The world’s “insatiable greed” and mounting demand for food have significantly damaged and degraded land on Earth, risking USD$44tn worth of natural resources.
Degraded land results from the loss of trees, the conversion of grasslands into croplands and the over-exploitation of water and soil in drylands. As land becomes less fertile, it is depleted of natural resources and vegetation, and are unable to support rich biodiversity.”
“We cannot continue to just take land for granted,” said executive secretary of UNCCD Ibrahim Thiaw. “We cannot just continue to think that there is enough land out there, that there’s enough water and forest and wetlands to destroy, to respond to our insatiable greed, so to speak, for food and fibre and animal feed.”
If things continue as they are, or as the report describes as “business as usual”, a further 16 million square kilometres of land will be degraded by 2050, an area that is the size of South America (…) Authors of the report warn that “business as usual is not an option”, and call for urgent action in changing how we manage the world’s land environments.
Source:
Human Activities Have Degraded 40% of Land on Earth, UN Reports | earth.org (April 2022)
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