Land degradation threatens livelihoods with the potential to displace vulnerable groups, yet its impacts on migration are poorly understood as environmental migration research mainly focuses on the impacts of climate change on migration. We argue that addressing this gap is vital as land degradation poses risks for sustainability.
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Acknowledgements
D.O’B. and L.O. acknowledge support from UNEP/GEF Project 9825 ‘Large Scale Assessment of Land Degradation to Guide Future Investments in Sustainable Land Management in the Great Green Wall Countries’, and European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme. Project: ‘Linking Climate Change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points: Scenarios for Climate Migration’ (HABITABLE), grant agreement number 869395. This article contributes to the objectives of the Global Land Programme (https://glp.earth).
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K.H., D.M., L.O., D.O’B. and L.C.S. contributed to the conceptualization. K.H. led the writing and revisions. All authors contributed to the writing and revisions and gave final approval for publication.
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Nature Sustainability thanks Diana Hummel and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Hermans, K., Müller, D., O’Byrne, D. et al. Land degradation and migration. Nat Sustain 6, 1503–1505 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01231-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01231-4