Street Roots • October 20-26, 2017
News
Page 7
Nature: On the verge of bankruptcy
In a recent UN-sponsored report, the scale o f desertification and drought occurring across the globe is highlighted
BY BAHER KAMAL
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
ressures on global land resources are
now greater than ever, as a rapidly
increasing population coupled with
rising levels of consumption is placing ever-
larger demands on the world’s land-based
natural capital, warns a new United Nations
report.
Consumption of Earth’s natural reserves
has doubled in the last 30 years, with a third
of the planet’s land now severely degraded,
according to the United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Its
new report launched Sept. 12 in Ordos,
China, during the convention’s 13th summit.
“Each year, we lose 15 billion trees and
24 billion tonnes of fertile soil,” the
UNCCD’s report, “The Global Land
Outlook,” stated, adding that a significant
proportion of managed and natural
ecosystems are degrading and at further
risk from climate change and biodiversity
loss.
In basic terms, there is increasing
competition between the demand for goods
and services that benefit people, like food,
water and energy, and the need to protect
other ecosystem services that regulate and
Carcasses o f goats a n d sheep are seen Dec. 15 in the outskirts o f D ahar town o f P untland state in northeastern Somalia.
support all life on Earth.
At the same time, terrestrial biodiversity
and highly-mechanized agribusiness.
breakdown. In this regard, land degradation
South Asia, the Middle East and North
underpins all of these services and
This
widening
gulf
between
production
can be considered a ‘threat amplifier,’
Africa will face the greatest challenges due
underwrites the full enjoyment of a wide
and consumption, and ensuing levels of food
especially when it slowly reduces people’s
to a mix of factors, including high
range of human rights, such as the rights to
loss/waste, further accelerates the rate of
ability to use the land for food production
population growth, low per capita GDP,
a healthy life, nutritious food, clean water,
land use change, land degradation and
and water storage or undermines other vital
limited options for agricultural expansion,
and cultural identity, adds the report. And a
deforestation, warns the U.N. Convention.
ecosystem services.
increased water stress and high biodiversity
significant proportion of managed and
Speaking at the launch of the report,
Meanwhile, climate change will alter the
losses.
natural ecosystems are degrading and at
UNCCD Executive Secretary Monique
suitability of vast regions for food
The big question is if this self-destructive
further risk from climate change and
Barbut said, “Land degradation and drought
production and human habitation, according
trend can be reversed. The answer is yes, or
biodiversity loss.
are
global
challenges
and
intimately
linked
to the report.
at least that losses could be minimized.
The report provides some key facts: From
to
most,
if
not
all,
aspects
of
human
security
“The mass extinction of flora and fauna,
On this, Barbut said that the U.N.
1998 to 2013, approximately 20 percent of
and well-being - food security, employment
including the loss of crop wild relatives and
Convention report suggests, “It is in all our
Earth’s vegetated land surface showed
and migration, in particular.”
keystone species that hold ecosystems
interests to step back and rethink how we
persistent declining trends in productivity,
As
the
competition
increases,
there
are
together, further jeopardizes resilience and
are managing the pressures and the
apparent in 20 percent of cropland, 16
winners and losers.
adaptive capacity, particularly for the rural
competition.”
percent of forest land, 19 percent of
According the U.N. Convention, land is an
poor who depend most on the land for their
She further added, “The Outlook
grassland and 27 percent of rangeland.
essential
building
block
of
civilization
yet
its
basic needs and livelihoods,” it states.
presents a vision for transforming the way
These trends are “especially alarming” in
contribution
to
our
quality
of
life
is
Our food system, UNCCD warns, has put
in which we use and manage land because
the face of the increased demand for land
perceived and valued in starkly different and
the focus on short-term production and
we are all decision-makers and our choices
intensive crops and livestock.
often incompatible ways.
profit rather than long-term environmental
can make a difference - even small steps
Land degradation contributes to climate
A
minority
has
grown
rich
from
the
sustainability.
matter.”
change and increases the vulnerability of
unsustainable
use
and
large-scale
The modern agricultural system has
Programme Administrator Achim Steiner
exploitation of land resources with related
millions of people, especially the poor,
resulted in huge increases in productivity,
stated, “Over 250 million people are directly
conflicts intensifying in many countries,
women and children, says UNCCD, adding
holding off the risk of famine in many parts
affected by desertification, and about one
UNCCD
states.
that current management practices in the
of the world but, at the same time, is based
billion people in over 100 countries are at
Except
for
some
regions
in
Europe,
land-use sector are responsible for about 25
on monocultures, genetically modified
risk.”
human use of land before the mid-1700s was
percent of the world’s greenhouses gases,
crops, and the intensive use of fertilizers
They include many of the world’s poorest
insignificant
when
compared
with
while land degradation is both a cause and a
and pesticides that undermine long-term
and most marginalized people, he said,
contemporary
changes
in
the
Earth’s
sustainability, it adds.
result of poverty.
adding that achieving land degradation
ecosystems,
UNCCD
notes,
adding
that
the
Food production accounts for 70 percent
“Over 1.3 billion people, mostly in the
neutrality can provide a healthy and
notion
of
a
limitless,
human-dominated
of
all
freshwater
withdrawals
and
80
percent
developing countries, are trapped on
productive life for all on Earth, including
world
was
embraced
and
reinforced
by
of deforestation, while soil, the basis for
degrading agricultural land, exposed to
water and food security.
scientific
advances:
“Populations
abruptly
global food security, is being contaminated,
climate stress, and therefore excluded from
The Global Land Outlook shows that
gained
access
to
what
seemed
to
be
an
degraded
and
eroded
in
many
areas,
wider infrastructure and economic
“each of us can in fact make a difference.”
unlimited
stock
of
natural
capital,
where
resulting in long-term declines in
Can Mother Nature recover? The answer
development,” stated the report.
land
was
seen
as
a
free
gift
of
nature.”
productivity.
is a clear yes. Perhaps it would suffice that
Land degradation also triggers
The
scenario
analysis
examines
a
range
of
In
parallel,
small-scale
farmers,
the
competition for scarce resources, which can
politicians pay more attention to real human
possible
futures
and
projects
increasing
backbone
of
rural
livelihoods
and
food
real needs than promoting weapons deals —
lead to migration and insecurity while
tension
between
the
need
to
increase
food
and that big business helps replenish the
exacerbating access and income inequalities, production for millennia, are under
and
energy
production
and
declines.
immense strain from land degradation,
world’s natural capital.
the report stated.
From a regional perspective, these
insecure
tenure
and
a
globalized
food
“Soil erosion, desertification and water
scenarios predict that sub-Saharan Africa,
Courtesy o f Inter Press Service / INSP.ngo
system that favors concentrated, large-scale
scarcity all contribute to societal stress and
P