Reversing Land and Water Degradation: Trends and 'Bright Spot' Opportunities

Land and water degradation threaten food security for many of the poorest and most food insecure living in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It also contributes to persistent poverty, and results in decreasing ecosystem resilience and provision of environmental services. Negative trends in resource degradation are a challenge that must be tackled to meet poverty alleviation goals. The Comprehensive Assessment (CA) on Water Management in Agriculture is a global research and consultative project that evaluates current water management challenges and solutions, and identifies the best options for the future. The ‘Bright spots’ project of the CA addresses linkages between land and water degradation and agricultural productivity, livelihoods and environment. This paper briefly reviews the current state of knowledge related to the condition of global land and water resources, and highlights the importance of linking land and water management at local and landscape scales in order to address pressing issues. Evidence, primarily from the ‘Bright spots’ project, but also from the wider on-going CA consultation process, is presented to support the key messages: 1) significant opportunities exist for integrated land and water management in smallholder systems to improve water productivity and provision of ecosystem services including food supply; 2) larger scale biophysical, social, and policy approaches for preserving landscapes can enhance positive impacts of intensification on local ‘Bright’ spots and go beyond ‘upscaling’; 3) productive use of low quality waters is possible and provides opportunities to close large gaps in nutrient cycles to slow or reverse trends in land degradation and water pollution. These strategies could help reverse land and water degradation, and intensify agricultural systems in a way that is sustainable and compatible with the needs of nature and society for ecosystem services, including food production, clean water, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and resilience to climate change. *Corresponding author: Theme Leader, Smallholder Land and Water Management International Water Management Institute (IWMI) P.O. Box 2075 Colombo, Sri Lanka d.bossio@cgiar.org Reversing Land and Water Degradation: Trends and ‘Bright Spot’ Opportunities