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.
View some of our latest news!
TERRASAFE on the global stage at UNCCD CoP 16
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) held its 16th Conference of the Parties (CoP 16) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2nd to 13th December 2024. These global political discussions brought together representatives from the European Union and all...
TERRASAFE celebrates World Soil Day by launching our first newsletter!
We’re delighted to mark World Soil Day 2024 by launching the first issue of the TERRASAFE newsletter. This inaugural edition marks the beginning of our journey - working with communities in southern Europe and North Africa to combat desertification by co-testing...
TERRASAFE hosts training workshop in Cyprus
During November 2024, we brought together a group of interdisciplinary desertification experts from Cyprus, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Tunisia, and The Netherlands for a TERRASAFE EU WOCAT-QM Training Workshop at The Cyprus Institute! WOCAT-QM is an evaluation...
Our Project
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 contextt, so solutions to prevent and reverse it must consider local social, economic, environmental and political conditions. In a multi-actor stakeholder approach TERRASAFE will actively involve local communities of landowners and other stakeholders in decision-making processes on viable desertification prevention and restoration measures. This collaborative approach, supported by scientifically sound and robust tools and guidelines tailored by the local communities to their specific circumstances, 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
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Pilot Areas
TERRASAFE is working in 5 pilot areas which represent the full range of major desertification types and also cover a wide range of land cover and management systems. The principal desertification threats that the pilot areas cover are:

Italy
land abandonment and depopulation

Romania
Vegetation
decline

Spain
Water
scarcity

Cyprus
Soil degradation through soil organic matter decline

Tunisia
Soil degradation through salinization