Dryland Forests in a Changing Climate: Strategies for Drought, Dieback and Tree Mortality

Drylands are not marginal landscapes. They cover approximately 41 % of the Earth's land surface, are home to around 2 billion people. They sustain nearly half of global livestock systems, and contain more than 1.1 billion hectares of forest.

These landscapes function as interconnected mosaics of forests, rangelands, and agrosilvopastoral systems that sustain food systems, biodiversity, livelihoods, and climate resilience across some of the world's most climate-exposed regions.

Yet these systems are under intensifying pressure from hotter droughts, degradation, wildfire, invasive species, and increasing tree mortality. Across many regions, drought is no longer simply reducing productivity - it is pushing ecosystems toward ecological tipping points.

And in drylands, forest decline rapidly becomes a food security and resilience crisis. When forests weaken, communities lose fodder, wild foods, woodfuel, biodiversity habitat, and critical buffers against climatic shocks.

This is why dryland forests matter far beyond the forestry sector alone. They sit at the nexus of the three Rio Conventions by contributing simultaneously to climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and land restoration.

FAO's engagement is grounded in its role as a technical agency and in the experience emerging from programmatic and integrated programmes with focus on dryland forests such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-7 Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program currently active across 11 countries in Africa and Asia.

What makes this program particularly important is that it moves beyond isolated pilot projects toward regional and scalable solutions through a practical "Collect-Act-Track" approach.

First, we Collect better integrated evidence and strengthen monitoring systems. We cannot manage what we do not measure.

Second, we Act through integrated landscape interventions. We have learned that technical forestry measures alone are not enough. Assisted Natural Regeneration must be paired with on-farm resilience building, including sustainable grazing management, agroforestry, and community seed banks for drought-resilient crops and trees. Without viable alternatives during drought periods, pressure on forests intensifies rapidly.

And third, we Track ecological change and resilience outcomes over time, ensuring that restoration efforts remain adaptive, evidence-based, and scalable.

Experiences emerging from the Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program, increasingly show that success depends on three interconnected pillars:

robust governance;
effective early warning systems;
and active rehabilitation capacity.

Countries such as Zimbabwe within the Miombo-Mopane dryland forests are already demonstrating how dryland forest restoration can simultaneously support climate resilience, food security, biodiversity, and livelihoods through integrated approaches linking community seed banks, agroforestry, sustainable land management, and non-wood forest products.

For example, in Guatemala, integrated dryland and forest landscape management is strengthening community forestry, restoration, and resilience of agrosilvopastoral systems, while Israel's long-standing work on dryland forestry, water-efficient restoration, and adaptive forest management offers valuable lessons on managing tree mortality risks and sustaining forest functions under chronic water stress.

FAO members discuss forest management and drylands through its unique Technical Committee on Forestry, especially through the Working Group on Drylands and Agrosilvopastoral Systems.

FAO remains committed to working with countries and partners to ensure that dryland forest and rangeland systems and the communities who steward them can continue to thrive in a changing climate.

Thank you.