19 June 2014: The Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released a policy brief outlining the results of the second phase of its Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands (SUMAMAD) project.

The policy brief highlights the link between investing in drylands and improving incomes, noting that successful solutions to drylands management are those that are not only technical, but also inclusive of social, political, economic and cultural aspects.

According to the brief, titled ‘Drylands – Sustaining Livelihoods and Conserving Ecosystem Services,’ the second phase has offered a number of lessons for future work on drylands, inter alia: policies should be forward-looking and offer a portfolio of options for investing in drylands; new and interactive platforms for knowledge-sharing are needed to bring stakeholders together; future research on development projects should aim to include all stakeholders; national seminars can be used to distribute research findings to a broader audience than that reached by scientific journals; and information exchange between scientists and policymakers improves the science-policy interface and encourages the adoption of the most promising options.

SUMAMAD’s first phase began in 2002 and focused on comparing results at various research sites, in addition to knowledge-sharing. UNESCO’s MAB is an intergovernmental programme using science for the improvement of humans’ relationship with their environment. MAB supports the sustainable development agenda by addressing scientific, environmental and societal problems in diverse ecosystems. The Institute for Water, Environment and Health of the UN University (UNU) collaborated with MAB on SUMAMAD. [UNESCO Press Release] [Publication: Drylands – Sustaining Livelihoods and Conserving Ecosystem Services]