Editing IPCC:AR6/SRCCL/Chapter-3 (section)

=== 3.6.3 Policy responses ===

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The adoption of SLM practices depends on the compatibility of the technology with prevailing socio-economic and biophysical conditions (Sanz et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1798|1798]]</sup> ). Globally, it was shown that every USD invested into restoring degraded lands yields social returns, including both provisioning and non-provisioning ecosystem services, in the range of 3–6 USD over a 30-year period (Nkonya et al. 2016a <sup>[[#fn:r1234|1234]]</sup> ). A similar range of returns from land restoration activities was found in Central Asia (Mirzabaev et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1235|1235]]</sup> ), Ethiopia (Gebreselassie et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1236|1236]]</sup> ), India (Mythili and Goedecke 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1237|1237]]</sup> ), Kenya (Mulinge et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1238|1238]]</sup> ), Niger (Moussa et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1239|1239]]</sup> ) and Senegal (Sow et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1240|1240]]</sup> ) ( ''medium confidence'' ). Despite these relatively high returns, there is ''robust evidence'' that the adoption of SLM practices remains low (Cordingley et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1241|1241]]</sup> ; Giger et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1242|1242]]</sup> ; Lokonon and Mbaye 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1243|1243]]</sup> ). Part of the reason for these low adoption rates is that the major share of the returns from SLM are social benefits, namely in the form of non-provisioning ecosystem services (Nkonya et al. 2016a <sup>[[#fn:r1244|1244]]</sup> ). The adoption of SLM technologies does not always provide implementers with immediate private benefits (Schmidt et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1245|1245]]</sup> ). High initial investment costs, institutional and governance constraints and a lack of access to technologies and equipment may inhibit their adoption further (Giger et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1246|1246]]</sup> ; Sanz et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1247|1247]]</sup> ; Schmidt et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1248|1248]]</sup> ). However, not all SLM practices have high upfront costs. Analysing the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) database, a globally acknowledged reference database for SLM, Giger et al. (2015) <sup>[[#fn:r1249|1249]]</sup> found that the upfront costs of SLM technologies ranged from about 20 USD to 5000 USD, with the median cost being around 500 USD. Many SLM technologies are profitable within 3 to 10 years ( ''medium confidence'' ) (Djanibekov and Khamzina 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1250|1250]]</sup> ; Giger et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1251|1251]]</sup> ; Moussa et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1252|1252]]</sup> ; Sow et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1253|1253]]</sup> ). About 73% of 363 SLM technologies evaluated were reported to become profitable within three years, while 97% were profitable within 10 years (Giger et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1254|1254]]</sup> ). Similarly, it was shown that social returns from investments in restoring degraded lands will exceed their costs within six years in many settings across drylands (Nkonya et al. 2016a <sup>[[#fn:r1255|1255]]</sup> ). However, even with affordable upfront costs, market failures – in the form of lack of access to credit, input and output markets, and insecure land tenure (Section 3.1.3) – result in the lack of adoption of SLM technologies (Moussa et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1256|1256]]</sup> ). Payments for ecosystem services, subsidies for SLM, and encouragement of community collective action can lead to a higher level of adoption of SLM and land restoration activities ( ''medium confidence'' ) (Bouma and Wösten 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1257|1257]]</sup> ; Lambin et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1258|1258]]</sup> ; Reed et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1259|1259]]</sup> ; Schiappacasse et al. 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1260|1260]]</sup> ; van Zanten et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1261|1261]]</sup> ) (Section 3.6.3). Enabling the policy responses discussed in this section will contribute to overcoming these market failures.

Many socio-economic factors shaping individual responses to desertification typically operate at larger scales. Individual households and communities do not exercise control over these factors, such as land tenure insecurity, lack of property rights, lack of access to markets, availability of rural advisory services, and agricultural price distortions. These factors are shaped by national government policies and international markets. As is the case with socio-economic responses, policy responses are classified below in two ways: those which seek to combat desertification under changing climate; and those which seek to provide alternative livelihood sources through economic diversification. These options are mutually complementary and contribute to all the three hierarchical elements of the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) framework, namely, avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation (Cowie et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1262|1262]]</sup> ; Orr et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1263|1263]]</sup> ) (Sections 4.8.5 and 7.4.5, and Table 7.2). An enabling policy environment is a critical element for the achievement of LDN (Chasek et al. 2019 <sup>[[#fn:r1264|1264]]</sup> ). Implementation of LDN policies can contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation ( ''high confidence'' ) (Sections 3.6.1 and 3.7.2).

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==== 3.6.3.1 Policy responses towards combating desertification under climate change ====

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Policy responses to combat desertification take numerous forms (Marques et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1265|1265]]</sup> ). Below we discuss major policy responses consistently highlighted in the literature in connection with SLM and climate change, because these response options were found to strengthen adaptation capacities and to contribute to climate change mitigation. They include improving market access, empowering women, expanding access to agricultural advisory services, strengthening land tenure security, payments for ecosystem services, decentralised natural resource management, investing into research and monitoring of desertification and dust storms, and investing into modern renewable energy sources.

'''Policies aiming at improving market access,''' that is the ability to access output and input markets at lower costs, help farmers and livestock producers earn more profit from their produce. Increased profits both motivate and enable them to invest more in SLM. Higher access to input, output and credit markets was consistently found as a major factor in the adoption of SLM practices in a wide number of settings across the drylands ( ''medium confidence'' ) (Aw-Hassan et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1266|1266]]</sup> ; Gebreselassie et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1267|1267]]</sup> ; Mythili and Goedecke 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1268|1268]]</sup> ; Nkonya and Anderson 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1269|1269]]</sup> ; Sow et al. 2016). Lack of access to credit limits adjustments and agricultural responses to the impacts of desertification under changing climate, with long-term consequences for the livelihoods and incomes, as was shown during the North American Dust Bowl of the 1930s (Hornbeck 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1271|1271]]</sup> ). Government policies aimed at improving market access usually involve constructing and upgrading rural–urban transportation infrastructure and agricultural value chains, such as investments into construction of local markets, abattoirs and cold storage warehouses, as well as post-harvest processing facilities (McPeak et al. 2006). However, besides infrastructural constraints, providing improved access often involves relieving institutional constraints to market access (Little 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1272|1272]]</sup> ), such as improved coordination of cross-border food safety and veterinary regulations (Ait Hou et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1273|1273]]</sup> ; Keiichiro et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1274|1274]]</sup> ; McPeak et al. 2006; Unnevehr 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1275|1275]]</sup> ), and availability and access to market information systems (Bobojonov et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1276|1276]]</sup> ; Christy et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1277|1277]]</sup> ; Nakasone et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1278|1278]]</sup> ).

'''Women’s empowerment.''' A greater emphasis on understanding gender-specific differences over land use and land management practices as an entry point can make land restoration projects more successful ( ''medium confidence'' ) (Broeckhoven and Cliquet 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1279|1279]]</sup> ; Carr and Thompson 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1280|1280]]</sup> ; Catacutan and Villamor 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1281|1281]]</sup> ; Dah-gbeto and Villamor 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1282|1282]]</sup> ). In relation to representation and authority to make decisions in land management and governance, women’s participation remains lacking particularly in the dryland regions. Thus, ensuring women’s rights means accepting women as equal members of the community and citizens of the state (Nelson et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1283|1283]]</sup> ). This includes equitable access of women to resources (including extension services), networks, and markets. In areas where socio-cultural norms and practices devalue women and undermine their participation, actions for empowering women will require changes in customary norms, recognition of women’s (land) rights in government policies, and programmes to assure that their interests are better represented (Section 1.4.2 and Cross-Chapter Box 11 in Chapter 7). In addition, several novel concepts are recently applied for an in-depth understanding of gender in relation to science–policy interface. Among these are the concepts of intersectionality, that is, how social dimensions of identity and gender are bound up in systems of power and social institutions (Thompson-Hall et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1284|1284]]</sup> ), bounded rationality for gendered decision-making, related to incomplete information interacting with limits to human cognition leading to judgement errors or objectively poor decision making (Villamor and van Noordwijk 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1285|1285]]</sup> ), anticipatory learning for preparing for possible contingencies and consideration of long-term alternatives (Dah-gbeto and Villamor 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1286|1286]]</sup> ) and systematic leverage points for interventions that produce, mark, and entrench gender inequality within communities (Manlosa et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1287|1287]]</sup> ), which all aim to improve gender equality within agroecological landscapes through a systems approach.

'''Education and expanding access to agricultural services. ''' Providing access to information about SLM practices facilitates their adoption ( ''medium confidence'' ) (Kassie et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1288|1288]]</sup> ; Nkonya et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1289|1289]]</sup> ; Nyanga et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1291|1291]]</sup> ). Moreover, improving the knowledge of climate change, capacity building and development in rural areas can help strengthen climate change adaptive capacities (Berman et al. 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1292|1292]]</sup> ; Chen et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1293|1293]]</sup> ; Descheemaeker et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1294|1294]]</sup> ; Popp et al. 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r1296|1296]]</sup> ; Tambo 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1297|1297]]</sup> ; Yaro et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1298|1298]]</sup> ). Agricultural initiatives to improve the adaptive capacities of vulnerable populations were more successful when they were conducted through reorganised social institutions and improved communication, for example, in Mozambique (Osbahr et al. 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r1299|1299]]</sup> ). Improved communication and education could be facilitated by wider use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) (Peters et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1300|1300]]</sup> ). Investments into education were associated with higher adoption of soil conservation measures, for example, in Tanzania (Tenge et al. 2004 <sup>[[#fn:r1301|1301]]</sup> ). Bryan et al. (2009) found that access to information was the prominent facilitator of climate change adaptation in Ethiopia. However, resource constraints of agricultural services, and disconnects between agricultural policy and climate policy can hinder the dissemination of climate-smart agricultural technologies (Morton 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1302|1302]]</sup> ). Lack of knowledge was also found to be a significant barrier to implementation of soil rehabilitation programmes in the Mediterranean region (Reichardt 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1303|1303]]</sup> ). Agricultural services will be able to facilitate SLM best when they also serve as platforms for sharing indigenous and local knowledge and farmer innovations (Mapfumo et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1304|1304]]</sup> ). Participatory research initiatives conducted jointly with farmers have higher chances of resulting in technology adoption (Bonney et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1305|1305]]</sup> ; Rusike et al. 2006 <sup>[[#fn:r1306|1306]]</sup> ; Vente et al. 2016). Moreover, rural advisory services are often more successful in disseminating technological innovations when they adopt commodity/value chain approaches, remain open to engagement in input supply, make use of new opportunities presented by ICTs, facilitate mutual learning between multiple stakeholders (Morton 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1307|1307]]</sup> ), and organise science and SLM information in a location-specific manner for use in education and extension (Bestelmeyer et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1308|1308]]</sup> ).

'''Strengthening land tenure security.''' Strengthening land tenure security is a major factor contributing to the adoption of soil conservation measures in croplands ( ''high confidence'' ) (Bambio and Bouayad Agha 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1309|1309]]</sup> ; Higgins et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1310|1310]]</sup> ; Holden and Ghebru 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1311|1311]]</sup> ; Paltasingh 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1312|1312]]</sup> ; Rao et al. 2016; Robinson et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1313|1313]]</sup> ), thus contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Moreover, land tenure security can lead to more investment in trees (Deininger and Jin 2006 <sup>[[#fn:r1314|1314]]</sup> ; Etongo et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1315|1315]]</sup> ). Land tenure recognition policies were found to lead to higher agricultural productivity and incomes, although with inter-regional variations, requiring an improved understanding of overlapping formal and informal land tenure rights (Lawry et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1316|1316]]</sup> ). For example, secure land tenure increased investments into SLM practices in Ghana, but without affecting farm productivity (Abdulai et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1317|1317]]</sup> ). Secure land tenure, especially for communally managed lands, helps reduce arbitrary appropriations of land for large-scale commercial farms (Aha and Ayitey 2017; Baumgartner 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1318|1318]]</sup> ; Dell’Angelo et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1319|1319]]</sup> ). In contrast, privatisation of rangeland tenures in Botswana and Kenya led to the loss of communal grazing lands and actually increased rangeland degradation (Basupi et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1320|1320]]</sup> ; Kihiu 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1321|1321]]</sup> ) as pastoralists needed to graze livestock on now smaller communal pastures. Since food insecurity in drylands is strongly affected by climate risks, there is ''robust evidence'' and ''high agreement'' that resilience to climate risks is higher with flexible tenure for allowing mobility for pastoralist communities, and not fragmenting their areas of movement (Behnke 1994 <sup>[[#fn:r1323|1323]]</sup> ; Holden and Ghebru 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1324|1324]]</sup> ; Liao et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1325|1325]]</sup> ; Turner et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1326|1326]]</sup> ; Wario et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1327|1327]]</sup> ). More research is needed on the optimal tenure mix, including low-cost land certification, redistribution reforms, market-assisted reforms and gender-responsive reforms, as well as collective forms of land tenure such as communal land tenure and cooperative land tenure (see Section 7.6.5 for a broader discussion of land tenure security under climate change).

'''Payment for ecosystem services (PES)''' provides incentives for land restoration and SLM ( ''medium confidence'' ) (Lambin et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1328|1328]]</sup> ; Li et al. 2018; Reed et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1329|1329]]</sup> ; Schiappacasse et al. 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1330|1330]]</sup> ). Several studies illustrate that the social costs of desertification are larger than its private cost (Costanza et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1331|1331]]</sup> ; Nkonya et al. 2016a <sup>[[#fn:r1332|1332]]</sup> ). Therefore, although SLM can generate public goods in the form of provisioning ecosystem services, individual land custodians underinvest in SLM as they are unable to reap these benefits fully. Payment for ecosystem services provides a mechanism through which some of these benefits can be transferred to land users, thereby stimulating further investment in SLM. The effectiveness of PES schemes depends on land tenure security and appropriate design, taking into account specific local conditions (Börner et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1333|1333]]</sup> ). However, PES has not worked well in countries with fragile institutions (Karsenty and Ongolo 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1334|1334]]</sup> ). Equity and justice in distributing the payments for ecosystem services were found to be key for the success of the PES programmes in Yunnan, China (He and Sikor 2015). Yet, when reviewing the performance of PES programmes in the tropics, Calvet-Mir et al. (2015), found that they are generally effective in terms of environmental outcomes, despite being sometimes unfair in terms of payment distribution. It is suggested that the implementation of PES will be improved through decentralised approaches giving local communities a larger role in the decision-making process (He and Lang 2015).

'''Empowering local communities for decentralised natural resource management.''' Local institutions often play a vital role in implementing SLM initiatives and climate change adaptation measures ( ''high confidence'' ) (Gibson et al. 2005 <sup>[[#fn:r1335|1335]]</sup> ; Smucker et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1336|1336]]</sup> ). Pastoralists involved in community-based natural resource management in Mongolia had greater capacity to adapt to extreme winter frosts, resulting in less damage to their livestock (Fernandez-Gimenez et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1337|1337]]</sup> ). Decreasing the power and role of traditional community institutions, due to top-down public policies, resulted in lower success rates in community-based programmes focused on rangeland management in Dirre, Ethiopia (Abdu and Robinson 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1338|1338]]</sup> ). Decentralised governance was found to lead to improved management in forested landscapes (Dressler et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1339|1339]]</sup> ; Ostrom and Nagendra 2006 <sup>[[#fn:r1340|1340]]</sup> ). However, there are also cases when local elites were placed in control and this decentralised natural resource management negatively impacted the livelihoods of the poorer and marginalised community members due to reduced access to natural resources (Andersson and Ostrom 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r1341|1341]]</sup> ; Cullman 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1343|1343]]</sup> ; Dressler et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1344|1344]]</sup> ).

The success of decentralised natural resource management initiatives depends on increased participation and empowerment of a diverse set of community members, not only local leaders and elites, in the design and management of local resource management institutions (Kadirbeyoglu and Özertan 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1345|1345]]</sup> ; Umutoni et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1346|1346]]</sup> ), while considering the interactions between actors and institutions at different levels of governance (Andersson and Ostrom 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r1347|1347]]</sup> ; Carlisle and Gruby 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1349|1349]]</sup> ; McCord et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1351|1351]]</sup> ). An example of such programmes where local communities played a major role in land restoration and rehabilitation activities is the cooperative project on The National Afforestation and Erosion Control Mobilization Action Plan in Turkey, initiated by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Çalişkan and Boydak 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1352|1352]]</sup> ), with the investment of 1.8 billion USD between 2008 and 2012. The project mobilised local communities in cooperation with public institutions, municipalities, and non-governmental organisations, to implement afforestation, rehabilitation and erosion control measures, resulting in the afforestation and reforestation of 1.5 Mha (Yurtoglu 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1353|1353]]</sup> ). Moreover, some 1.75 Mha of degraded forest and 37,880 ha of degraded rangelands were rehabilitated. Finally, the project provided employment opportunities for 300,000 rural residents for six months every year, combining land restoration and rehabilitation activities with measures to promote socio-economic development in rural areas (Çalişkan and Boydak 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1354|1354]]</sup> ).

'''Investing in research and development.''' Desertification has received substantial research attention over recent decades (Turner et al. 2007 <sup>[[#fn:r1355|1355]]</sup> ). There is also a growing research interest on climate change adaptation and mitigation interventions that help address desertification (Grainger 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r1356|1356]]</sup> ). Agricultural research on SLM practices has generated a significant number of new innovations and technologies that increase crop yields without degrading the land, while contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation (Section 3.6.1). There is ''robust evidence'' that such technologies help improve the food security of smallholder dryland farming households (Harris and Orr 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1357|1357]]</sup> ) (Section 6.3.5). Strengthening research on desertification is of high importance not only to meet SDGs but also to manage ecosystems effectively, based on solid scientific knowledge. More investment in research institutes and training the younger generation of researchers is needed for addressing the combined challenges of desertification and climate change (Akhtar-Schuster et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1358|1358]]</sup> ; Verstraete et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1359|1359]]</sup> ). This includes improved knowledge management systems that allow stakeholders to work in a coordinated manner by enhancing timely, targeted and contextualised information sharing (Chasek et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1360|1360]]</sup> ). Knowledge and flow of knowledge on desertification is currently highly fragmented, constraining the effectiveness of those engaged in assessing and monitoring the phenomenon at various levels (Reed et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1361|1361]]</sup> ). Improved knowledge and data exchange and sharing increase the effectiveness of efforts to address desertification ( ''high confidence'' ).

'''Developing modern renewable energy sources.''' Transitioning to renewable energy resources contributes to reducing desertification by lowering reliance on traditional biomass in dryland regions ( ''medium confidence'' ). This can also have socioeconomic and health benefits, especially for women and children ( ''high confidence'' ). Populations in most developing countries continue to rely on traditional biomass, including fuelwood, crop straws and livestock manure, for a major share of their energy needs, with the highest dependence in Sub-Saharan Africa (Amugune et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1363|1363]]</sup> ; IEA 2013). Use of biomass for energy, mostly fuelwood (especially as charcoal), was associated with deforestation in some dryland areas (Iiyama et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1364|1364]]</sup> ; Mekuria et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1365|1365]]</sup> ; Neufeldt et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1366|1366]]</sup> ; Zulu 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1367|1367]]</sup> ), while in some other areas there was no link between fuelwood collection and deforestation (Simon and Peterson 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1368|1368]]</sup> ; Swemmer et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1369|1369]]</sup> ; Twine and Holdo 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1370|1370]]</sup> ). Moreover, the use of traditional biomass as a source of energy was found to have negative health effects through indoor air pollution (de la Sota et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1371|1371]]</sup> ; Lim and Seow 2012), while also being associated with lower female labour force participation (Burke and Dundas 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1372|1372]]</sup> ). Jiang et al. (2014) indicated that providing improved access to alternative energy sources such as solar energy and biogas could help reduce the use of fuelwood in south-western China, thus alleviating the spread of rocky desertification. The conversion of degraded lands into cultivation of biofuel crops will affect soil carbon dynamics (Albanito et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1374|1374]]</sup> ; Nair et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1375|1375]]</sup> ) (Cross-Chapter Box 7 in Chapter 6). The use of biogas slurry as soil amendment or fertiliser can increase soil carbon (Galvez et al. 2012; Negash et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1376|1376]]</sup> ). Large-scale installation of wind and solar farms in the Sahara Desert was projected to create a positive climate feedback through increased surface friction and reduced albedo, doubling precipitation over the neighbouring Sahel region with resulting increases in vegetation (Li et al. 2018). Transition to renewable energy sources in high-income countries in dryland areas primarily contributes to reducing GHG emissions and mitigating climate change, with some other co-benefits such as diversification of energy sources (Bang 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1377|1377]]</sup> ), while the impacts on desertification are less evident. The use of renewable energy has been proposed as an important mitigation option in dryland areas as well (El-Fadel et al. 2003 <sup>[[#fn:r1378|1378]]</sup> ). Transitions to renewable energy are being promoted by governments across drylands (Cancino-Solórzano et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1379|1379]]</sup> ; Hong et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1380|1380]]</sup> ; Sen and Ganguly 2017) including in fossil-fuel rich countries (Farnoosh et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1381|1381]]</sup> ; Dehkordi et al. 2017; Stambouli et al. 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1382|1382]]</sup> ; Vidadili et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1383|1383]]</sup> ), despite important social, political and technical barriers to expanding renewable energy production (Afsharzade et al. 2016; Baker et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1384|1384]]</sup> ; Elum and Momodu 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1385|1385]]</sup> ; Karatayev et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1386|1386]]</sup> ). Improving social awareness about the benefits of transitioning to renewable energy resources, and access to hydro-energy, solar and wind energy contributes to their improved adoption (Aliyu et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1387|1387]]</sup> ; Katikiro 2016).

'''Developing and strengthening climate services relevant for desertification.''' Climate services provide climate, drought and desertification-related information in a way that assists decision-making by individuals and organisations. Monitoring desertification, and integrating biogeophysical (climate, soil, ecological factors, biodiversity) and socio-economic (use of natural resources by local population) issues provide a basis for better vulnerability prediction and assessment (OSS, 2012; Vogt et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1388|1388]]</sup> ). Examples of relevant services include: drought monitoring and early warning systems, often implemented by national climate and meteorological services but also encompassing regional and global systems (Pozzi et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1389|1389]]</sup> ); and the Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS), created by WMO in 2007, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Currently, there is also a lack of ecological monitoring in arid and semi-arid regions to study surface winds, dust and sand storms, and their impacts on ecosystems and human health (Bergametti et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1390|1390]]</sup> ; Marticorena et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1391|1391]]</sup> ). Reliable and timely climate services, relevant to desertification, can aid the development of appropriate adaptation and mitigation options, reducing the impact of desertification under changing climate on human and natural systems ( ''high confidence'' ) (Beegum et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1392|1392]]</sup> ; Beegum et al. 2018; Cornet 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1393|1393]]</sup> ; Haase et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1395|1395]]</sup> ; Sergeant et al. 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1396|1396]]</sup> ).

<div id="section-3-6-3-2-policy-responses-supporting-economic-diversification"></div>

<span id="policy-responses-supporting-economic-diversification"></span>
==== 3.6.3.2 Policy responses supporting economic diversification ====

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Despite policy responses for combating desertification, other factors will put strong pressures on the land, including climate change and growing food demands, as well as the need to reduce poverty and strengthen food security (Cherlet et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1397|1397]]</sup> ) (Sections 6.1.4 and 7.2.2). Sustainable development of drylands and their resilience to combined challenges of desertification and climate change will thus also depend on the ability of governments to promote policies for economic diversification within agriculture and in non-agricultural sectors in order make dryland areas less vulnerable to desertification and climate change.

'''Investing into irrigation.''' Investments into expanding irrigation in dryland areas can help increase the resilience of agricultural production to climate change, improve labour productivity and boost production and income revenue from agriculture and livestock sectors (Geerts and Raes 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r1399|1399]]</sup> ; Olayide et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1400|1400]]</sup> ; Oweis and Hachum 2006 <sup>[[#fn:r1401|1401]]</sup> ). This is particularly true for Sub-Saharan Africa, where currently only 6% of the cultivated areas are irrigated (Nkonya et al. 2016b <sup>[[#fn:r1402|1402]]</sup> ). While renewable groundwater resources could help increase the share of irrigated land to 20.5–48.6% of croplands in the region (Altchenko and Villholth 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1403|1403]]</sup> ). On the other hand, over-extraction of groundwaters, mainly for irrigating crops, is becoming an important environmental problem in many dryland areas (Cherlet et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1404|1404]]</sup> ), requiring careful design and planning of irrigation expansion schemes and use of water-efficient irrigation methods (Bjornlund et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1405|1405]]</sup> ; Woodhouse et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1406|1406]]</sup> ). For example, in Saudi Arabia, improving the efficiency of water management, for example through the development of aquifers, water recycling and rainwater harvesting, is part of a suite of policy actions to combat desertification (Bazza, et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r1407|1407]]</sup> ; Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1408|1408]]</sup> ). The expansion of irrigation to riverine areas, crucial for dry season grazing of livestock, needs to consider the income from pastoral activities, which is not always lower than income from irrigated crop production (Behnke and Kerven 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1409|1409]]</sup> ). Irrigation development could be combined with the deployment of clean-energy technologies in economically viable ways (Chandel et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1410|1410]]</sup> ). For example, solar-powered drip irrigation was found to increase household agricultural incomes in Benin (Burney et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1411|1411]]</sup> ). The sustainability of irrigation schemes based on solar-powered extraction of groundwaters depends on measures to avoid over-abstraction of groundwater resources and associated negative environmental impacts (Closas and Rap 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1412|1412]]</sup> ).

'''Expanding agricultural commercialisation.''' Faster poverty rate reduction and economic growth enhancement is realised when countries transition into the production of non-staple, high-value commodities and manage to build a robust agro-industry sector (Barrett et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1413|1413]]</sup> ). Ogutu and Qaim (2019) found that agricultural commercialisation increased incomes and decreased multidimensional poverty in Kenya. Similar findings were earlier reported by Muriithi and Matz (2015) for commercialisation of vegetables in Kenya. Commercialisation of rice production was found to have increased smallholder welfare in Nigeria (Awotide et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1414|1414]]</sup> ). Agricultural commercialisation contributed to improved household food security in Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda (Carletto et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r1415|1415]]</sup> ). However, such a transition did not improve farmers’ livelihoods in all cases (Reardon et al. 2009). High-value cash crop/animal production can be bolstered by wide-scale use of technologies, for example, mechanisation, application of inorganic fertilisers, crop protection and animal health products. Market oriented crop/animal production facilitates social and economic progress, with labour increasingly shifting out of agriculture into non-agricultural sectors (Cour 2001). Modernised farming, improved access to inputs, credit and technologies enhances competitiveness in local and international markets (Reardon et al. 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r1417|1417]]</sup> ).

'''Facilitating structural transformations''' in rural economies implies that the development of non-agricultural sectors encourages the movement of labour from land-based livelihoods, vulnerable to desertification and climate change, to non-agricultural activities (Haggblade et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r1420|1420]]</sup> ). The movement of labour from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors is determined by relative labour productivities in these sectors (Shiferaw and Djido 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1421|1421]]</sup> ). Given already high underemployment in the farm sector, increasing labour productivity in the non-farm sector was found as the main driver of labour movements from farm sector to non-farm sector (Shiferaw and Djido 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1422|1422]]</sup> ). More investments into education can facilitate this process (Headey et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r1423|1423]]</sup> ). However, in some contexts, such as pastoralist communities in Xinjiang, China, income diversification was not found to improve the welfare of pastoral households (Liao et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1424|1424]]</sup> ). Economic transformations also occur through urbanisation, involving the shift of labour from rural areas into gainful employment in urban areas (Jedwab and Vollrath 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1425|1425]]</sup> ). The majority of world population will be living in urban centres in the 21st century and this will require innovative means of agricultural production with minimum ecological footprint and less dependence on fossil fuels (Revi and Rosenzweig 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1426|1426]]</sup> ), while addressing the demand of cities (see Section 4.9.1 for discussion on urban green infrastructure). Although there is some evidence of urbanisation leading to the loss of indigenous and local ecological knowledge, however, indigenous and local knowledge systems are constantly evolving, and are also being integrated into urban environments (Júnior et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r1427|1427]]</sup> ; Reyes-García et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1429|1429]]</sup> ; van Andel and Carvalheiro 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1430|1430]]</sup> ). Urban areas are attracting an increasing number of rural residents across the developing world (Angel et al. 2011 <sup>[[#fn:r1431|1431]]</sup> ; Cour 2001 <sup>[[#fn:r1432|1432]]</sup> ; Dahiya 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r1433|1433]]</sup> ). Urban development contributes to expedited agricultural commercialisation by providing market outlet for cash crops, high-value crops, and livestock products. At the same time, urbanisation also poses numerous challenges in the form of rapid urban sprawl and pressures on infrastructure and public services, unemployment and associated social risks, which have considerable implications on climate change adaptive capacities (Bulkeley 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r1434|1434]]</sup> ; Garschagen and Romero-Lankao 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r1435|1435]]</sup> ).

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