Reforestation and sustainable land & water management can help combat desertification

Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Serena Ferrari, Economist and Researcher at CIRAD. Desertification is driven by climate change, explains Ferrari, but climate alone does not cause the degradation of land. Economic and political choices, including intensive water use, chemical-dependent agriculture and the pursuit of ever-higher productivity, can intensify pressure on already fragile ecosystems. She does not think we should imagine that degraded landscapes can simply be returned to some previous state. In many cases, the more realistic task is to slow the process, adapt to it and restore the capacity of communities to manage land sustainably. This is also why pastoralists, Indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers are so important. Their practices and knowledge can offer alternatives to intensive models of land use. Mongolia makes this particularly visible: as a pastoralist and rangeland country facing an increasingly harsh climate, it stands at the intersection of the ecological and social questions being debated at COP17. The challenge is therefore not only how to restore land, but also whose knowledge, livelihoods and priorities will shape that restoration.