TERRASAFE

One of our pilot areas is Italy, where physical pressures of desertification have been exacerbated by a decline in populations and land abandonment. We have chosen therefore to focus on community.

Read more here buff.ly/00jqMgM

What does desertification feel like to those coping with it? Spanish farmers José and Juan work with TERRASAFE researchers to implement innovations to combat desertification, and here they talk about what's happening to the landscape as desertification accelerates.

#desertification #climatechange

Carob is the new future-food - nutritious, tasty and, because it can survive on just 250 millimetres of rainfall per year, a crop than can be grown in dryland areas.

Head over to our blog to read all about this new superfood 🍪 terrasafe.eu/2026/01/30/c...

#desertification #superfoods #farming

The floods in Valencia, Spain in 2024 showed that drought and floods come together as #climatechange impacts. In Murcia, Spain, José Méndez has developed a tool to create dips in the earth that can help prevent run-off.

#desertification #EUHorizon

José and Juan are two of the farmers working with TERRASAFE researchers on strategies to combat desertification. In this video, they talk about why it's so important to work with others to learn, and what saving the soil means to them and future generations.

#desertification #soilscience

Delivering meaningful change to combat soil degradation requires a transdisciplinary approach - working across research disciplines and through non-academic ideas and people.

This briefing note beings together lessons from recent EU-funded projects.

buff.ly/st0hHTv

Green walls and straw checkerboards: Global efforts towards reversing desertification | TERRASAFE by Deborah Talbot | Dec 11, 2025 | Blog, News | 0 comments

Our latest blog, written by placement student Andrew Arkle, looks at three initiatives to reverse dertification - the Great Green Wall (Africa), the Loess Plateau (China), and Ningxia Hui (China).

buff.ly/9IpAI7y

#soilscience #innovation #horizoneurope

Call for abstracts! Deadline 15th Jan - ‘Innovations to assess, combat and prevent land degradation and desertification’

We are convening a session at the EGU26 Assembly in Vienna, 3-8 May 2026, and we'd love to receive proposals for contributions.

See more details on LinkedIn: buff.ly/z72pA9g

We’re proud to tell you about ISOTECH’s Circular Compost Scheme in Cyrpus, whose symbiotic green waste management system turns garden and pruning waste into high-quality compost.
Local farmers are co-owners, they bring in green waste and take back compost for free.

#TERRASAFE #HorizonEU

Happy holidays and a wonderful New Year to everyone!

It locks carbon into the soil, reducing CO₂ emissions and strengthening climate resilience.

Ecochar is being tested in Cyprus, Romania, and Spain.

#TERRASAFE #Ecochar #Biochar #SoilRestoration #Desertification #HorizonEU #ClimateAction

Imflorestal’s Ecochar is a biochar-compost mix developed by Imflorestal to restore degraded soils, reducing the need for water and fertilisers.

This soil enhancer boosts root growth, improves water retention, and helps cut fertiliser use by up to 40%.

Our Director, @proflinds.bsky.social, had a great week representing @desertificationeu.bsky.social at a UNCCD CRIC23 joint side event.

Key discussions on #landtenure, #gender, #drought, #finance + Rio synergies in combating land degradation.

YESI at the heart of global environmental policy! 🌍🌱

Read our latest bumper newsletter to find out more about our progress and community engagement on TERRASAFE.

terrasafe.eu/news/newslet...

Retentis is the gel developed by Agrobiogel, one of the innovations being tested in the TERRASAFE project.

In the TERRASAFE project, Retentis is being tested in Cyprus, Romania, Spain, and Tunisia, places where water scarcity and land degradation are real challenges.

As Member States begin the process of transposing the directive into national law, three Horizon Europe projects—TRAILS4SOIL, EUROSION, and @desertificationeu.bsky.social —have started generating the tools, data, and governance models that can support implementation.

Isotech, one of the TERRASAFE project’s innovation partners, has carried out its first visit to the Tunisian pilot site.

Head to the link to read the full blog:
terrasafe.eu/2025/11/06/f...

🌾 In Italy, desertification isn’t just about dry soil, it’s about empty villages.
As people leave for the cities, rural life fades and the land suffers.

To change this, TERRASAFE is testing two social innovations that reinvigorate rural communities:

TERRASAFE has selected new and promising innovations to test across some of the most vulnerable landscapes in southern Europe and Tunisia. Together with local farmers, we are going to be learning what truly works to make land more resilient.

#desertification #soilscience

🌍 #CENTAUR joined the #EOTEC_DevNet Regional Meet-up on Drought Impact Monitoring!

Koen De Vos from #VITO presented CENTAUR’s approach to forecasting agricultural drought impacts, supporting anticipatory action on droughts through #HorizonEU research.

🔗 centaur-horizon.eu/news/centaur...

Farmers in Spain are swapping almond trees for Carob, a hardy crop that thrives in drier climates and in the face of local desertification. 💧☀️

Francisco Pedrero, researcher at the Segura Centre for Soil Science and Applied Biology (CEBAS), tells us why in this video.

#HorizonEU #MissionSoil #Spain

How can we reduce depopulation-driven desertification? Policy recommendations | TERRASAFE

🎴 Depopulation as a driver of #desertification with the loss of these people, we also lose knowledge of how to sustain vibrant agricultural landscapes.

Read these policy recommendations by @desertificationeu.bsky.social 👇

Studying land productivity gives us a clearer view of desertification.

In our latest blog, Andreas Savvides & Adriana Bruggeman explain how watching productivity changes over time gives us a window into the health of ecosystems and farmland.

terrasafe.eu/2025/10/08/b...

Water harvesting technologies are one important tool in the battle against desertification.

Here at TERRASAFE, we’re busy investigating a range of other innovations to combat desertification. We’ve got some big news coming up soon on our progress, so stay tuned to find out more!

💧 This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners are responsible for incredible materials that can extract drinking water from dry desert air 🌵

A big congratulations to the scientists, Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson & Omar M. Yaghi, on their award!

More info: www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemi...

Event: the International Conference on “Soil & Water Resources Management for Combating #Desertification in Drylands under Climate Change” (SWDCC2026) will be held in Djerba Island, Tunisia, 15-18 May 2026.

Submit your abstracts & register here: swdcc-conferences.com

Murcia, Spain, is one of the driest regions in Europe. #Desertification leaves much farmland bare.

José Méndez & Juan Andrés are two of the farmers working with TERRASAFE researchers in the region. Here they explain what desertification means for them and other farmers in Murcia.

#HorizonEurope

How can we reduce depopulation-driven desertification? Policy recommendations | TERRASAFE

🎴 Depopulation as a driver of #desertification with the loss of these people, we also lose knowledge of how to sustain vibrant agricultural landscapes.

Read these policy recommendations by @desertificationeu.bsky.social 👇

🥗 4 food-related interventions could cut land degradation by over half.

That's according to a new analysis by TERRASAFE researcher Lindsay Stringer and colleagues.

🍉 Find out what the interventions are in TERRASAFE's latest blog: terrasafe.eu/2025/09/01/t...

#foodsystems #sustainablediet

Have we missed any great resources that can help people better understand desertification and how to manage it? Let us know in the comments.

#HorizonEU #MissionSoil #Desertification
@ieep.eu @unccd.bsky.social