This report addresses the economic, environmental and social dimensions of agricultural development, with the objective of ensuring food and nutrition security, in terms of availability, access, utilization and stability. It focuses on the livestock component of agricultural systems, given the role of livestock as an engine for the development of the agriculture and food sector, and as a driver of major economic, social and environmental changes in food systems worldwide.

This paper is specifically about agricultural mechanisation: the opportunities provided by mechanisation for intensifying production in a sustainable manner, in value addition and agri-food value chain development, as well as the inherent opportunities implied for improved local economies and livelihoods. The establishment of viable business enterprises agro-processors, transport services, and so forth as a result of increased agricultural mechanisation in rural areas, is crucial to creating employment and income opportunities and, thereby, enhancing the demand for farm produce.

Recent expansion of the scale of human activities poses severe threats to Earth’s life-support systems. Increasingly, protected areas (PAs) are expected to serve dual goals: protect biodiversity and secure ecosystem services. We report a nationwide assessment for China, quantifying the provision of threatened species habitat and four key regulating services—water retention, soil retention, sandstorm prevention, and carbon sequestration—in nature reserves (the primary category of PAs in China).

Land degradation is accelerating and drought is escalating worldwide. At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders clearly acknowledged that desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) are challenges of a global dimension affecting the sustainable development of all countries, in particular developing countries. In view of this, they committed to strive to achieve a land-degradation neutral world in the context of sustainable development and to monitor land degradation globally (paragraphs 205–207 of “The future we want”).

La degradación de la tierra se está acelerando, y las sequías van en aumento en todo el mundo. En la conferencia Río+20, los dirigentes mundiales reconocieron sin ambages que la desertificación, la degradación de la tierra y la sequía son problemas de dimensión mundial que afectan al desarrollo sostenible de todos los países, en particular los que están en desarrollo.

Dry forests play an important role in preventing land degradation and desertification, conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem goods and services and mitigating and adapting to climate change and the impacts of drought. To make use of the promising potential of forests and agroforestry schemes in arid areas they need to be fully included in the REDD+ mechanism with a special focus on the co-benefits.

Les forêts sèches jouent un rôle important pour la prévention de la dégradation des terres et de la désertification, la conservation de la biodiversité, la production de biens et de services écosystémiques ainsi que l’atténuation des changements climatiques et des incidences des sécheresses et l’adaptation à ceux-ci. Il convient de les intégrer globalement dans le mécanisme REDD+ en s’attachant en particulier aux avantages associés afin d’exploiter le potentiel prometteur des forêts et des techniques agroforestières dans les zones arides

Los bosques secos desempeñan una importante labor en la prevención de la degradación de la tierra y la desertificación, la conservación de la biodiversidad y el abastecimiento de bienes y servicios al ecosistema, así como en la mitigación y adaptación al cambio climático y en los impactos de la sequía. Para aprovechar el prometedor potencial de los bosques y de los esquemas de agrosilvicultura en zonas áridas éstos deben estar totalmente integrados en el mecanismo REDD+, tomando especial atención a los co-beneficios.

The UNCCD Advocacy Policy Framework (APF) on gender, approved by the COP10 (Decision 9), demonstrates the benefits of mainstreaming gender in Desertification/Land Degradation and Drought (DDLD)/ Sustainable Land Management (SLM) actions at national and local levels. The framework recognizes that gender mainstreaming has to take place at various levels involving multiple stakeholders. It is through the full participation of local people, especially women, that the efforts efforts to combat desertification can be most effective.

Desertification/land degradation is rarely accounted for as an economic issue, and drought barely accounted for as a disaster. Because desertification, land degradation and drought are slow and silent phenomena, they have a way of creeping up on us and thereby leading us to underestimate their socio-economic impacts.

La désertification et la dégradation des terres sont rarement considérées comme un problème économique et la sécheresse est à peine considérée comme une catastrophe. Du fait que la désertification, la dégradation des terres et la sécheresse sont des phénomènes lents et muets, ils progressent peu à peu, nous conduisant à sous-estimer leurs incidences socio-économiques

La desertificación/degradación de la tierra raramente está considerada como un tema económico, y la sequía rara vez como un desastre. Dado que la desertificación, la degradación de la tierra y la sequía son procesos lentos y sigilosos, su avance es subrepticio, y nos inducen a subestimar sus efectos socioeconómicos.