A herder in Mongolia does not experience land degradation as a technical concept. It is measured in grass. Enough grass means livestock survive the winter, income holds and families can remain where they have lived for generations. So when grass disappears, the consequences are not only environmental. They are economic, social and political.

For centuries, identity and ownership was measured in land. Settlers around the world claimed it. Nations expanded to gain it. Borders were drawn to control it. Wars were fought over it – and still are.

Land has always mattered, but it may not receive the right kind of attention it deserves. As governments grapple with food insecurity, displacement and intensifying climate shocks, land is emerging as a critical frontier of development policy and investment. Yet it remains absent, in these terms, from many of the highest-level, economic and political debates. That’s why COP17 is so timely.

Today, up to 40 percent of the world's land is degraded, directly affecting nearly half of humanity. Across Asia, drylands are expanding and now cover more than a third of our region’s land. Across the Pacific, communities are confronting another stark reality: not just degraded land, but land disappearing under water.

Land degradation, and in some places the loss of land itself, must be understood as more than an environmental concern. It is a political one, sitting at the intersection of issues like food security, economic opportunity, climate action and security. In other words, at the intersection of development itself. This is UNDP’s place of work: where sectors and issues intersect and receive more connected and integrated analysis and action.

It is no coincidence that COP17 took place in Mongolia. Few countries understand the consequences of the diminishing quality of land more directly. Nearly 80 percent of Mongolia's territory shows signs of degradation, while drought, desertification and increasingly severe climate shocks are reshaping livelihoods across the steppes. Yet Mongolia also shows that some of the most innovative solutions emerge precisely from the places under the greatest pressures.

If we are serious about putting land on the global political map, three dimensions deserve greater attention.

Land degradation as significant loss of development gains and value.

Too often, land degradation is described only in technical terms: declining soil quality, disappearing vegetation or increased aridity. Yet for communities, the reality is more tangible and immediate: less grass for livestock, less water for crops, greater loss of income, homesteads and likely displacement. The response therefore cannot be technical alone.

In Mongolia, UNDP is supporting land restoration with water governance, climate information services and sustainable cropping, herding and energy practices to extend economic opportunity. From climate-risk mapping that guides local investment decisions to living laboratories testing solutions to combat desertification, the efforts combine innovation, science and local knowledge to protect the livelihoods of thousands of herders.

Restoration is not simply about planting trees, important as that is. It is about creating conditions for landscapes to recover and thrive, ensuring that the right policies, financing and governance systems are in place to bring back the rich value of land.

Land under water and a question of identity

A second, increasingly urgent dimension can be found in the Pacific, where land is scarce and climate pressures are mounting. As was clear in my recent travel to Fiji, Tonga and Tuvalu, Pacific SIDS are confronting the disappearance of land.

As sea levels rise, shorelines retreat, freshwater becomes more saline and the physical boundaries of coastal communities shrink. As land disappears there, there is also a deeper loss: connections between people, place and identity; the ground on which culture, ancestral heritage and burial, memory and belonging are built.

In these countries, UNDP is working with governments and partners to strengthen coastal protection and adaptation (reclaiming land, planting mangroves, protecting coral reefs), and to address the governance challenges that accompany a changing coastline. As land is lost to the sea, questions emerge around land tenure, community boundaries, resource rights and the future management of territories that generations have called home. Maritime security connected to human security must be rethought.

So, the response cannot be environmental alone. It touches security, statehood and the future, identity and location of entire communities. What becomes land rights when land is permanently submerged? How do communities preserve their rights to land when their physical contours are dramatically shifting? From a legal perspective, rights might be recodified, boundaries remapped and ownership recorded. But from the perspective of human security and human dignity, they present unprecedented challenges.

The future of land stewardship

The third dimension is perhaps the most political of all: who gets to decide on the future governance of large tracts of land.

Farmers, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are often the stewards of public lands, including forests. Yet they are not always represented in the decisions that shape it.

Effective restoration requires investment not only in ecosystems, but also in institutions. For UNDP, this means strengthening and digitalizing land registries, improving justice mechanisms for resolving disputes, expanding access to justice, securing tenure rights, and ensuring that women and young people have a greater voice in how land is managed, restored and owned, so future generations can also enjoy its presence and value.

Across Asia and the Pacific, UNDP is working with governments to strengthen data systems, improve land management and integrate restoration into broader development planning. In India, for example, support for the country's ambitious restoration targets (26 million hectares by 2035) is helping strengthen the governance systems needed to sustain progress over decades, not just project cycles. In Nepal, community forestry models demonstrate how local communities can play a leading role in managing and restoring landscapes for future generations. In Mongolia, digital land information systems and community-based rangeland management are helping improve stewardship of fragile ecosystems.

Historically, land politics focused on ownership and control. Today, the challenge is increasingly one of land stewardship.

Land degradation may reveal itself through shrinking pasturelands, declining harvests or disappearing coastlines. But at its core, it is a question of governance, opportunity and identity.

The challenge, therefore, before us is not simply to restore land. The future of human development may well depend on how wisely we choose to govern the lands we have, using a smart mixing of traditional and modern means to do so.