Synergies

Soil conservation is a global issue. Land degradation and desertification threatens the livelihoods of millions of people throughout the world as it is the root cause of many burning environmental challenges we face, such as a decline in the world‘s ecosystems and the release of carbon from soils. Therefore, land restoration offers multiple cross cutting solutions and can be the connecting piece between enhanced food security, water, biodiversity and reduced climate emissions.

Consequently, sustainable land management and land restoration is the synergetic tool to tackle many of these issues.

In Iceland, soil conservation and ecosystem restoration are seen as key pathways to those goals. Recently, more emphasis has been on restoring the native woodlands on degraded lands. In many locations this can improve the resilience of the ecosystems to tephra flow from volcanic eruptions.