Introduction to Drylands: building climate resilience, productivity and equity

The drylands are home to 2.3 billion people and cover about 40% of the Earth’s land surface. They play an important role in trade, tourism, migration and environmental services, such as carbon sequestration. Dryland communities have learnt to adapt this environment and have developed sustainable livelihoods. But policymakers have many misconceptions about drylands, and few government policies support dryland communities' own strategies.

A woman stands with her goats in a dryland area in Niger (Photo: Stephen Anderson)

Through research, training and advocacy, we aim to build climate resilience, productivity and equity in the drylands. In particular, we aim to:

Challenge the misconceptions that let policymakers view drylands as unproductive wastelands and pastoralism as a backward and unproductive land use system
Make sure knowledge about drylands becomes a mainstream asset of government institutions and civil society advocacy groups by documenting and disseminating research findings to influence policy at national and international levels – for example, with our partners we have researched the total economic value of pastoralist systems, called for a new, more equitable and sustainable, policy narrative for drylands, and developed training in sustainable pastoralism to build capacity in dryland communities and policymakers
Help sub-national and national governments make their development planning for drylands more resilient to climate change, and
Advocate at the global level for policies and laws that support climate adaptive management. We engage with established networks and coalitions to influence policy, for example through the Coalition of European Lobbies in support of East African Pastoralism.