The decision by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), in Ankara last week, to adopt the target of ‘land degradation neutrality’ by 2030 is a positive step, but achieving this target in practice will be very challenging. The fact that national targets remain entirely voluntary reflects the continuing failure of the international community to respond to the environmental crisis with the urgency it requires.
The concept of land degradation neutrality pragmatically recognises that humanity will continue to degrade at least 12 million hectares of land each year. Expanding populations will demand more space for cities and roads, soaring food demand will put unsustainable demands on productive soils, and threaten to consume our remaining forests and wetlands.
The UNCCD argues that a solution could lie in the land we have already degraded. If we rehabilitated and restored this land at the same rate that we degrade land elsewhere, then we could at least halt the slide towards a degraded planet. Restoration of degraded land generally – but not always – sequesters carbon in the soil. It could therefore play a role in mitigating carbon emissions. UNCCD can bring the forthcoming Paris conference on climate change a slightly hopeful message.
And, as the Ankara conference heard repeatedly, land degradation is a key factor in the recent surge in forced migration and conflict, so that land restoration offers multiple benefits.
However, none of this will be easy. Even assuming that most UN member states are willing to embrace this huge task, many questions remain, and not only the complex technical issues.
At home, we should see the UNCCD agreement as an opportunity to embark on large-scale, science-based restoration schemes on bogs, uplands, forests and wherever we have degraded land through unsustainable exploitation. Remarkably successful small projects have already shown the way forward. We need to scale them up rapidly to make a solid contribution to resolving the environmental crisis that dominates this century.