Desertification, drought, water shortage. Intensive agriculture, robbery and land degradation. Climate events as extreme as poverty and hunger. Migration. The thread that binds the environment to peoples is increasingly red, like the barren land. The World Days to Combat Desertification and Drought and to Aid Refugees, June 17 and 19, not surprisingly follow. The good purpose, ‘Let’s grow the future together. (1)
Desertification and social crisis, the planetary challenge
TheUnited Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was formalized just on 17.6.94, at the United Nations. A quarter century later, it is being discussed again in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable Development Goal no. 15 is in fact ‘Life on Land. LoL, life on planet earth!
‘Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of the Earth’s ecosystem, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt the
loss of biological diversity
‘
(SDG No. 15).
The planetary relevance of this phenomenon in terms of biodiversity, environmental security, socio-economic stability and sustainable development is evident in the data to follow:
– 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 percent of the land used for agriculture is afflicted, to a greater or lesser extent, by land degradation. The loss of arable land is estimated to be between 30 and 35 times its historical rate. Due to drought and desertification, 12 million hectares (23 ha per minute) are lost every year.
– 1.8 billion human beings, by 2025, will live in conditions of absolute water scarcity. Two-thirds of the world will experience water stress.
– 1.6 billion individuals-including 70 million indigenous people-depend for their livelihoods on forests, which are home to more than 80 percent of terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects. In the five-year period 2010-2015 alone, more than 3.3 million hectares of forest areas were destroyed.
– 70.8 million refugees-whose World Refugee Day is celebrated today, June 19-were registered in 2018. A record number in the 70-year history of UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), made up of 50 percent minors. (2) According to U.N. estimates, 50 million will be displaced in the next 10 years, 135 million by 2045 will be added to this growing figure by the effect of desertification alone. Which already harms 74 percent of the world’s poor.
Desertification, the causes
Desertification is one of the biggest environmental challenges, one of the most obvious symptoms of the ongoing ecological crisis. One should not only think about the advance of deserts, but especially about the process of soil drying up. The primary causes are attributed to deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices, which often combine. As in the palm oil and soybean supply chains, world champions of land robbery(land grabbing) and deforestation followed by intensive monoculture with inordinate use of pesticides. (3) Climate change, another symptom of anthropogenic activities, offers further contribution.
‘An analysis in 46 countries in tropical and subtropical areas showed that large-scale commercial agriculture and subsistence farming were responsible for about 40 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of forest conversion between 2000 and 2010. 27% of deforestation was caused by urban growth, infrastructure expansion and mining activities‘.
Land use accounts for 25 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. The recovery and sustainable management of degraded land, conversely, could could allow up to 3 billion tons of carbon to be sequestered from the atmosphere each year.
‘The ‘Intergovernmental Science/Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (IPBES) released its Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment in March 2018, which shows that today less than 25 percent of the Earth’s surface is still in natural condition. And how in 2050, with current exploitation trends and without reversing them, the percentage of the earth’s surface in natural conditions will be reduced to 10 percent. Today, land degradation undermines the well-being of some 3.2 billion people worldwide‘
(WWF, Living Planet Report 2018. See footnote 7)
Desertification in Europe
Europe is itself in the Atlas of Desertification. (4) The extreme drought that hit central and northern areas in spring-summer 2018-a phenomenon unique in the past five centuries-could become the norm in the next 25 years, according to the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC). (5)
‘The spring and summer months of 2018 were characterized by a unique combination of dry conditions in central and northern Europe and unusually wet conditions in southern Europe (…). Projections show that the climate is becoming warmer and more extreme events will occur. Last year Europe was fortunate with unusually wet conditions in southern Europe, which mitigated the effects of drought on overall food production. However, we cannot rely on such anomalies to ensure food security in the future. Last year’s was a wake-up call.‘ (Joint Research Center, European Commission. See footnote 6).
In Italy, at least 20 percent of arable land is at risk of desertification, according to concurring data from Ministry of Environment, academic research, WWF. WWF’s ‘Living Planet 2018‘ report therefore stresses ‘the urgency of launching a ‘Global Deal’ for nature and people capable of solving the crucial issues of our future, such as securing food for a growing population, limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and restoring nature.’ (7)
Dario Dongo and Sabrina Bergamini
Notes
(1) UNCCD, World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought,
https://www.un.org/en/events/desertificationday/
(2) UNHCR (2019). ‘Global trends – forced displacement, 2018‘, https://www.unhcr.org/5d08d7ee7.pdf
(3) On deforestation and palm oil, some examples are cited in previous articles https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/olio-di-palma-reportage-filippine, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/olio-di-palma-e-deforestazioni-nell-eden-dell-africa-coi-soldi-della-banca-mondiale, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/consum-attori/nuova-guinea-rapina-delle-terre-e-deforestazioni-in-nome-del-palma
(4) World Atlas of Desertification.
Cherlet, M., Hutchinson, C., Reynolds, J., Hill, J., Sommer, S., von Maltitz, G. (Eds.), World Atlas of Desertification, Publication Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018
https://wad.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
(5)Joint Research Center (JRC), European Commission. (2019). ‘European droughts in 2018: a warning of things to come‘,
https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/news/european-droughts-2018-warning-things-come
(6) Joint Research Center (JRC), press release 17.6.19, https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/news/european-droughts-2018-warning-things-come
(7) WWF, Living Planet Report 2018
https://d24qi7hsckwe9l.cloudfront.net/downloads/lpr_2018_ita_highlights_1.pdf
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Journalist. Consumption, rights, nutrition, social, environment. Head of Consumers Help. She collaborated with ResetDOC, Il Riformista, La Nuova Ecologia, IMGPress.
