Global agricultural production more than tripled between 1960 and 2015, an expansion that has helped to feed a hungry planet. But the spread of farms has also led to the clearing of forests, grasslands and other natural spaces, spurring a wave of land degradation.
Around the world, more than 2 billion hectares of land are now officially degraded – an area nearly the size of India and the Russian Federation combined. This decay has caused ecosystems around the world to collapse and is pushing 1 million species towards extinction.
“The agricultural boom of the last several decades has helped counter hunger and lift millions out of poverty,” said Bruno Pozzi, Deputy Director of the Ecosystems Division of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “But food systems have also been the greatest driver of biodiversity loss, and unless we make them more sustainable, we risk destroying the natural world, which is the foundation of our economies and our societies and the health and livelihoods of people everywhere.”
The Biodiversity Plan, a 2022 global agreement to safeguard the natural world, is designed in part to make food systems more sustainable. Its 23 targets include conserving 30 per cent of land, sea and inland waters by 2030.
As nations move to implement the plan, non-profit groups and farmers around the world are already working to make agriculture more planet friendly. Here is a look at how they are doing that.
Grasping rainwater
As land degrades, the soil’s capacity to retain water is drastically reduced. This leads to the disappearance of vegetation, and sets in motion a vicious cycle of drought and erosion. This process, driven in part by climate change, is playing out in Sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in food insecurity and famine.
Environmental group JustDiggit has devised an ingenious solution to this problem: dig water bunds. These semi-circular pits catch rainwater that would otherwise get washed away over barren soil, helping to quickly regreen a large area.
JustDiggit says it has so far dug 300,000 bunds and together with millions of farmers and pastoralists, has restored 400,000 hectares of formerly dry, degraded land. This process is helping to bolster farming yields and improve rangelands, while also spurring the return of wildlife. JustDiggit is a partner of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global effort to revive natural spaces.
Turning farms into food forests
In the last 100 years, many farmers have switched to growing a single crop in their fields, making their produce easier to harvest with machinery. While this has boosted yields, the lack of diversity is increasingly posing a threat to biodiversity and soil health.
In Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda many farmers, with the support of non-governmental organization Trees for the Future, have returned to planting multiple crops, interspersing them with trees. This has turned their lands into something akin to forests and wild gardens, a process known as agroforestry.
Trees for the Future has trained tens of thousands of farmers, many living in poverty on degraded lands. The organization has helped restore more than 41,000 hectares of land since 2014, improving crop yields, reviving rangelands and providing habitats for wildlife.
The push was recently named a UN World Restoration Flagship, an honour that recognizes groundbreaking efforts to revive nature.
The Biodiversity Plan and Agriculture
The Biodiversity Plan, a global accord agreed in 2022, focuses in part on how countries can make farming and food systems more sustainable. The agreement calls for nations to ensure that farms, fisheries and forests are managed in ways that protect biodiversity. It also calls for countries to phase out agricultural subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity and reduce the environmental impacts from pollution, a major source of which is farm runoff.
Protecting and conserving rangelands
More than half of the world’s land surface is covered by grass, shrubs or sparse, hardy vegetation.
These rangelands, or drylands as they are sometimes called, generate 44 per cent of global crops and support more than 2 billion people.
However, many are rapidly degrading due to a combination of misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss, found a recent report from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
In 2021, UNEP, in partnership with the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative , launched a pilot project in the Beqaa Valley to plant clusters of oak, fig and almond trees. The greenery has provided food for livestock while preventing erosion and trapping water, supporting the return of biodiversity.
Breaking down gender barriers
Although women produce half the world’s food, they own less than one-fifth of all land and make up 70 per cent of the world’s hungry. Helping women have the same access to productive resources as men could increase yields on their farms by up to 30 per cent, which could lift up to 150 million people out of hunger.
In Cameroon, UNEP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have teamed up with the non-profit Rainforest Alliance and the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development on two projects. The efforts aim to strengthen the economic and social rights of women through the promotion of sustainable, community-based land management.
Making farms pollution-free
Nearly 4 billion tonnes of pesticides and 12 billion kilogrammes of agricultural plastics are used every year. While they boost food yields, these chemicals and products are dangerous. As many as 11,000 people die from the toxic effects of pesticides annually, and chemical residues can diminish soil health and degrade ecosystems, threatening biodiversity.
UNEP is working with the Global Environment Facility on an effort to combat farm-based pollution in several developing countries. The five-year programme is projected to prevent the release of more than 51,000 tonnes of hazardous pesticides and over 20,000 tonnes of plastic waste. This would protect more than 3 million hectares of land from degradation as farms and farmers convert to low-chemical and non-chemical alternatives.
The planet is experiencing a dangerous decline in nature. One million species are threatened with extinction, soils are turning infertile and water sources are drying up. The Biodiversity Plan, formerly known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, sets out global targets to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030. It was adopted by world leaders in December 2022. To address the drivers of the nature crisis, UNEP is working with partners to take action in landscapes and seascapes, transform our food systems, and close the finance gap for nature.
About the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The UN General Assembly has declared 2021–2030 a UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Led by the UN Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, together with the support of partners, it is designed to prevent, halt, and reverse the loss and degradation of ecosystems worldwide. It aims at reviving billions of hectares, covering terrestrial as well as aquatic ecosystems. A global call to action, the UN Decade draws together political support, scientific research, and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration.
