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Argentina is one of the countries with a vibrant agricultural sector, which provides both economic development opportunities and environmental challenges. Argentina was selected as a case study due to its rich land degradation data, its diverse agroecological systems, and rapid poverty reduction. The country also represents high human development index countries. This study reports the cost of land degradation, the cost of inaction and cost and benefits of taking action against land degradation. The total loss of ecosystem services due to land-use/cover change (LUCC), wetlands degradation and use of land degrading management practices on grazing lands and selected croplands is about 2007 US$75 billion, which is about 16 % of the country’s GDP. LUCC accounts for 94 % of the loss, underscoring the need for developing more effective land use planning and incentives land users to protect high value biomes. The returns to taking action against land degradation is about US$4 per US$ invested—justifying the need to take action to improve human welfare and environmental protection. The actions against land degradation include investment in restoration of degraded lands and prevention of land degradation through stricter regulation of agricultural expansion into forests and other higher value biomes. They also include reforestation and other restoration efforts; protection wetlands and restoration of degraded wetlands. The excessive use of agrochemicals also require action to regulate their potential off-site effects. Case studies also show that promotion of rotational grazing, extending conservation agriculture beyond soybean; tillage method and crop-livestock production systems offer promising strategies for addressing land degradation. The world has a lot to learn from Argentina—given its rapid poverty reduction and successful adoption rate of conservation agriculture using public-private partnership. If Argentina aims at maintaining its economic and social development, it will need to work harder to address its growth-related environmental challenges that affect the poor the most. Argentina is better prepared to face these challenges. This study will contribute to informing policy makers on the best strategies for taking action against land degradation and the returns to such actions.

This study was conducted with the objective of determining the returns to sustainable land management (SLM) at the national level in Bhutan. The study first uses satellite data on land change (Landsat) to examine land use change in 1990–2010 and its impact on sediment loading in hydroelectric power plants. The study then uses the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to analyze the impact of land use change and land management on sediment loading. The results from the land use change and SWAT analyses are used to assess the economic benefits of SLM. We estimate the benefits and costs of SLM practices and compare them with the land-degrading practices that are most prevalent in Bhutan—that is, business as usual. An analysis of the drivers of adoption of SLM practices is also done to draw conclusions about strategies that Bhutan could use to enhance adoption of SLM practices. The land cover change results show that the vast majority of forested areas remained as such between 1994 and 2010. SWAT results show that with long-term SLM practices such as contouring, increased forested cover and density, terracing, and other SLM practices, soil erosion from forested area could be reduced by 50 %. Analysis of returns to SLM practices showed that citrus orchards are the most profitable enterprises in 13 of the 20 districts (dzongkhag), but they require farmers to wait for at least six years before the first harvest. Improved pasture management is the second most profitable enterprise—underscoring the potential role it can play to meet the growing demand for livestock products as household incomes increase. Returns to community forest management are low but profitable at a 10 % discount rate. Considering the drivers of SLM adoption, our research shows an inverse relationship between returns to land management and their corresponding adoption rates. The factors that increase adoption of SLM were land security, access to extension services, and roads. In summary, Bhutan’s policies and its cultural and historical background have set the country on the path to becoming a global green growth success story. Results of this study vindicate the country’s efforts to invest in sustainable land and forest management and highlight the additional policies and strategies that will enhance achievement of Bhutan’s SLM objectives.

Land degradation is a complex process that involves both the natural ecosystem and the socioeconomic system, among which climate and land use changes are the two predominant driving factors. We reviewed the status of degradation in grasslands, forests and cultivated lands in China, as well as the major drivers of land degradation in the North China Plain. The previous research shows that an increase in rainfall and temperature would significantly and positively contribute to land improvement. The conversion from cultivated land to grassland and forest land showed positive relationship with land improvement, while conversion to built-up area is associated with land degradation. In addition, human agricultural intensification may help improve the land quality. The overall economic development may exert positive impacts on land quality, while the increased agricultural production may exert negative impacts on land. Infrastructure construction would modify the land surface and further result in land degradation. Finally, our analysis of the costs of actions to address land degradation in China shows that the annual costs of land degradation due to land use and cover change (LUCC) is equal to about 24.5 billion USD. In addition, the cost of grassland degradation, without shifts in LUCC, is estimated to equal about 0.49 billion USD due to losses in livestock productivity resulting from grassland degradation. Moreover, the costs of cropland degradation for three crops: wheat, maize and rice, is estimated to be about 12 billion USD annually. The total cost of land degradation due to LUCC and using land degrading management practices on cropland and grazing land is 2007 US$37 billion or 1 % of China’s 2007 GDP. Finally, the analysis shows that the costs of the rehabilitation of the lands degraded due to LUCC are significantly lower than the costs of inaction, with the returns of up to 4.7 times for every yuan invested over a 30-year period. This underscores the need to take action against land degradation. This is particularly important given China’s new sustainable development and green economy approach reflected in its five year plan (2011–15) and other environmental policies. Results of this study will inform policy makers on the key areas for addressing land degradation.

Land degradation is an important problem in Ethiopia, with more than 85 % of the land degraded to various degrees. Recent estimates using satellite imagery show that land degradation hotspots over the last three decades cover about 23 % of the land area in the country. The assessment of nationally representative household survey shows that important drivers of sustainable land management in Ethiopia are biophysical, regional and socio-economic determinants. Specifically, access to agricultural extension services and markets and secure land tenure are important incentives to adoption of sustainable land management practices. Thus, policies and strategies relating to securing tenure rights, building the capacity of land users through access to extension services, and improving access to input, output and financial markets should be considered in order to incentivize sustainable land management. Important local level initiatives and institutions to manage grazing lands and forests through collective action should also be encouraged. We use the Total Economic Value approach (TEV) to estimate the cost of land degradation in Ethiopia. The annual cost of land degradation associated with land use and cover change in Ethiopia is estimated to be about $4.3 billion. Only about 51 % of this cost of land degradation represents the provisioning ecosystem services. The remaining 49 % represent the loss of supporting and regulatory and cultural ecosystem services. Use of land degrading practices in maize and wheat farms resulted in losses amounting to $162 million—representing 2 % equivalent of the GDP in 2007. The costs of action to rehabilitate lands degraded during the 2001–2009 period through land use and cover change were found to equal about $54 billion over a 30-year horizon, whereas if nothing is done, the resulting losses may equal almost $228 billion during the same period. Thus, the costs of action against land degradation are lower than the costs of inaction by about 4.4 times over the 30 year horizon; implying that a dollar spent to rehabilitate degraded lands returns about 4.4 dollars in Ethiopia.

Land degradation is increasingly becoming a major concern for Indian agriculture on which two-third of the population depend for their livelihood. Many policies and programs have been initiated in the last two decades to address this problem but the results are meager. Analysis of causes of land degradation and their extents is very important to design suitable policies to overcome the degradation problem. It is in this context, this paper identifies the major socio-economic variables that explain land degradation. It also finds economic and social costs of land degradation and the net benefits from taking up conservation activities and finally draws some lessons on what are the right policy instruments to promote sustainable land management practices. The Total Economic Value (TEV) concept has been used in deriving the costs and benefits. Our findings from state level analysis suggest that ‘input subsidies’ and ‘decreasing land-man ratio’ are two major determining factors that increase land degradation. Rationalizing input subsidies will go a long way in improving the management of land resources. At the household level, the number of crops grown and the operating area are significantly influencing land degradation. The analysis of the costs of action versus inaction against land degradation shows that costs of inaction are higher than the costs of action, indicating the benefits that will accrue if sufficient conservation practices are undertaken. Institutions and incentive mechanisms play important roles in changing the behavior of farmers to act in a resource conservative way.

Kenya is an agricultural nation, with over 12 million people residing in areas with degraded lands. Unfortunately, the food crop productivity growth in the country has failed to exceed the population growth. The growth of agricultural output in Kenya is constrained by many challenges including soil erosion, low productivity, agro-biodiversity loss, and soil nutrient depletion. Land exploitation devoid of proper compensating investments in soil and water conservation will lead to severe land degradation. This will translate to loss of rural livelihoods, diminished water supplies and threaten the wildlife habitat. This study explores the causes, extent and impacts of land degradation in Kenya, discusses the costs of action versus inaction in rehabilitating degraded lands, and proposes policy options for promoting sustainable land management (SLM). In order to appropriately support SLM, there is a need to account for the total economic value (TEV) of land degradation, i.e. including the value of both provisioning and indirect ecosystem services of land. Using such a TEV approach, findings show that the costs of land degradation due to land use and land cover changes (LUCC) in Kenya reach the equivalent of 1.3 billion USD annually between 2001 and 2009. Moreover, the costs of rangeland degradation calculated through losses in milk and meat production, as well as in livestock live weight decreases reach about 80 million USD annually. Furthermore, the costs of “soil nutrient mining” leading to lower yields for three crops, namely wheat, maize and rice in Kenya were estimated at about 270 million USD annually. The cost of taking action to rehabilitate lands degraded through LUCC is found to be lower than the cost of inaction by 4 times over a 30 year period, i.e. each dollar invested in land rehabilitation is likely to yield four dollars of returns. This may strongly justify the urgent need for taking action against land degradation. Addressing land degradation involves investments in SLM. Our econometric results show that improving access to information on SLM and to the markets (input, output, financial) may likely stimulate investments into SLM by agricultural households.

Niger’s colonial and post-independence natural resource management policies contributed to land degradation. The country also experienced a prolonged drought that amplified the suffering of the people who are heavily dependent on natural resources. The country learnt hard lessons from its past mistakes and changed its policies and strategies. This study shows a strong association of the policy changes and improved human welfare demonstrating that even poor countries could achieve sustainable development. Enhancing government effectiveness by giving communities mandate to manage natural resources and by giving incentives to land users to benefit from their investment played a key role in realizing simultaneous improvement in land management and human welfare in Niger. Given these achievements, Niger was picked as a case study to showcase its achievement and what other countries could learn from the country’s mistakes and achievements. The analytical approach used focuses on estimation of cost of land degradation, ground-truthing of satellite data and drivers of adoption of sustainable land management practices. Land use/cover change (LUCC) analysis shows that a total of 6.12 million ha experienced LUCC and shrublands and grassland accounted for the largest change. Excluding the desert, 19 % of the land area experienced LUCC. Cropland expansion accounted for about 57 % of deforestation followed by grassland expansion. The cost of land degradation due to LUCC is about 2007 US$0.75 billion, which is 11 % of the 2007 GDP of US$6.773 billion and 1 % of the 2001 value of ecosystem services (ES) in Niger. Every US dollar invested in taking action returns about $6—a level that is quite attractive. Ground-truthing showed high level of agreement between satellite data and communities perception on degraded lands but poor agreement in areas for which satellite data showed land improvement. Communities also reported that tree planting and protection were the most common actions against land degradation. Tree planting was done mainly on bare lands to fix sand dunes. In summary, this study shows that severe land degradation and the consequent negative impacts on human welfare is a low-hanging fruit that needs to be utilized by countries as they address land degradation. This implies that instead of abandoning severely degraded lands, strategies should be used to rehabilitate such lands using low-cost organic soil fertility management practices and progressively followed by using high cost inputs as soil fertility improves. Improvement of access to rural services and facilitation of non-farm activities will also lead to faster and greater impacts on adoption of SLM practices and increasing resilience to agricultural production shocks in Niger. As Niger continues to improve sustainable land management, it faces daunting challenges to alleviate the high cost of land degradation. Niger serves as a success story to the world in addressing land degradation. Both the national and international communities need to learn from the achievement of Niger and help land users to sustainably manage their natural resources.

The analysis of the costs for action versus inaction in addressing land degradation at national and sub-national (regional and district) levels in Russia showed that the total annual costs of land degradation due to land use and cover change only are about 189 billion USD in 2009 as compared with 2001, i.e. about 23.6 billion USD annually, or about 2 % of Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010. These land use and land cover changes occurred in the area of 130 million ha. The area of arable lands decreased by 25 % during the period of the economic reforms between 1990 and 2009. The total economic value of ecosystem goods and services is estimated to equal about 3700 billion USD in Russia, exceeding the conventional GDP by 3 times. The costs of action against land degradation are lower than the costs of inaction in Russia by 5–6 times over a 30-year horizon. Almost 92 % of the costs of action are made up of the opportunity costs of action. The methodology of the economics of land degradation can be successfully applied in peculiar socioeconomic conditions of Russia, but the lack of harmonization of methods and indicators brings uncertainty to quantitative assessments.

Senegal is facing a major land degradation challenge that poses threat to livelihoods of the rural poor. This study was done to inform policy makers on the cost of inaction and the costs and benefits of taking action against land degradation. The study shows that the annual cost of land degradation on rice, millet and maize—which account for 45 % of cropland area—is US$103 million, or 2 % of the country’s GDP. The on-farm cost of grazing land degradation is about US$9 million or 0.1 % of the GDP. The low cost of grazing degradation is a reflection of the low livestock productivity. The cost of land degradation due to Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) is about US$0.412 billion or about 4 % of the GDP. This shows that LUCC accounts for the largest cost of land degradation. The marginal rate of return to investment in restoration of degraded lands is greater than 4—suggesting high returns to taking action against land degradation. Action against land degradation will have far-reaching benefits for the rural poor who heavily depend on natural resources. Senegal has great potential for successfully addressing land degradation. For example, the large number of agricultural extension agents from public and private providers, promoting Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) practices, Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) and strengthening public-private partnership could help increase adoption of sustainable land management (SLM) practices. The Dankou Classified Forest investment in awareness creation of ecosystem services led to effective participation of the communities and their participation in protecting it. This demonstrates that awareness creation is a key strategy for ensuring community involvement in protecting natural resources.

Land degradation is a serious impediment to improving rural livelihoods in Tanzania and Malawi. This paper identifies major land degradation patterns and causes, and analyzes the determinants of soil erosion and sustainable land management (SLM) in these two countries. The results show that land degradation hotspots cover about 51 and 41 % of the terrestrial areas in Tanzania and Malawi, respectively. The analysis of nationally representative household surveys shows that the key drivers of SLM in these countries are biophysical, demographic, regional and socio-economic determinants. Secure land tenure, access to markets and extension services are major factors incentivizing SLM adoption. The implications of this study are that policies and strategies that facilitate secure land tenure and access to SLM information are likely to stimulate investments in SLM. Local institutions providing credit services, inputs such as seed and fertilizers, and extension services must be included in the development policies. Following a Total Economic Value approach, we find that the annual cost of land degradation due to land use and land cover change during the 2001–2009 period is about $244 million in Malawi and $2.3 billion in Tanzania (expressed in constant 2007 USD). These represent about 6.8 and 13.7 % of GDP in Malawi and Tanzania, respectively. Use of land degrading practices in croplands (maize, rice and wheat) resulted in losses amounting to $5.7 million in Malawi and $1.8 million in Tanzania. Consequently, we conclude that the costs of action against land degradation are lower than the costs of inaction by about 4.3 times in Malawi and 3.8 times in Tanzania over the 30 year horizon. This implies that a dollar spent to restore/rehabilitate degraded lands returns about 4.3 dollars in Malawi and 3.8 dollars in Tanzania, respectively. Some of the actions taken by communities to address the loss of ecosystem services or enhance or maintain ecosystem services improvement include afforestation programs, enacting of bylaws to protect existing forests, area closures and controlled grazing, community sanctions for overgrazing, and integrated soil fertility management in croplands.