GEF-7 Drylands Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program

The DSL-IP in numbers

With USD 104 million funding under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) -7 funding circle, along with over 800 million co-financing, the Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes aims to move the needle on Global Environmental Benefits (GEBs), and is assisting 11 countries across Africa and Asia in: a) fostering resilience of production systems in drylands; b) promoting restoration and rehabilitation; and c) improving livelihoods through a comprehensive landscape approach. 

Program goals

Reach close to 1 million direct beneficiaries and bring 12 million hectares of drylands under sustainable land management, including 1.1 million hectares primarily benefitting biodiversity and preventing deforestation of 10,000 hectares of high conservation-value forests.
Improve management effectiveness in 1.6 million hectares of protected areas and restore 0.9 million hectares of degraded land in the drylands. All these activities will result in total greenhouse gas emission reductions of 34.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).
Engage with many other countries facing similar challenges to generate more global environmental benefits, while scaling up and out effective approaches.

Why do we need immediate actions in drylands?

Climate change, food insecurity, and biodiversity loss are becoming increasingly important drivers of land degradation. The process of land degradation is particularly acute in the drylands, which are home to more than 2 billion people and contain 44 percent of the world's agriculturally productive land. Accounting for more than 40 percent of the global terrestrial area, dryland landscapes are important to the functioning of many ecosystem services.

What is the added value of the DSL-IP?

a) highlight the importance of transboundary commitment towards dryland restoration, landscape management at scale, and biodiversity conservation ; b) scale out evidence of good practices through effective knowledge exchange mechanisms and adaptive learning; c) implement harmonized systems for mapping and monitoring landscapes to generate synergies ; while also limiting the risk of duplication or conflicts between projects; and d) support countries in achieving their Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets.

Who is involved?

The DSL-IP is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and led by FAO in close partnership with the GEF implementing agencies the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and other core partners including the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and core knowledge hubs. The program will assist 11 countries located across Africa and Asia.

Tackling common management challenges in drylands

The program is fostering resilience of agro-ecological systems and forests in three geographic clusters of drylands: Miombo/Mopane of Southern Africa, Savannas of East and West Africa, and temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands of Central Asia. Designed to deliver scalability beyond the boundaries of the 11 targeted countries, this intervention places a particular emphasis on common management challenges, recognizing the importance of transboundary commitment towards dryland restoration, landscape management at scale, and biodiversity conservation. 