UN chief warns of continuous land degradation

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Wednesday warned of continuous land degradation and called for more efforts to rehabilitate degraded land, in a message to mark the World Day to Combat Desertification.

"Land degradation and desertification undercut human rights, starting with the right to food. Nearly 1 billion people lack adequate nutrition, and those living off degraded areas are among the most affected. Their situation could worsen if land degradation, as projected, reduces global food production by 12 percent by 2035," said Ban.

The World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD) is observed worldwide on June 17 every year. The theme this year is " attainment of food security for all through sustainable food systems," As food security is also impacted by the decline in water resources.

"Due to land degradation there is less water and snow being stored in the ground. In 10 years, two out of every three people in the world could be living under stressed water conditions," said Ban.

"We degrade 12 million hectares of productive land every year - an area the size of Benin or Honduras. More than half our farmland is degraded, and only 10 percent is improving. About 500 million hectares could be restored cost-effectively, rather than being abandoned," said Ban.

"If we do not change how we use our land, we will have to convert an area the size of Norway into new farmland every year to meet future needs for food, freshwater, biofuels and urban growth. This would cause deforestation and other negative environmental impact," said Ban, adding the threat does not stop there.

"Through land degradation and other inappropriate land use, we release about a quarter of the greenhouse gases warming the planet. Climate change and unsustainable land use, particularly by agriculture, are contributing to the decline of freshwater resources in all regions of the world," said Ban.

As a consequence, global food production is projected to fall by 2 percent every decade.

"Land is a renewable resource, but only if we invest in land degradation neutrality, which has been proposed by United Nations Member States for the post-2015 development agenda," said the UN chief.

"We must avoid degrading more land and, at the same time, rehabilitate all the degraded land that we can. Then, we will also be able to make rapid steps towards controlling climate change," said Ban.

Globally, 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 percent of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation. Land degradation affects 1. 5 billion people globally, according to UN website. Enditem