Growing desertification is drying up the planet

World leaders will convene at a high-level UN conference on desertification in Riyadh next month. Another deadly consequence of the multifaceted climate crisis, desertification is growing fast as heat waves and rising temperatures have become the norm.
About 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land gets degraded each year. Up to 40 percent of the world’s land is already degraded to some degree, directly impacting 3.2 billion people or about a third of the global population.
As climate change punches the planet more frequently, harder and faster than before, the specter of land degradation and desertification is expected to grow exponentially. In the last 40 years, droughts have increased in intensity, affecting more people than any other extreme weather event, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.
Loss of moisture and nutrients in drylands decreases crop productivity, affects people and their livestock and increases the risk of food insecurity. Diseases spread when water is poor in quality and scarce in quantity. Children are among the first victims of malnutrition in countries hit by droughts and desertification and social instability inevitably follows when people are forced to relocate to escape from the harsh impacts on their lives.
It is feared that three-quarters of the global population could be affected by drought by 2050 if the problem is not addressed through urgent collaborative action at a global scale. Reducing carbon emissions, mitigation measures and enhancing adaptation to climate change are the most important parts of any land restoration strategy. Supporting the most-affected and vulnerable developing countries with assistance to boost their resilience and response to drought will also be crucial, as will efforts to restore degraded lands.
However, climate change is not the only driver of desertification. Unsustainable land use management and overgrazing badly damage the fragile soil ecosystem of drylands. The excessive use of fertilizers and growing of water-intense cash crops also degrade lands.
For a long time, desertification was commonly only linked with Africa and Asia, but recent trends reveal that it is now gripping other parts of the world too. Prolonged droughts and wildfires have significantly increased the risks of desertification in the Mediterranean region.
A report published this month by the Heinrich Boll Foundation, “Desertification: Europe Is Drying Out,” outlines a somber picture of growing desertification in the European continent. It says 13 EU member states — not just in the south but also in Central and Eastern Europe — are affected by desertification, while across the bloc some 23 percent of the territory is moderately sensitive to desertification, with 8 percent highly susceptible. The report notes that the overexploitation of water resources, depletion of the groundwater table and reduction of water quality due to excessive fertilizer use are all contributing to desertification.

It is feared that three-quarters of the global population could be affected by drought by 2050 if the problem is not addressed.

Jamil Ahmad

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the global platform to address risks of desertification, leads in devising action plans and policies. The UN Environment Programme and other UN entities collaborate with governments for restoring degraded lands and biodiversity. The “Great Green Wall” initiative launched by the African Union in 2007 aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded lands across 22 African countries by 2030.
However, during the important phase of implementation, these initiatives face similar challenges as those of other environmental agreements, namely the inadequacy of financial resources and technical support to the developing countries that are on the front lines and already facing the deadly consequences of climate change.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s COP16, to be held in Riyadh next month under the theme “Our Land, Our Future,” assumes added significance as it will be the first such high-level meeting in the Middle East and North Africa — a region hit hard by desertification and droughts. On its agenda will be measures to reverse degradation and accelerate efforts to restore 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030. The meeting also comes at a time of greater focus and urgency to address desertification.
Earlier this year, the UN Environment Assembly, the apex legislative body on environmental issues, called on member states to shift from reactive to proactive drought management. Environmental problems cannot be effectively addressed without an integrated, whole-of-society approach. In September, the UN General Assembly approved the “Pact for the Future,” which, along with reaffirming its commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals, also pledged to address the adverse impacts of desertification, land degradation, drought, deforestation and sand and dust storms, which are all closely linked to climate change and nature loss.
Complementing these international commitments at regional and national levels will be necessary to move the needle with full ownership of all stakeholders and to generate momentum for collective efforts to address environmental challenges in an integrated manner.
The UN system is supporting these efforts. The UN Environment Programme has implemented more than 160 land degradation projects over the years and remains engaged on sustainable land management. In East Africa, it is assisting land restoration projects under the Restoration Initiative. The upcoming Middle East Green Initiative will also be a useful platform, bringing regional countries together to fight common environmental challenges.
COP16 on desertification aims to renew the commitment to accelerate investment and action to restore land and enhance drought resilience through a people-centered approach by on-boarding all segments of society. The real measure of its success, however, will rely on the swift and sustained implementation of the agreed outcomes to prevent the planet from further drying up and effectively address the drivers and impacts of desertification.

• Jamil Ahmad is director of intergovernmental affairs at the United Nations Environment Programme. X: @JamilBAhmad