Combating Desertification and Restoring Degraded Land

Dear Colleagues,

Desertification and land degradation are key global challenges in the 21st century, whose extent and impacts are increasingly affecting environmental, economic, and social vulnerability. These processes are linked to a loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, increased greenhouse gas emissions, a decrease in water quality, and food insecurity. Whereas land degradation is defined as a “reduction in the capacity of the land to provide ecosystem goods and services over a period of time”, desertification implies land degradation in drylands, which cover about 41 percent of the Earth‘s land surface and are home to more than 38 percent of the global population, with the majority of them being in Africa and Asia.

Efforts to restore degraded lands contribute to the sustainable development goal 15.3 on combating desertification and the restoration of degraded land and soil to achieve a land-degradation-neutral world by 2030. This calls for sustainable land management and climate smart practices aimed at improving land productivity, mitigating climate change and enhancing climate and livelihood resilience.

This Special Issue collates the existing knowledge and experience of scientists, practitioners, and land users from Africa and Asia regarding desertification and land degradation, impacts, restoration practices, and their socio-economic and ecological benefits within the context of sustainable land management.

We invite original research articles, reviews, and communication papers which address, but are not limited to, the aforementioned topics.

Dr. Vivian Oliver Wasonga
Prof. Dr. Nancy K. Karanja
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.