Land degradation and desertification are some of the most urgent challenges facing the world today
The impacts are simply staggering, with land degradation negatively affecting 3.2 billion people around the world today. This inevitably disproportionately harms those who are least able to do anything about it: rural communities, smallholder farmers and the extremely poor.
As of today, almost a quarter of the world’s total land area has been degraded. This creates enormous problems not only for the billions of people who directly depend on agriculture, but it has far-reaching impacts affecting every single person on this planet today. These impacts include food shortages, volatility and increases in food prices caused by declines in the productivity of croplands; heightened impacts of climate change globally caused by the release of carbon and nitrous oxide from degrading land; and the threat of social instability from the forced migration that will result.
If current trends continue, 95% of the Earth’s land areas could become degraded within the next 30 years. And yet, the opportunities are huge. Current efforts underway to restore two billion hectares of degraded land globally could deliver a wide range of environmental benefits: increasing productivity, sequestering carbon and preserving biodiversity. But there are also significant socio-economic benefits: boosting employment, strengthening economies and creating new opportunities for some of the most vulnerable people in society.
So what is the UN Environment Programme doing to fix this?
UNEP has been a world leader in tackling land degradation and desertification jointly with the Global Environment Facility for over 20 years. We provide the scientific foundations, policy expertise and innovation needed for countries to figure out how best to restore degraded lands.
- We inform and guide policy frameworks and plans
- We provide countries and communities with the technical expertise and resources to sustainably manage land
- We use our knowledge, networks and expertise to help our partners implement successful, scalable, impactful projects on the ground
There’s lots of information on our exciting projects on this site. So have a look around but if you can’t find anything, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
