@book{JRC42789, editor = {}, address = {Nairobi (Kenya)}, year = {2007}, author = {Brink A}, isbn = {978-92-807-2872-9}, abstract = {Since 1997, UNEP has produced Global Environment Outlook (GEO) reports providing assessments of the interactions between environment and society. With its core mandate of ¿keeping the global environment under review,¿ UNEP coordinated a series of scientific assessments that included extensive consultations and participatory processes, resulting in the production of GEO reports in 1997, 1999 and 2002. The fourth assessment, Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4), is the most comprehensive GEO process to date. It was designed to ensure synergy between science and policy, while maintaining its scientific credibility and making it responsive to policy needs and objectives. The launch in 2007 of the GEO-4 report coincides with the 20th anniversary of the launch of the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future. GEO-4 uses it as a reference to assess progress in addressing key environment and development issues. GEO-4 highlights the vital role of the environment in development and, more importantly, for human well-being. GEO-4 is more than a report: it is also a comprehensive consultative process which began in 2004. In February of that year, an intergovernmental consultation on strengthening the scientific base of UNEP, which involved more than 100 governments and 50 partner organizations, called for a further strengthening of the GEO process. The global consultation was followed by regional consultations in September-October 2004, which identified key regional and global environmental issues. Building on these consultations, the scope, objectives and process of the GEO-4 were finalized and adopted by the First Global Intergovernmental and Multistakeholder Consultation in February 2005. The assessment was carried out by 10 chapter expert groups consisting of coordinating lead authors and lead authors supported by chapter coordinators provided by the UNEP secretariat. The draft outputs from the expert groups were subjected to an additional round of regional consultations and two rounds of extensive expert and government peer review. The review process was overseen by chapter review editors. The assessment was also guided and supported by a High-level Consultative Group of senior government policy-makers, funding partners, scientists and academics as well as representatives of some UN agencies, international organizations, the private sector, GEO collaborating centres and civil society. In 10 chapters, the GEO-4 assessment provides: an overview of environmental issues; state-and-trends of the environment between 1987 and 2007; human dimensions of environmental change; an outlook for the future using four scenarios; and the policy options available to sustain our common future: Chapter 1: Environment for Development Chapter 2: Atmosphere Chapter 3: Land Chapter 4: Water Chapter 5: Biodiversity Chapter 6: Sustaining a Common Future Chapter 7: Vulnerability of People and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities Chapter 8: Interlinkages: Governance for Sustainability Chapter 9: The Future Today Chapter 10: From the Periphery to the Core of Decision Making ¿ Options for Action }, title = {Global Environment Outlook 4 - Chapter 3 - Land}, url = {http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/}, volume = {}, number = {}, journal = {}, pages = {81-114}, issn = {}, publisher = {United Nations Environment Programme}, doi = {