Land degradation impacting negatively on 3.2bn people

A new report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) on land degradation and restoration shows that degradation of the earth’s land surface through human activities is negatively impacting the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, pushing the planet towards a sixth mass species extinction.

The researchers also said it was costing more than 10 per cent of the annual global gross product in loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Combating land degradation and restoring degraded land is an urgent priority to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services vital to all life on earth and to ensure human well-being, the report indicated.

The report also highlighted that unsustainable extraction of a resource; whether animals, plants or minerals, can have adverse effects on the environment and communities in distant lands.

It noted that the main direct drivers of land degradation and associated biodiversity loss were expansion of crop and grazing lands into native vegetation, unsustainable agricultural and forestry practices, climate change, and in specific areas, urban expansion, infrastructure development and the extractive industry.

While noting that in reversing land degradation, the time to act is now, the report had it that investing in avoiding land degradation and the restoration of degraded land makes sound economic sense; the benefits generally, by far, exceed the cost.

Timely action to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation can increase food and water security, contribute substantially to the adaptation and mitigation of climate change and contribute to the avoidance of conflict and migration.

“Unless urgent and concerted action is taken, land degradation will worsen in the face of population growth, unprecedented consumption, an increasingly globalised economy and climate change,” the report read in part.