“Our lands are no longer able to keep up with the pressures
placed on its limited resources. Increasing misuse and demands for its goods
are resulting in rapidly intensifying desertification and land degradation
globally -- an issue of growing importance for all people and at all scales,”
the report, titled “The Value of Land,” said.
Globally, 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture.
According to the report, soil degradation -- exacerbated by deforestation and
pollution -- drought and desertification affect approximately 52 percent of
arable land. Over the next 25 years, this might reduce global food production
by up to 12 percent, raising global food prices by as much as 30 percent.
However, the authors added, “the economics of land
degradation is about a lot more than agriculture.” Desertification also
threatens water availability and quality -- a phenomenon that is believed to
have played a key role in pushing Syria toward a brutal, protracted civil war
that has cost nearly 300,000 lives. According to a previous study, published in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an unprecedented drought
in Syria between 2007 and 2010 triggered an exodus of nearly 1.5 million
farmers to cities in search of food and work -- a “contributing factor” that
eventually led to the civil war. Desertification also jeopardizes global
biodiversity. Some estimates suggest that our planet might currently be losing
approximately 27,000 species every year, a number that is likely to escalate
with increase in the rate of desertification.
Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment,
Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, said in the statement. “Climate refugees will
become a new challenge -- if we do not act swiftly. We need to be as ambitious
as possible in the negotiations for COP 21 in Paris.”
SOYMB blog is very skeptical that will happen and expects “business
as usual”.
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