In recent years, people everywhere have had to endure soaring food prices, coupled with growing concerns about the well-being of those who produce food. The reasons for this increase in food costs are multiple: from geopolitical tensions to the Covid-19 pandemic to the acceleration of climate change. Farmers, retailers and consumers are all feeling the heat.
However, drought and land degradation, exacerbated by climate change, pose the most serious threats to livestock and crops worldwide. That’s one reason why this year’s World Environment Day calls for land protection and restoration to address land degradation, drought and desertification – and bring immediate net social, economic and environmental benefits .
Land degradation and drought harm 3.2 billion people worldwide, including in East Africa, India, the Amazon Basin and large areas of the United States. In Europe, even if summer is not yet in full swing, some areas are already on drought alert. In the near future, one in five people in China will face further droughts. Australian farmers are bracing for a 20-year mega-drought. Over the next 25 years, land degradation could reduce food productivity by 12% and increase food prices by almost a third. Over the same period, average household income will decline by 20% due to climate change. This is a global problem.
Delaying action on climate and nature loss pushes us into a vicious cycle: climate change further degrades soils, which makes farmers’ work harder and less profitable. They need more subsidies, chemicals and fertilizers to make more use of less fertile land, provide less nutritious food and exacerbate the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and land loss, pollution and waste.
We can stop this vicious cycle by helping nature regenerate. The results already obtained are phenomenal. Multiple initiatives to rebuild agricultural land, forests, savannahs, prairies, peatlands and degraded cities are making vast areas cultivable again and creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. This is happening across the Mediterranean, in Africa, in South and East Asia, and in small island developing states like Vanuatu. Areas such as the Central American Corridor that were previously dependent on aid have become self-sufficient after recovery efforts.
Extending such actions is good business for nature, for people and for economies. In fact, the cost of action is six times lower than that of inaction. According to a United Nations Environment Program report, half of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) depends on nature, and every US dollar invested in restoration creates up to $30 in economic benefits.
UN member states recognized the power to restore land and other ecosystems with a unanimous vote at the 2019 UN General Assembly, which dedicated this decade to ecosystem restoration. The action is accelerating. Governments around the world have pledged to restore a total of 1 billion hectares (2.47 billion acres) of land, an area larger than China. Last year, six countries committed to restoring 300,000 km (about 186,400 miles) of rivers and 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of wetlands. Such efforts not only restore nature, strengthen food security and improve livelihoods, but advance climate goals by helping to store carbon. But they need to be supported by strong efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including by ending the fossil fuel era, as climate change is a major driver of land degradation, desertification and drought.
This year, Saudi Arabia is hosting World Environment Day 2024 and the largest UN conference on land and drought, with a focus on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. This is a welcome effort for the world and the region. Three-quarters of arable land in the Middle East is already affected by land degradation. With global warming hitting the region twice as fast as the global average, the entire population will face water scarcity by 2050.
World Environment Day, which we celebrate every year on June 5, offers everyone the opportunity to take action. Organize or participate in an event wherever you are. Incorporate natural goals into your business. If you can vote this year, consider the climate and nature policies at stake. And we must all act. The cost of living crisis and the problems farmers face are real. The solution is also real: restoring land and other ecosystems for a functioning food system, healthier nature, higher incomes and a stable climate.
The opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Oltre La Linea.
