The essence of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations is described in 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 15 focuses on Life on Land, in other words, terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as their services. Land degradation is a severe anthropic and natural phenomenon that is affecting land use/cover globally; therefore, a dedicated target of the SDG 15 (the indicator 15.3.1) was proposed. The identification of the areas where land degradation has occurred and the analysis of its drivers allow for the design of solutions to prevent further degradation in the studied areas. We followed the methodology proposed by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to study the land degradation in the Honghe Prefecture in southwest China between 2005 and 2015. Through spatial analysis, we found that the degraded areas were consistent with the areas of active human activities (such as urban centers), while the impact of natural factors (such as disasters) on land degradation existed in small areas at high altitudes. Land degradation was affected primarily by the loss of land productivity and secondly by land cover changes caused by the growth of artificial areas. Changes in the soil organic carbon were not significant. We concluded that human activity was the main driver of land degradation in Honghe Prefecture. Decision makers should work to find a balance between economic development and environmental protection to restore degraded land and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral prefecture to defend all ecosystem services.

Analysing the temporal and spatial changes in regional rainfall erosivity can reveal the formation mechanism and succession process of water and soil loss. This is particularly relevant for ecologically fragile areas, such as the Tibetan Plateau. In this study, a gravity centre model, Hovmoller diagram, wavelet analysis, Mann–Kendall test, Rescale range analysis, and Daniel’s trend test were used to analyse the spatial and temporal evolution pattern of rainfall erosivity on the Tibetan Plateau. The study used 0.25° spatial resolution data based on ERA5 correction from 1950-2020, which improved the spatial resolution and extended the time range of rainfall erosivity research on the Tibetan Plateau. The rainfall erosion in the southeast of the Tibetan Plateau was found to be severe and gradually decreased from the southeast to northwest. The average gravity centre of rainfall erosivity migrated from the southeast to the northwest. Regarding the time cycle, the average rainfall erosivity of the Tibetan Plateau changed rapidly each year, with an approximately 11-year cycle. Furthermore, the rainfall erosivity in the Tibetan Plateau showed a weak downward trend, which could continue to decrease in the future. Collectively, these results support regional ecological security and can help prepare prevention and control measures.