The degradation of land and water resources resulting primarily from agricultural activities has had enormous impact on human society. In order to alleviate this problem an advanced understanding of the state of our resources and the process of degradation is needed. Conserving Land, Protecting Water includes an overview of existing literature focusing on global patterns of land and water degradation and discussions of new insights drawn from successful case studies on reversing soil and water degradation and their impact on food and environmental security. ; Conserving Land, Protecting Water includes an overview of existing literature focusing on global patterns of land and water degradation and discussions of new insights drawn from successful case studies on reversing soil and water degradation and their impact on food and environmental security. ;

• Part 1: Land and Water Degradation: Assessment and Issues
• 1.1: Learning from bright spots to enhance food security and to combat degradation of water and land resources.
• 1.2: Land degradation and water productivity in agricultural landscapes.
• 1.3: Land Degradation, ecosystem services and resilience of smallholder farmers in Makanya catachment, Tanzania.
• 1.4: Political ecologies of bright spots
• 1.5: Large scale fluxes of crop nutrients in food cause environmental problems at the sources and at sinks
• 1.6: Carbon sequestration, land degradation and water
• Part 2: Towards Better Land and Water Management
• 2.1: Local Innovation in ‘Green Water’ Management
• 2.2: Sustainability and Resilience of the Urban Agricultural Phenomenon in Africa
• 2.3: Safeguarding water resources by making the land greener: knowledge management through WOCAT
• 2.4: Bright basins - do many bright spots make a basin shine?
• 2.5: The influence of plant cover structures on water fluxes in agricultural landscapes
• 2.6: Investments in collective capacity and social capital
• Part 3: ‘ Bright Spots’
• 3.1: ‘Bright spots’: Pathways to ensuring food security and environmental integrity
• 3.2: Ecosystem benefits of ‘Bright Spots’