Since 2006, a European Union-wide strategy on soil conservation has been in existence that is to address the complex roles that soil plays as a natural resource. However, a legally binding agreement has so far met with opposition by a blocking minority of EU Member States. Does the EU nevertheless offer prospects for soil conservation?

Every year, 13 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide; that is an area the size of Austria and Switzerland combined. 90 percent of this deforestation involves tropical forests. Forest loss has devastating effects on the climate and is the source of between 15 and 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If global warming is to be kept below the critical threshold of two degrees Celsius, forest loss and degradation must be halted without delay

In order to adequately address the important role of soils and land for sustainable development, a holistic approach is needed. This article discusses why biophysical but also socio-economic aspects have to be considered – using the example of Guatemala, one of the first countries to support the proposal to create the Sustainable Development Goals.

Desertification is nowhere more serious than in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), stretching from Pakistan in the east to Morocco in the west, and from Ethiopia and Sudan in the south to Turkey in the north. Yet, many MENA countries have successfully rehabilitated large areas. Concerted efforts can indeed stop and even reverse desertification, though their long-term success will depend on how well they manage their limited water resources.

The tsunami disaster on 26 December 2004 claimed more than 200,000 lives. It triggered an unprecedented outpouring of reconstruction assistance from both private and public donors.The prompt provision of emergency relief averted the threat of epidemics and prevented major movements of refugees out of the affected regions. However,many of the reconstruction measures failed due to poor coordination between the actors involved and the lack of expertise underlying some of the interventions.The reconstruction effort was also very slow to get off the ground.

2005 was a year of natural disasters.The impacts of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Hurricanes Katrina and Stan, and the Pakistan earthquake prompted calls for better disaster prevention and preparedness systems. Nature's power renders us impotent, but human actions and omissions are clearly worsening the impacts of disasters in some cases.This is where risk reducing measures must lock in, as the last fifteen years of international disaster risk management show.

The economy of the Amazon region relies heavily on water for transport and livelihoods. Important also for the regional water cycle, the Amazon ecosystems are threatened by climate change, although there is little knowledge about the likelihood of adverse events and potentially related vulnerabilities. Therefore research and building up capacities for collective action are cornerstones of adaptation to climate change. Since 2008, strategic policy approaches have emerged. The region has only started to prepare itself for the things to come.

The series of dramatic natural events is never ending. 2005 again illustrated that natural disasters are unavoidable. For disaster prevention systems to function properly, investments in raising risk awareness are key.

Water and soils are increasingly becoming a limiting resource for meeting the food requirements
of a growing world population. Integrated concepts for managing natural resources in a sustainable
and environmentally sound manner show encouraging impacts, if applied on a large scale and
over a long period like in Tigray, the northernmost regional state of Ethiopia.

Rural areas are not exempted from the impacts of globalisation. Global trends affecting agriculture are particularly significant in this respect. A number of options are available to developing countries in responding to these trends. Given the scarcity of resources it is important that they choose carefully. If they fail to respond, rural areas will become even more marginalized than they are already.

If legal instruments are not fully implemented, there is a risk they remain in the domain of virtual reality and wishful thinking.The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has come a long way since it came into force in 1996, with current membership standing at 191 Parties. 2006 was a landmark year.

Two images have dominated the northern media in recent months.The first is of desolation in remote, rural areas in Africa affected by drought, conflict or famine, such as in Somalia, northern Kenya or Darfur, Sudan. The second is a different kind of desolation - that of urban squalor as portrayed in the film «The Constant Gardener». Nairobi's Kibera, which provides a backdrop for the film, is a bustling shantytown with a population of ca.