Land degradation and Desertification

Land degradation and Desertification

Subject – Environment

Context – Despite PM Modi’s assurance, land degradation, desertification increasing

Concept –

• Land degradation is caused by multiple forces, including extreme weather conditions, particularly drought. It is also caused by human activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility.
• Desertification is a consequence of severe land degradation and is defined as a process that creates arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.
  • It accelerates climate change and biodiversity loss, and contributes to droughts, wildfires, involuntary migration and the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases.

Status of Desertification in India

• 96 million hectares or close to 29.7% of India’s area is undergoing degradation.
• According to the Government’s data recently presented to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), India lost 31%, or 5.65 million hectares (mha), of grassland area in a decade.
• Some 97.85 million hectares (mha) of India’s total geographical area (TGA) of 328.72 mha underwent land degradation during 2018-19, according to the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India.
• More than 80% of the country’s degraded land lies in just nine states.

Global Efforts to Check Land Degradation:

• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD):It was established in 1994, the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
  • The Delhi Declaration of 2019, signed by 14^thCoP of the UNCCD, called for better access and stewardship over land, and emphasised gender-sensitive transformative projects.
• The Bonn Challenge: To bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
• Great Green Wall: Initiative by Global Environment Facility (GEF), where eleven countries in Sahel-Saharan Africa have focused efforts to fight against land degradation and revive native plant life to the landscape.