Enabling Governance for Sustainable Land Management

Land degradation is a global challenge that affects everybody through food insecurity and higher food prices, through climate change and environmental hazards, and through the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Although there is a link between land degradation and conflict, we should be careful not to blame the victims. Often, land degradation and conflict are the result of weak governance. As a result, strengthening natural resource governance can deliver multiple positive outcomes, including improvements in the food economy, environmental benefits, and security and peace. Published accounts of strengthening local-level governance in a wide array of contexts show common elements that can be adapted to different political and cultural contexts. These initiatives are often relatively low cost, but demand high investment in skill and time. This chapter illustrates the importance of solutions that are both politically and socially acceptable. It shows that significant changes are needed in the way we use one of our most precious and finite resources: land.