ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the backdrop to and substance of the outcomes of COP14, why they matter for all governments, especially countries such as India with large rural populations where droughts are increasingly recurrent, more widespread and getting more severe. It details some of the policies that prescribe actions (decisions) that countries have agreed to undertake, including new and emerging issues identified by scientists. These policies would both benefit India’s future path to a green economy and development and help move the world from its thus far self-destructive growth path. The meaning of land degradation neutrality is explained as well as its potential for rapid transformative change and the causes of land degradation, especially with regard to unsustainable consumption and production. It shows India’s critical position in leading global change and the domestic benefits it stands to gain. The end game of restoring degraded land globally is to achieve five strategic objectives over the next decade: decreasing the proportion of the poor population located in the world’s degraded or dryland areas, enabling ecosystems affected by land degradation to recover, helping communities in all regions affected by drought to become more resilient, working in partnership to achieve these goals and ensuring the benefits of this global collaboration reach both local communities and those far away.
