Land degradation and desertification present great challenges for human development worldwide. It is crucial to ensure the continued provision of ecosystem services related to soil conservation, such as moderation of extreme events, prevention of erosion and maintenance of fertility to meet the needs of the growing number of inhabitants of the planet. Land degradation nowadays costs more than 10% of the annual global GDP in lost ecosystem services, such as the prevention of runoff from harmful nutrients to streams or the reduction of flood effects (IPBES 2018). This is why the Project IKI IBA, in association with the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative, agreed to carry out joint actions to boost the training of key actors in the methodology of economic valuation of the impact of land degradation, so that this information contributes with inputs to the planning and decision-making instruments in Mexico.
Between October 28 and November 7, training was conducted on the ELD methodology for the economic valuation of soil degradation, in the cities of Oaxaca and CDMX: one for professional experts, resource managers and decision makers, and another aimed at experts with strong competencies in environmental economics. During these activities, the best options were discussed and potential partners were detected for a study of economic valuation of land degradation, highlighting the state of Oaxaca as the site with the greatest amount of base information for the Mixteca region.
Based on the results of these workshops, a collaboration proposal will be made with the government of the state of Oaxaca, so that the recommendations obtained from a potential economic valuation study of the Mixteca soils can be incorporated in the best way to the decision of management of the territory.
The ELD initiative, which is funded by BMZ, is an international collaboration that performs a global assessment of land degradation from an economic perspective. The IKI IBA Project will continue to collaborate with this initiative to achieve its objectives.
