Land degradation refers to the reduction in the capacity of the land to provide ecosystem goods and services and assure its functions over time due to human action. As highlighted in the State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture 2025, this process is often exacerbated by natural cycles but is driven primarily by human activities, including unsustainable agricultural practices, deforestation, and industrial expansion.

The impact of land degradation is multifaceted, spanning across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. It is a core component of environmental degradation and encompasses specific crises such as desertification, pasture degradation, and rangeland degradation. Because these processes intersect with climate change and biodiversity loss, research on the topic is distributed across a wide array of disciplines from soil science and hydrology to socio-economics and international policy.

Without a unified technical language, connecting global efforts to combat these issues can be challenging. AGROVOC addresses this by providing a structured, multilingual framework for the concept of land degradation. By offering standardized terminology in over 25 languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish, AGROVOC ensures that critical data on land health is discoverable and interoperable across borders. This linguistic bridge is essential for monitoring land degradation neutrality and fostering international cooperation.

Explore the concept in AGROVOC to view its full definition, hierarchy, and cross-language mappings, and continue exploring the essential concepts that underpin the sustainability of our global land resources.