Environmental degradation and climate change pose significant challenges to human security and sustainable economic and human development. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global warming is accelerating the degradation of drylands and other ecosystems prone to deforestation, salinization, soil erosion and desertification. In affected areas the globe over, both lives and productivity levels are increasingly at risk, with more and more devastating extreme events such as heat waves, floods and droughts taking place, and with sea levels rising along low-lying coastal areas.