Nearly 13 per cent of Azerbaijan is deemed degraded, much is desert.
Data shows at least 100 million hectares of healthy land is lost each year to desertification, drought and land degradation. Can anything halt it?

By Tom Howarth

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched its new ‘Data Dashboard’, a combination of reported figures on land degradation from 126 countries around the world.

Haven’t heard of the UNCCD? Don’t worry; even the most ardent climate activists might be unaware of its existence. Still, if there was ever a time to pay attention to the work the UNCCD does, this would be it.

According to the new global data, between 2015 and 2019, an area roughly twice the size of Greenland went from being healthy and productive to arid and degraded. That equates to approximately 100 million hectares of land per year.
The Data Dashboard, Orr said, was launched to sound the alarm about the rapid degradation of land around the world.

And sound the alarm, it did. According to the UNCCD, an estimated 1.5 billion hectares of productive land have now been lost, impacting the lives of 1.3 billion people.

‘At current rates, 90 per cent of the land will bear our imprint by 2050,’ said Orr. ‘The effects of land degradation will be felt by most of the world’s population.’
Eastern and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean were the worst hit, with more than a fifth of the total land area in these regions now being classified as degraded. Meanwhile, the rate at which land is being lost in sub-Saharan Africa, Western and Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean is above the global average.

‘The Dashboard’s alarming figures highlight the need for urgent action as escalating land degradation continues to destabilise markets, communities and ecosystems around the world,’ Orr said.

It was against this backdrop that the UNCCD met in Uzbekistan from 13 to 17 November. The 21st session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC21) brought together 500 delegates from 196 countries, the European Union, civil society and academia to reflect on progress made since the UNCCD was established in 1994. Crucially, CRIC21 acted as an opportunity to examine the progress made on the UNCCD’s land degradation neutrality (LDN) target, a process not too dissimilar to the Global Stocktake currently underway at COP28.
Light at the end of the tunnel

Despite the bleak global figures, there are some so-called ‘bright spots’ to be found in the data.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana has committed 45.3 million hectares – about three times the area of England – to LDN. Restoration efforts in the country have successfully reduced degraded land from 36 to 17 per cent of its territory.

Meanwhile, in the Dominican Republic, degraded land constituted 31 per cent of the total in 2019, down from 49 per cent four years earlier.
With wind in its sails following CRIC21, the UNCCD is looking to make its voice heard at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates. On day two of the conference, the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), which is supported by the UNCCD, announced eight new members had signed on to join, bringing the total to 36 countries and 28 organisations.

The UNCCD is also co-hosting the first ever ‘Land and Drought Pavilion’ at COP28. The Pavilion aims to curate high-level discussions on the importance of healthy land as a climate solution and the need for action on drought resilience.

‘The world’s land is a vital line of defence against climate change, acting as a carbon sink that regulates global temperatures,‘ concluded Orr. ‘At COP28, the UNCCD’s message is loud and clear – sustainable development is unattainable without the foundation of robust, healthy land.’