LocationsBuilding resilience rooted in landscapes
Restoring land, reducing disasters
August 19, 2026
With advanced computing infrastructure, Mongolia’s National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring is providing more accurate weather forecasts.
Photo: NAMEM
A hillside stripped of trees no longer holds back heavy rain. A dry pasture no longer sustains livestock through a harsh season. A damaged mangrove belt no longer absorbs the full force of a storm.
Where land loses its strength, risk moves in.
More than 40 percent of the world’s land is affected by degradation, weakening nature’s ability to regulate water, stabilize soils and protect people from extreme weather and climate shocks. Disasters resulting from climate sensitive hazards have increased fivefold over the past 50 years, placing greater pressure on land-based ecosystems and the communities whose food, water and livelihoods depend on them.
Forests, grasslands, wetlands and mangroves are living infrastructure. They absorb floodwater, slow erosion, retain moisture and reduce the impact of droughts and storms. When they degrade, hazards travel faster across exposed land, water supplies become less reliable and recovery becomes harder. By strengthening the systems that help communities to prepare for, withstand and recover from shocks, land restoration provides a practical pathway for disaster risk reduction and resilience.
Resilience in the rangelands
Rangelands are grasslands, shrublands and open grazing areas that feed livestock and support farming. Their health shapes daily choices; whether a family has enough fodder, water and pasture to carry it through a failed rainy season or a severe winter. As weather becomes less reliable and vegetation thins, farmers and herders must find ways to ease pressure on the land while protecting their livelihoods.
In Mongolia, stronger climate modelling and impact-based forecasting are helping rural communities prepare for droughts, dzuds (extreme cold weather), floods and heatwaves. In Zavkhan province, herder Dolgorsuren has adopted a model that reduces grazing pressure by 40 percent, giving pastures time to recover without affecting livelihoods. Buoyed by this initiative, the local administration is developing its first animal-breeding strategy to support over 670 herder households.
Across Namibia’s Nkulivere rangelands, youth groups are clearing encroacher bush–dense woody growth that crowds out other vegetation–from degraded land; cultivating hay, lucerne and buffalo grass in its place to provide fodder for grazing. At the same time, groundwater monitoring and community early-warning systems in the Cuvelai-Kunene basins are helping communities prepare for both droughts and floods.
Resilience grows when land regenerates and communities plan for what lies ahead.
Herders like Dolgorsuren are adopting livestock rearing methods that allow them to maintain their incomes.
Photo: UNDP Mongolia
Turning information into better decisions
A farm’s future depends on many decisions; what to plant, when to irrigate, how to protect soil and how to collect and use scarce water. As weather and seasons become harder to predict, communities need accurate information that reflects the changing realities of their land.
In Uzbekistan’s Khorezm region, Oychekhra Tokhirova has adapted her farm by growing capers and tomato varieties suited to sandy soils, using drip irrigation as well as climate, soil and agrometeorological information to make planting decisions. In her district, 219 farmers have taken part in training on cultivation methods suited to drylands.
In Uzbekistan’s Khozem region, Oychekhra Tokhirova is the director of the ‘Shovot-Kumtepa', a community enterprise promoting climate-resilient farming.
Photo: UNDP Uzbekistan
Southern Rwanda’s Amayaga region also faced acute degradation as fertile soils washed away and forests depleted, leading to drought. Today, more than 35,500 hectares of degraded land have been restored through agroforestry, sustainable land management and riverbank protection, improving the wellbeing of over 414,000 people, especially women. Over 6,500 farmers have been trained in climate-smart agriculture and tree husbandry, while local authorities have also acquired skills in sustainable land restoration and management.
Information gives restoration direction and it gives communities the tools to sustain it.
Community supported efforts have restored over 35,000 hectares of land in Rwanda’s Amayaga region.
Photo: Rwanda Environment Management Authority
Restoring water, reviving land
The condition of land shapes both flood and drought risk. When vegetation cover is depleted and soil loses structure and rainwater cannot be absorbed. It flows across the surface, flooding fields and washing away the fertile topsoil on which crops depend. During dry periods, depleted soils retain less moisture, exacerbate drought and reduce land productivity, degrading it even further.
On the drought-prone plains of Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak district, illegal poppy cultivation expanded because it required less water and fetched a high price. When the ban on its cultivation was strictly enforced, farmers were left with limited alternatives and insufficient water to sustain legal crops.
Today, the construction of a check dam has transformed the region. By capturing seasonal floodwater and slowing its flow, it has reduced destructive runoff and allows groundwater to recharge. Families that had nearly abandoned cultivation now grow around 25 varieties of cereals, vegetables and fruits that can be sold for a good price, carving their way out of debt, food insecurity and uncertainty.
The Inzergai check dam in Afghanistan has reduced flood and drought risks and enabled communities to start farming again.
Photo: UNDP Afghanistan
Farther west, decades of drought and climate impacts pushed Yemen’s Al-Gharegah village to the brink. Irrigation systems collapsed, wells ran dry and diesel for water pumps became unaffordable, leaving the soil degraded and infested by and harmful invasive plant species.
A restored 360-metre canal has brought water back to the village, enabling 280 farmers to grow a variety of crops again, and creating jobs from canal construction. Productive land is now restoring agency among farming families, while younger generations see the possibility of a good harvest and a future.
When water is protected, it protects the land and its people.
A Yemeni farmer harvests his crop in Al-Gharegah village.
Photo: UNDP Yemen
A foundation for future
Land restoration gives communities results they can see and use; richer soils, reliable water, secure livelihoods and greater capacity to prepare for shocks. It connects decisions on the ground with the information, institutions and investment needed to sustain them. As hazards become more frequent and severe, it empowers people to protect what they depend on and build resilience rooted in the landscapes they call home.
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