Explainer: What Are the Impacts of Desertification on Society?
A significant UN summit centered on land restoration and drought resilience is set to occur in the capital of Saudi Arabia. This event will gather world leaders to discuss and cooperate on tackling one of the most urgent environmental issues facing the planet.
TroibNews 
A significant UN summit centered on land restoration and drought resilience is set to take place in Saudi Arabia's capital, uniting world leaders to negotiate and collaborate on one of the planet's urgent environmental issues.
The 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is scheduled for December 2-13. Under the banner "Our Land, Our Future," nearly 200 member parties, along with experts and civil society organizations, will meet to advocate for immediate actions to address desertification.
According to the UNCCD, desertification is "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas caused by various factors, including climatic variations and human activities." This process converts formerly fertile lands into desert-like regions, leading to a decline in biomass productivity and the reduction of arable land, ultimately jeopardizing food security.
While often overlooked, desertification destabilizes communities worldwide. Its most visible effects include dust and sandstorms, but it also results in biodiversity loss, rising unemployment, ecological displacement, and even conflict.
The consequences are already dire. The UNCCD reports that land is crucial, providing nearly 95 percent of the world's food; however, up to 40 percent of global land has been degraded, impacting 3.2 billion people. Every second, the equivalent of four football fields of healthy land is lost, amounting to 100 million hectares annually. Droughts are also occurring with greater frequency and intensity, having increased by 29 percent since 2000. The UNCCD cautions that by 2050, drought could affect three-quarters of the global population.
Human activities contribute to desertification through unsustainable agricultural practices that deplete soil nutrients, along with mining, overgrazing, and deforestation.
"We depend on land for our survival. Yet, we treat it like dirt," remarked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, emphasizing the critical need to tackle this crisis.
It's crucial to understand that combating desertification does not equate to eliminating natural desert ecosystems formed through geological processes over time. Rather, the aim is to restore areas that have been degraded and should not have transitioned into deserts.
Natural deserts, akin to forests, grasslands, and wetlands, are essential for maintaining ecological balance. Thus, the challenge is to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation, which calls for concerted international efforts.
As the only binding international treaty dedicated to land management and drought, the UNCCD stands as one of the three Rio Conventions, alongside those that address climate change and biodiversity. Over time, it has effectively raised awareness and mobilized commitments to combat desertification, land degradation, and drought. The convention also offers vital guidance, capacity building, and resource mobilization to tackle these challenges.
The upcoming COP16, marking the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD, will be the largest in the treaty’s history and the first hosted in the Middle East and North Africa region. Delegates are anticipated to reach decisions on collective actions aimed at accelerating land restoration, enhancing drought resilience, restoring soil health, and scaling up nature-positive food production by 2030 and beyond.
China, which hosted COP13 in 2017 and has been proactive in desertification control since signing the UNCCD in 1994, will participate in discussions on various agendas. The nation is expected to help shape international policies and advocate for the use of Chinese technology to monitor and restore land resilience against global land degradation and drought, as outlined in a briefing by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
Anna Muller for TROIB News
The 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is scheduled for December 2-13. Under the banner "Our Land, Our Future," nearly 200 member parties, along with experts and civil society organizations, will meet to advocate for immediate actions to address desertification.
According to the UNCCD, desertification is "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas caused by various factors, including climatic variations and human activities." This process converts formerly fertile lands into desert-like regions, leading to a decline in biomass productivity and the reduction of arable land, ultimately jeopardizing food security.
While often overlooked, desertification destabilizes communities worldwide. Its most visible effects include dust and sandstorms, but it also results in biodiversity loss, rising unemployment, ecological displacement, and even conflict.
The consequences are already dire. The UNCCD reports that land is crucial, providing nearly 95 percent of the world's food; however, up to 40 percent of global land has been degraded, impacting 3.2 billion people. Every second, the equivalent of four football fields of healthy land is lost, amounting to 100 million hectares annually. Droughts are also occurring with greater frequency and intensity, having increased by 29 percent since 2000. The UNCCD cautions that by 2050, drought could affect three-quarters of the global population.
Human activities contribute to desertification through unsustainable agricultural practices that deplete soil nutrients, along with mining, overgrazing, and deforestation.
"We depend on land for our survival. Yet, we treat it like dirt," remarked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, emphasizing the critical need to tackle this crisis.
It's crucial to understand that combating desertification does not equate to eliminating natural desert ecosystems formed through geological processes over time. Rather, the aim is to restore areas that have been degraded and should not have transitioned into deserts.
Natural deserts, akin to forests, grasslands, and wetlands, are essential for maintaining ecological balance. Thus, the challenge is to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation, which calls for concerted international efforts.
As the only binding international treaty dedicated to land management and drought, the UNCCD stands as one of the three Rio Conventions, alongside those that address climate change and biodiversity. Over time, it has effectively raised awareness and mobilized commitments to combat desertification, land degradation, and drought. The convention also offers vital guidance, capacity building, and resource mobilization to tackle these challenges.
The upcoming COP16, marking the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD, will be the largest in the treaty’s history and the first hosted in the Middle East and North Africa region. Delegates are anticipated to reach decisions on collective actions aimed at accelerating land restoration, enhancing drought resilience, restoring soil health, and scaling up nature-positive food production by 2030 and beyond.
China, which hosted COP13 in 2017 and has been proactive in desertification control since signing the UNCCD in 1994, will participate in discussions on various agendas. The nation is expected to help shape international policies and advocate for the use of Chinese technology to monitor and restore land resilience against global land degradation and drought, as outlined in a briefing by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
Anna Muller for TROIB News
