• Ecosystems are subject to many pressures, such as land-use changes, deposition of nutrients and pollutants, harvesting, grazing by livestock, introduction of exotic species, and natural climate variability.

• As the rainfall decreased, the cattle could no longer find enough food and the grazing land thus transformed back into desert.

• Forests, agricultural lands, and other terrestrial ecosystems offer significant carbon sinks mitigation potential through changes in land use (i.e., afforestation and reforestation), avoided deforestation, and agriculture, grazing land, and forest management.