Land degradation is a serious threat to long-term food security. To resolve the paradox of growing land values in the face of continually low investment levels, research-based policy action is needed. With this in mind, IFPRI and the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn (ZEF) researchers, with support from BMZ and later from the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), gathered and analyzed existing knowledge on land degradation as part of the Economics of Land Degradation initiative.