4PLANET IMPACT / ISSUE

Land degradation and soil erosion

Erosion, compaction, salinisation, nutrient loss and declining soil organic matter can reduce ecological and agricultural function.

Why it matters

Soil condition underpins food production, water regulation and terrestrial ecosystems, but degradation processes are highly place-specific.

What the sources establish

FAO's 2025 assessment reports widespread human-induced land degradation affecting agricultural systems and the resources they depend on.
Source: https://www.fao.org/publications/fao-flagship-publications/the-state-of-the-worlds-land-and-water-resources-for-food-and-agriculture/

Projects working on it

African Farmers Transforming Food Systems — Trees for the Future, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya
Bamboo-based Restoration — International Bamboo and Rattan Organization (INBAR), Cameroon, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Peru, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Viet Nam
Central American Dry Corridor — Central American Commission on Environment and Development, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic
Collaborative Rangelands Restoration in Jordan — Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan, Jordan
Dinder National Park Resilience Initiative — United Nations Environment Programme, Dinder National Park and surrounding communities, Sudan
Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Programme — Dryland Sustainable Landscapes programme partnership, Eleven countries across Africa and Asia
Good Forest Indonesia — Good Forest Indonesia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
Good Forests Foundation Uganda — Good Forests Foundation Uganda, Uganda
Great Green Wall for Restoration & Peace — Pan-African Great Green Wall Agency, Sahel region of Africa, with the UN flagship profile focused particularly on Burkina Faso and Niger
KSA National Greening Program — Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Mulanje Landscape Restoration Project — Greenpop Foundation × Mulanje Mission Hospital restoration partnership, Mulanje District, Malawi
Nature-Based Solutions for Drought — International Union for Conservation of Nature, Burkina Faso, Georgia and Kenya
Regreening Africa — Regreening Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia
Restoring Landscapes in South Africa (ReLISA) — ReLISA implementation partnership, South Africa
Sahel Integrated Resilience Initiative — United Nations World Food Programme, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger
Shan-Shui Initiative — Ministry of Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China, China
The Restoration Initiative — International Union for Conservation of Nature, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Pakistan, São Tomé and Príncipe and Tanzania
Towards Ending Drought Emergencies (TWENDE) — International Union for Conservation of Nature, Eleven arid and semi-arid counties in Kenya
Transforming Eastern Province Through Adaptation (TREPA) — TREPA implementation partnership, Eastern Province, Rwanda

Organisations

Known and not established

Soil interventions must be matched to local soils, climate and management; generic practices do not guarantee recovery.
This issue record is source-grounded context, not proof that any particular project, action or intervention is effective.

Sources

fao.org

Truth boundary. Listing does not imply 4PLANET partnership or endorsement. Source-reported figures are not independently verified by 4PLANET. Delivery, outcome and verification remain separate states.

Approaches associated with this problem

Bamboo-based land restoration — Use appropriate bamboo species with capacity-building, policy support and local value chains to restore degraded land.
Climate-resilient agroforestry landscape restoration — Restore whole dryland landscapes using agroforestry, silvopastoral systems and climate-resilient farming practices.
Community-based rangeland restoration — Restore degraded rangelands through community participation, sustainable grazing and combined scientific and traditional knowledge.
Dryland water harvesting and agroforestry — Restore degraded drylands using water-harvesting structures, agroforestry, zaï pits, stone bunds and native species.
Dryland landscape restoration — Restore degraded dryland mosaics of grassland, farmland and woody vegetation through locally adapted landscape restoration.
Farmer-managed regreening — Locally adapted tree-based restoration, natural regeneration and soil and water conservation with farmers.
Assisted natural regeneration and enrichment planting — Support natural forest recovery while adding locally appropriate native species and restoring catchment function.
Integrated landscape and watershed restoration — Restore ecological function at landscape and watershed scale across natural, agricultural and urban systems.
Restoration enabling systems — Remove barriers to large-scale restoration by combining monitoring, knowledge, local restoration economies, capacity building, policy support and investment mobilisation.

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