Desertification is gaining ground but solutions exist
Human activities and urbanization are also a factor of soil degradation, as well as climate change and droughts which will be more and more frequent and intense.
© Getty Images/Cavan Images RF/Norbert Achtelik
Text by: Jeanne Richard Follow
4 mins
The United Nations Convention against Desertification publishes this Thursday, April 27 a report to take stock of land degradation in the world and propose solutions.
Today, up to 40% of the land surface is degraded.
The scientists propose several action scenarios in this report, published a few days before the desertification COP.
The meeting of representatives of 197 States in Abidjan from May 9 to 20 who will try to agree on the fight against soil degradation at the global level.
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Today, one in two people is affected by land degradation, when the soil loses its capacity to produce food, pure water or healthy habitats for humans and all biodiversity.
As climate change and droughts promise to worsen the situation, the second edition of the 'Global Soil Outlook' report aims to take stock of the situation and explore what the future holds.
After 5 years of research, scientists are proposing three action scenarios.
The first, “business as usual” projects us into 2050, as if nothing in our consumption and production patterns had changed.
It is then to be expected that soil degradation will gain ground, the equivalent of the surface of the South American continent would be degraded.
With a vicious circle of increasing world population, productivity, loss of soil fertility, erosion and greenhouse gas emissions.
Restore 5 billion hectares
In question, according to Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), our model of agriculture, to feed people and livestock.
“
Up to 70% of the water used is for agricultural purposes and 80% of deforestation is due to agriculture
.
» Human activities and urbanization are also a factor of soil degradation, as well as climate change and droughts which will be more and more frequent and intense.
A second “restoration” scenario is presented in the report.
It proposes to restore 50 million km² of degraded land, or 35% of the surface of the Globe.
(Currently, States have committed to restoring 10 million km 2 by 2030, the equivalent of the surface area of the United States or China).
The objective is to "
restore natural environments, ensure better agricultural production and thus make the economy healthier
", explains Ibrahim Thiaw.
Indeed, by restoring the land, the soil is more fertile and it is a gain for the GDP of the States, according to him.
🚨 The 2nd edition of the #GlobalLandOutlook is AVAILABLE.
This new report outlines the enabling factors and pathways for countries to successfully reverse land degradation by designing and implementing their own land restoration programs.
🔗https://t.co/tKe3pc14WF pic.twitter.com/IK2S9j9LjF
— Ibrahim Thiaw (@ibrahimthiaw) April 27, 2022
Migration crisis and water wars
The third “conservation” scenario takes up the restoration program, but also aims for the massive creation of protected areas, the equivalent of the area of India and Pakistan (4 million km²).
“
It's an ideal scenario
” for Ibrahim Thiaw, because it would protect biodiversity, increase water resources, fight against climate change and thus “
solve some current global crises
.
Studies link land degradation to migration, he notes.
"
When you have nothing left to produce at home, you have no choice but to migrate.
Land degradation also has consequences on security with conflicts of use between herders and farmers.
This is what we observe in the Sahel or in the Middle East with the struggles for access to water and arable land.
»
The authors of the report have therefore analyzed a hundred methods, different according to location and context, to successfully restore already degraded land.
Agroforestry or soil conservation techniques in agriculture that allow production without damaging ecosystems.
Pastoralism with the meshing of water points in arid zones to limit erosion by preventing too many cattle from always trampling the same place.
Redirect funding
Implementing this change in production mode therefore requires significant resources.
1,600 billion dollars just to restore 10 million km² while the UN wants to rehabilitate five times more.
"
The important
thing , underlines the executive secretary of the UNCCD,
is that the report does not necessarily ask for public funds which should be transferred from North to South as is often the case
".
These 1,600 billion dollars, “
is a fifth of the subsidies allocated to fossil fuels and intensive agriculture
” which lead to land degradation and climate change.
According to Ibrahim Thiaw,
investments can be made in northern countries since soil degradation affects the entire planet.
The money can also be invested by the private sector, because they are the ones doing the farming, not the governments.
And it is rather an investment to return productivity to the land, to be able to produce again, for agriculture or ecotourism, etc.
".
According to the report, a dollar invested generates between 7 and 30 dollars of income.
What remains is the necessary awareness and political will.
The UNCCD report should indeed fuel the discussions during COP 15 (Conference of the Parties) dedicated to desertification, which is due to open on May 9 in Côte d'Ivoire.
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