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Articles on Drylands

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Portugal has seen little rain since October 2021. By the end of January, 45 per cent of the country was enduring ‘severe’ or ‘extreme’ drought conditions. (AP Photo/Sergio Azenha)

The window of opportunity to address increasing drought and expanding drylands is vanishing

If the world overshoots its climate targets, drought could cause dryland areas to expand by a quarter and encompass half the Earth’s land area, threatening lives and livelihoods.
Farmers working the land in the Western Sahara, Egypt. DeAgostini/Getty Images

Africa’s drylands are getting more support. How to make the most of this

A changing climate threatens the balance that communities in drylands have created.
One third of the world’s land has been severely degraded from its natural state. Milo Mitchell/Flickr

Lessons from Kenya on how to restore degraded land

A Land Degradation Surveillance framework could solve this problem by systematically measuring and tracking indicators of land health in Africa.
A farmer plows a dry and dusty cotton field near Phoenix, Ariz., while a drought affects the Southwest. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

How to fight desertification and drought at home and away

Desertification is a problem of global proportions. If action isn’t taken now, it will accelerate and fuel further migration and conflict.
The world’s driest areas are tipped to get even drier, with potentially worrying implications for soil productivity.

If the world’s soils keep drying out that’s bad news for microbes (and people)

The world’s ‘drylands’ – already home to 38% of the world’s people – are set to dry out even more. And that could harm the soil microbes that keep soils healthy and help crops to grow.

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