Land degradation is a global problem and particularly exacerbated in semi-arid and dryland landscapes. Poor land use and management result in global losses of ecosystem service values from USD 6.2 to 10.3 trillion annually1. In many places like sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, more than half of the land is constrained by poor soil quality2, and 12 million hectares of land are degraded annually where 20 million tons of grain could have been grown instead3. Land degradation is increasingly a significant issue for the private sector, as it impacts the supply chain at various entry points and detracts from profits and longterm stability. A core issue is that the multiple benefits generated by productive landscapes are not appropriately valued. However, these values can be incorporated through natural capital (i.e., the stock of natural resources producing a flow of ecosystem service benefits to humans), including the economic value that land represents beyond the financial price of goods and many other ecosystem services which impact businesses indirectly as well, such as recreational values or flood and erosion control.
