particularly resilience and ecosystem services. On the other hand, sustainable development goals (SDGs) and target 15.3 provide a general guidance for environmental and socio-ecological dynamics for improving a better-coordinated approach to land management, particularly in the case of drylands. During the period 1998–2013, about one-fifth of the Earth’s land surface covered by vegetation showed persistent and declining trends in productivity, particularly in the case of Latin American countries. It is therefore key to reverse advanced stages of land degradation by sustainable land management and improving lives and livelihoods of millions of people currently under threat in the region. Paragraph 33 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development focuses on the linkage between sustainable management of the planet’s natural resources and social and economic development as well as on strengthening “cooperation on desertification, dust storms, land degradation and drought” and promote resilience and disaster risk reduction.” In this article, we explore the relation between SDGs and their interconnections with drylands management. SDGs are considered a major instrument to combat desertification, drought, and land degradation together with climate change and the loss of biodiversity by combining and scaling up established socioeconomic principles and practices to reach SDG target 15.3 and the objectives of UNCCD for land degradation neutrality (LDN).