Picture Imperfect

It’s difficult to ignore how desertification is expanding in areas that are on the front line of climate change

A THIRD OF the Earth’s total landmass has become a victim of desertification, threatening the livelihood of a billion people in over 100 countries. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global body for assessing the state of climate change and its impacts, released its 1,500-page report on August 8, echoing the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s finding. IPCC sounded a clear warning for the world: adopt sustainable land management practices or face the consequences of land degradation, climate change, and desertification.

It's Special Report on Climate Change defines desertification as land degradation occurring in drylands—arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. And the way we use land is rapidly turning large tracts dry. Three-quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land is already under stress.

Nearly 50 million hectares (ha) of forest land have been acquired since 2000, mostly for agriculture, in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. As natural grasslands have been replaced with pasturelands, forests with cropland, and wetlands have dried up, greenhouse gases (GHG) in the environment have peaked. During 2007-2016, human activities added 13 percent carbon dioxide (CO 2), 44 percent methane and 82 percent of nitrous oxide to the environment. This was largely due to deforestation, wood harvesting, and agricultural practices. In most regions, global warming due to GHG accelerated desertification and land degradation. Since 1961, the world has lost 11-14 percent of its biodiversity due to land-use changes. These have had drastic social and environmental impacts, yet there is no sign of stagnation in land acquisitions in the foreseeable future.