Executive Summary: Zero Net Land Degradation - A Sustainable Development Goal for Rio+20: To secure the contribution of our planet?s land and soil to sustainable development, including food security and poverty eradication

This is the executive summary leaflet of the UNCCD policy blief under the same title. New UNCCD Policy Brief, ?A Sustainable Development Goal for Rio+20: Zero Net Land Degradation,? reveals that sustainable land-use is a prerequisite for ensuring future water, food and energy security. Given the increasing pressure on land from agriculture, forestry, pasture, energy production and urbanization, urgent action is needed to halt land degradation. The brief calls the world leaders, who will gather at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil this June, to agree a sustainable goal on land: zero net land degradation. To achieve this goal, degradation of productive land should be avoided and already degraded lands need to be restored. The proposed goal is underlined by the following targets: zero net land degradation by 2030, zero net forest degradation by 2030 and drought preparedness policies implemented in all drought-prone countries by 2020.