Key messages

• Drylands cover 6.1 billion hectares, making up 41 % of the Earth’s land surface, characterized by water scarcity. They cover more than 100 countries across regions and are the basis for livelihoods of more than 2 billion people.
• Trees and forests in drylands generate a wealth of environmental services, they provide habitats for biodiversity, protect against water and wind erosion and desertification, help water infiltrate soils and contribute to soil fertility.
• Trees and forests in drylands help increase the resilience of landscapes and communities in the face of climate change.
• Drylands contain 1.11 billion hectares of forests (18% of the global drylands area and 27% of the global forest area), 1.8 billion of grasslands (31% of the global dryland area), 0.86 billion hectares of cropland (14% of the global dryland area). 
• Trees are present on 1.9 billion ha of the world’s drylands.
• Land degradation in drylands, commonly referred to as desertification, almost always begins with the removal and degradation of vegetation including forests and grasslands.
• In Africa, drylands (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid) comprise 43 % of the continent’s land area, and are inhabited by farmers, herders and pastoralists whose livelihoods heavily depend on the goods and services provided by forests, trees, shrublands, farmlands, and grazing lands.
• The long-term sustainability of dryland forests is in jeopardy due to population increase, growing demand for natural resources, poverty, social conflicts, lack of market opportunities and technical capacity, lack of appropriate policies, governance and investments and lack of integration among different sectors.
• Climate change affects dryland forests and people as it exacerbates all these negative human-related factors.

Videos

 More videos

Publications

More publications

Press releases and editorials

More press releases

Expert interviews

Audio

Interivew with FAO's Nora Berrahmouni on Drylands: forests and land use 
TARGET Zero Hunger podcase: Remote sensing and agriculture
"Recipes" exist to combat desertification