EARTH DAY

Earth Day is the occasion to assess our environmental account of the preceding year for the three natural resources on which all life hangs - the atmosphere, water and land. The balance between the over-use and restoration of each resource is an indicator of our long-term sustainability. Past trends show an imbalance on the land account. This makes it an area of prime concern for at least three reasons.

First, fertile land is finite and in short supply, and increasingly so. Land covers 30% of the Earth’s surface. However, the US Department of Agriculture and Earth Action determined that only 3.25% of the Earth was fertile arable land as of 1993. Soil formation takes many years and, for the most part, is the six inch-layer shielding humanity from extinction. But its degradation is rapid.

New data shows that every year, 75 billion tons of fertile soil is lost forever. An assessment conducted in 2008 showed that between 1981 and 2006, 24% of the global land area was degrading while improvement was evident on only 16% of the global land area. This reflects a negative balance, where land degradation exceeds its recovery.

Second, maintaining such a negative balance is unsustainable when another 2 billion people are projected to join us by 2050. Already, 52% of all land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation. Also, 70% of all fresh water resources are now used for agricultural irrigation.

Third, it should concern us that this imbalance is not due to a lack of solutions but rather, a lack of political will leading to five policy failures. The failures to scale up and scale out good practices, to share information and knowledge, to mainstream appropriate land practices at the national and local levels and to invest resources in the practices, as well as the failure to build holistic approaches that allow for synergy across issues, among actors and levels to be harnessed for effective action on the ground.

Sustainable land use for all and by all must be our goal. One act that could radically move us towards this goal is agreement on a global target that will help contain this imbalance. The UN Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June, on “The Future We Want”, offers a most opportune moment to do so. 

Under the theme, “Healthy soil sustains your life: LET’S GO LAND-DEGRADATION NEUTRAL”, we are calling for a commitment from the Rio Conference that would ensure that further land degradation is avoided and for every hectare of land that is degraded an equal amount is restored. This target would make us land degradation neutral.

The UNCCD's contribution to Earth Day’s “A Billion Acts of Green” is to promote the move to a land-degradation neutral world by enlightening and educating the public about our land-use account.

This is the message of our joint campaign launched today in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Xinhua News Agency and Reuters under the motto, “Global Action, Green Economy Transforming Lives”.

To deepen knowledge on this issue, starting tomorrow, we will hold a week-long online exchange called, ‘Desertification Week’, facilitated in collaboration with the non-governmental organization, Responding To Climate Change (RTCC). Lastly, the global observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification held every 17 June, will take place in Rio de Janeiro this year in order to bring this issue to the attention of the policy-makers going to the Conference.

It is possible to keep an even balance on our land-use account, but it will take the participation of every individual, including you. What is your “Act of Green” on this pressing land issue? Be part of the education solution by sharing this message and information with your network, and tweet about it all the way to the Rio Conference. Will you?