Editing IPCC:AR6/SRCCL/Chapter-4 (section)

=== 4.1.4 Land degradation in previous IPCC reports ===

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Several previous IPCC assessment reports include brief discussions of land degradation. In AR5 WGIII land degradation is one factor contributing to uncertainties of the mitigation potential of land-based ecosystems, particularly in terms of fluxes of soil carbon (Smith et al. 2014, p. 817). In AR5 WGI, soil carbon was discussed comprehensively but not in the context of land degradation, except forest degradation (Ciais et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r46|46]]</sup> ) and permafrost degradation (Vaughan et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r47|47]]</sup> ). Climate change impacts were discussed comprehensively in AR5 WGII, but land degradation was not prominent. Land-use and land-cover changes were treated comprehensively in terms of effects on the terrestrial carbon stocks and flows (Settele et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r48|48]]</sup> ) but links to land degradation were, to a large extent, missing. Land degradation was discussed in relation to human security as one factor which, in combination with extreme weather events, has been proposed to contribute to human migration (Adger et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r49|49]]</sup> ), an issue discussed more comprehensively in this chapter (Section 4.7.3). Drivers and processes of degradation by which land-based carbon is released to the atmosphere and/or the long-term reduction in the capacity of the land to remove atmospheric carbon and to store this in biomass and soil carbon, have been discussed in the methodological reports of IPCC (IPCC 2006 <sup>[[#fn:r50|50]]</sup> , 2014a <sup>[[#fn:r51|51]]</sup> ) but less so in the assessment reports.

The Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (SR-LULUCF) (Watson et al. 2000 <sup>[[#fn:r52|52]]</sup> ) focused on the role of the biosphere in the global cycles of GHG. Land degradation was not addressed in a comprehensive way. Soil erosion was discussed as a process by which soil carbon is lost and the productivity of the land is reduced. Deposition of eroded soil carbon in marine sediments was also mentioned as a possible mechanism for permanent sequestration of terrestrial carbon (Watson et al. 2000, p. 194). The possible impacts of climate change on land productivity and degradation were not discussed comprehensively. Much of the report was about how to account for sources and sinks of terrestrial carbon under the Kyoto Protocol.

The IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) (IPCC 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r53|53]]</sup> ) did not provide a definition of land degradation. Nevertheless, it addressed different aspects related to some types of land degradation in the context of weather and climate extreme events. From this perspective, it provided key information on both observed and projected changes in weather and climate (extremes) events that are relevant to extreme impacts on socio-economic systems and on the physical components of the environment, notably on permafrost in mountainous areas and coastal zones for different geographic regions, but few explicit links to land degradation. The report also presented the concept of sustainable land management as an effective risk-reduction tool.

Land degradation has been treated in several previous IPCC reports, but mainly as an aggregated concept associated with GHG emissions, or as an issue that can be addressed through adaptation and mitigation.

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