LocationsHelping communities foster resilience and reduce the pressures that fuel conflict
Restoring land, building peace
August 18, 2026
Restoration of degraded marshes in southern Iraq allows communities to remain on the land that they have occupied for millenia.
Photo: UNDP Iraq
Healthy land underpins food production, livelihoods, biodiversity and human well-being. But today, climate change, unsustainable land use and increasingly frequent droughts are placing growing pressure on land-based ecosystems.
It is estimated that up to 40 per cent of the world's land is degraded, affecting 3.2 billion people. Droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, reducing agricultural productivity and shrinking freshwater resources.
When droughts become longer and land less productive, communities that rely on farming and pastoralism have fewer options to earn a living, and competition over land and water can increase, leading to instability and violence.
In places already facing conflict and fragility, these challenges become even more difficult to address. Conflicts can displace people, disrupt food production, damage infrastructure, and weaken local institutions that manage shared resources. As livelihoods disappear, people struggle to recover and restore degraded land, leaving them less prepared for future shocks.
Land restoration in such crisis contexts is a vital tool for peacebuilding. By restoring ecosystems, reviving livelihoods and strengthening sustainable resource management, it helps communities build resilience and reduce pressures that fuel conflict.
Frequent droughts are exacerbating water shortages in central Mail.
Photo: UNDP Mali
Shared landscapes, shared futures
Many of the world's most important ecosystems extend beyond national borders. Rivers, mountain ranges, forests and grasslands support the lives and livelihoods of communities equally, making their sustainable management a shared responsibility.
Central Asia’s Ferghana Valley, stretching across the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is one of the most densely populated areas in the region. But today, soil erosion and severe water scarcity are pushing farming and herding communities to the brink.
Accelerated glacier melt reduces water availability, while unsustainable land use contributes to soil degradation, turning arable land into deserts. These ecological stresses frequently exacerbate localized tensions, turning land and water into potential flashpoints for cross-border conflict.
Accelerated melting of glaciers is leading to water scarcity in the Ferghana Valley, which stretches acros the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Photo: UNDP Kyrgyzstan
The Peace Forest Initiative by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) with UNDP as a partner, brings together governments, local authorities and communities to restore degraded landscapes while strengthening the sustainable management of shared natural resources across Central Asia.
In the Ferghana Valley, the programme is restoring degraded pastures and promoting sustainable grazing practices to reduce pressure on degraded land. Reforestation and reinforcement of riverbeds are reducing soil erosion and mudflows. Water-efficient irrigation is helping communities make better use of scarce water resources while building trust across borders.
When communities work together to restore shared landscapes, healthier ecosystems strengthen resilience, foster cooperation and contribute to more peaceful futures.
Restoration and efficient use of land and water resources is reviving agricultural productivity in the Ferghana Valley.
Photo: UNDP Tajikistan
In Kyrgyzstan, water-efficient irrigation is helping communities make better use of scarce water resources.
Photo: UNDP Kyrgyzstan
Empowering women, anchoring communities
Wetlands are among the most productive natural ecosystems. They filter water, store carbon, protect against floods and droughts and provide food and livelihoods. In southern Iraq, the Mesopotamian Marshes have sustained the Marsh Arab communities and their predecessors for millennia. But decades of conflict, upstream water shortages and recurring drought have dramatically reduced water levels, threatening traditional livelihoods such as fishing, buffalo herding and reed harvesting.
This environmental collapse is driving a quiet crisis of displacement. As fishing and livestock herding become unviable, families are left with a painful choice. Men are forced to migrate to violence-affected urban centres in search of manual labour, leaving women behind on the frontlines of a degraded landscape. This climate-driven separation fractures families and places an immense, unequal burden on the women left to navigate resource scarcity alone.
The Mesopotamian Marshes in southern Iraq, one of the oldest inhabited landscapes in the world, are threatened by climate change.
Photo: UNDP Iraq
As southern Iraq's marshes dray up, men are forced to migrate to find work, placing the burden on women to sustain their families in a resource scarce environment.
Photo: UNDP Iraq
Yet in the heart of these drying marshes, women are reclaiming their future. Supported by rehabilitation projects, they are reviving indigenous crafts, such as weaving reeds and palm leaves into marketable goods, and producing artisanal dairy to generate income. These livelihoods help families remain on their ancestral lands.
By restoring traditional, climate-resilient livelihoods, these women are keeping their communities intact, reducing climate-induced displacement, and preserving social cohesion in one of the world's oldest inhabited landscapes.
Reviving traditional crafts ensures income for the women of Iraq's marshes, while also conserving a traditional practice.
Photo: UNDP Iraq
Finding common ground
Across drylands, farming and pastoralism have long coexisted through seasonal access to land and water. As climate change accelerates desertification, traditional grazing routes and watering holes dry up. This forces herders to drive their livestock to new territories, often encroaching on agricultural lands. Without established agreements to manage these shifting resource needs, this competition can quickly escalate into violence.
Africa’s Sahel region, where temperatures are rising much faster than the global average, is feeling this dynamic acutely, including the central regions of Mali, where local conflicts are directly linked to shrinking fertile land and water sources.
Combining land restoration with anticipatory action is helping mitigate these tensions. Through climate security and sustainable resource management initiatives, local authorities and communities now have weather data and early warning systems. With this information, traditional mediators, Community Reconciliation Committees and community leaders step in proactively, negotiating equitable resource-sharing agreements between farmers and herders.
By tying these peace agreements to land restoration efforts, such as reviving degraded pastures and water bodies, communities are using climate adaptation as a conflict-prevention tool.
With advance weather information and early warning, communities can better prepare for climate shocks.
Photo: UNDP Mali
From restoration to resilience
As climate change and conflict become increasingly interconnected, land restoration is emerging as a powerful catalyst for stability. By investing in healthy ecosystems alongside inclusive governance and resilient livelihoods, countries and communities can reduce climate-related risks while creating lasting opportunities for peace and sustainable development.
In Kyrgyzstan, participatory management of rangelands promotes trust and cooperation between communities.
Photo: UNDP Kyrgyzstan
Equitable sharing of natural resources is contributing to peacebuilding and social cohesion in central Mali.
Photo: UNDP Mali
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