Convener: Luc Gnacadja
Land degradation neutrality (SDG target 15.3) is defined as “a state whereby
the amount and quality of land resources necessary to support ecosystem
functions and services and enhance food security remain stable or increase
within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems” to address land
stewardship at all levels for the sake of sustainability.
More than half of the additional two billion people who will live on Earth by
2050 will be born in Africa. The population of sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is
predicted to grow from 900 million in 2013 to about 1.4 billion by 2030 (UN,
2013),while the region is the world’s champion in poverty, hunger and food
insecurity, land degradation and agriculture vulnerability to climate change.
But Africa is also a global hotspot for success stories in land restoration
with innovations mostly occurring at local level. The institutional aspects are
among the major hurdles to scaling up.
The proposed session aims to involve policy-makers, on-farm land managers and
scientists to discuss the following:
What triggers land improvement processes and how can these triggers be
mainstreamed?
How to support farmers to make SLM decisions and secured investments, while
ensuring that they receive a fair share of the benefits generated downstream by
their restoration efforts?
How to overcome the institutional challenges to scaling up restoration and
furthering climate change adaptation in the agricultural sector in SSA? What
enabling environment for achieving LDN? What is the role of the private sector?