about TERRASAFE
Our Project
TERRASAFE is a major 5-year research project (running 2024-2029) investigating innovations for preventing and reversing desertification.
Desertification, as defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), is the degradation of land in drylands caused by factors such as climate variations and human activities. In Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, about 25% of the land is highly or very highly vulnerable to degradation. This vulnerability is expected to worsen with future climate change and continued pressures from current land use practices.
Land degradation varies greatly depending on the specific context, so solutions to prevent and reverse it must consider local social, economic, environmental and political conditions.
We work closely with community members, including landowners and local authorities, in vulnerable regions of Europe and north Africa to discover, together, which interventions are best suited to their circumstances.
Our collaborative approach, supported by scientifically sound and robust tools and guidelines tailored by the local communities, will enhance desertification resilience and lead to transformative positive impacts.
ITALY PILOT AREA
Land abandonment and depopulation
ROMANIA PILOT AREA
Vegetation decline
SPAIN PILOT AREA
Water Scarcity
TUNISIA PILOT AREA
Soil degradation through salinization
CYPRUS PILOT AREA
Soil degradation through soil organic matter decline
WHAT IS OUR OVERARCHING GOAL?
The overarching goal of TERRASAFE is to significantly empower local communities in southern Europe and northern Africa to confront the growing threats of desertification, particularly accelerated by climate change. This will be achieved by co-developing, co-implementing, co-assessing cost-effectiveness, co-demonstrating, co-disseminating, and co-promoting the widespread adoption of nature-based, technological, and social innovations for land degradation prevention and restoration.
Desertification innovation partnerships
TERRASAFE will work with 5 Desertification Innovation Partnerships in five pilot areas. These partnerships will:
(i) Define their visions on building desertification resilience and plan their ensuing project work
(ii) Map and analyse past and ongoing desertification, identifying hotspots
(iii) Evaluate and demonstrate innovations at these hotspots, comparing them with traditional/organic practices
(iv) Develop policy recommendations for the wider uptake of the TERRASAFE-certified innovations, both within and beyond the pilot areas, taking into account lessons learnt from past and ongoing policies against desertification;
(v) Share their TERRSAFE’s experience with other areas, other desertification-prone communities and the general public.
key outputs of the project:
- ETERRASAFE-certified nature-based, technological and social innovations for combatting desertification.
- EDecision support tool for setting-up desertification-resilient communities
- EManual on integrated desertification assessment approach
- EPolicy recommendations for the wider uptake of the proven innovations.
View our list of Partner organisations
our impact advisory board
Our Impact Advisory Board members support TERRASAFE in its ambitions to improve desertification management. They contribute to TERRASAFE by:
- Helping shape the project’s direction for maximum relevance and impact
- Facilitating connections with external partners, communities, or end-users
- Advising on how to communicate findings for policy, practice, or public use
- Offering critical feedback from outside the core research team
