Land degradation putting 3.2 billion people at risk
Staff Writer |
The “critical†degradation of land, the main cause of species loss, puts 3.2 billion people at risk worldwide and will result in huge population migrations by 2050, scientists gathered in Medellin, Colombia, warned.
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The forecast comes in a report revealing the negative impacts of “unsustainable†land management based on research by more than 100 experts and presented at the close of the 6th Plenary session of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
In preparing the report, researchers gathered data from the last three years which combine to provide an evaluation of land degradation and restoration with results showing the serious danger to human well-being.
Among the risks, according to South African scientist Robert Scholes, the co-president of the IPBES land degradation evaluation, are mankind’s bad land use practices, along with high-consumption lifestyles, both of which are pushing the planet toward its “sixth mass species extinction.â€
“Avoiding, reducing and reversing this problem, 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,†he said at a press conference.
There is no ecosystem or country in the world where one cannot find negative effects on land, he added.
The report, co-chaired by Italy’s Luca Montanarella, says that land degradation has reached “critical†levels in many parts of the world, a situation that has resulted in a “significant†loss of biological diversity and ecosystem services.
The loss of land fertility, erosion and the increase in toxicity, especially due to salt accumulation, are some of the characteristics found in lands with decreasing productivity, a situation that makes people living in those areas “more vulnerable.â€
“Decreasing land productivity... makes societies more vulnerable to social instability – particularly in dryland areas, where years with extremely low rainfall have been associated with an increase of up to 45% in violent conflict,†said Scholes.
“Three decades from now, an estimated 4 billion people will live in drylands. By then it is likely that land degradation, together with ... climate change, will have forced 50-700 million people to migrate,†he warned.
The researchers concluded that “wetlands have been particularly hard hit. We have seen losses of 87% in wetland areas since the start of the modern era – with 54% lost since 1900,†according to Montanarella.
“By 2050, the combination of land degradation and climate change is predicted to reduce global crop yields by an average of 10%, and by up to 50% in some regions. Most degradation will occur in Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia,†he added.
The report also proposes mechanisms to restore, reverse and contain the degradation.
Among those measures are improvement of monitoring systems, implementation of global policies, management of pressure on wetlands, control of pollution sources and promotion of practices such as replanting with native species and developing ecological infrastructure such as parks and riverways in urban areas. ■