{"id":33052,"date":"2024-12-02T18:46:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T13:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=33052"},"modified":"2024-12-02T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T13:16:08","slug":"earths-desertification-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/02-12-2024\/earths-desertification-emergency","title":{"rendered":"Earth\u2019s Desertification Emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus :GS 3\/Environment, Conservation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The 16th session of the<strong> UNCCD Conference of Parties (COP16) <\/strong>is going to be held from December 2-13, 2024, marking the convention\u2019s <strong>30th anniversary.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00a0The theme is <strong>&#8220;Our Land and Our Future.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>About the UN Convention to Combat <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/04-10-2022\/desertification-and-land-degradation#:~:text=Desertification%20is%20a%20form%20of%20land%20degradation%20by,sand%20covers%20fertile%20soil%20and%20affects%20its%20fertility.\"><strong>Desertification <\/strong><\/a><strong>(UNCCD).\u00a0<\/strong><br>&#8211; In 1994, 196 countries and the European Union signed the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).\u00a0<br>&#8211; The<strong> Conference of the Parties (COP<\/strong>) is the decision-making body of the UNCCD, bringing together governments, businesses, and civil society to address land challenges and promote sustainability.\u00a0<br> 1. UNCCD is one of the three &#8220;Rio Conventions,&#8221; along with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), all stemming from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.<br>&#8211; COP16 takes place in West Asia, a region heavily impacted by desertification, drought, and land degradation.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About the Desertification\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Desertification is a type of land degradation in which an already relatively dry land area becomes increasingly arid, degrading productive soil and losing its bodies of water, biodiversity and vegetation cover.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Causes\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Every year, <strong>100 million hectares<\/strong> of healthy land are degraded due to drought and <strong>desertification<\/strong>, largely driven by climate change and poor land management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Desertification<\/strong> occurs mainly in dry areas due to<strong> climate variations and human activities like over-farming and deforestation<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Extreme weather<\/strong> events, including droughts and floods, worsen land degradation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Agriculture contributes to 23% of greenhouse gas emissions, 80% of deforestation, and 70% of freshwater use.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Impacts\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Healthy land<\/strong> is crucial for life, providing food, shelter, jobs, regulating climate, and supporting biodiversity.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Up to 40% of the world\u2019s land is degraded, affecting 3.2 billion people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Desertification and droughts <\/strong>are worsening, contributing to forced migration. By 2050, 216 million people will be displaced by climate change, with droughts increasing by 29% since 2000.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Desertification affects <strong>3.2 billion people and leads to $11 trillio<\/strong>n in losses. Immediate action is required to restore 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Impact on Agriculture:<\/strong> Groundwater depletion due to poor rainfall and land management forces farmers to migrate to cities, threatening food security and livelihoods.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Land degradation<\/strong> impacts several other planetary boundaries, including<strong> climate change, biosphere integrity, and freshwater systems, worsening environmental pressures.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Land degradation undermines Earth&#8217;s ability to sustain human life<\/strong>, and failing to reverse it will create challenges for future generations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deforestation and degraded soils drive hunger, migration, and conflicts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Steps of India\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>National Action Plan to Combat Desertification, 2023<\/strong> aims to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land in India by 2030, in line with the country\u2019s commitments under the UNCCD.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It focuses on <strong>South-South Cooperation<\/strong> to share sustainable land management strategies and create additional carbon sinks of <strong>2.5-3 billion tonnes<\/strong> of CO2 equivalent through enhanced forest and tree cover by <strong>2030<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It outlines remedial and preventive models for combating land degradation and desertification.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Solutions\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is possible to <strong>restore land by implementing sustainable practices<\/strong>. UNCCD aims to restore <strong>1.5 billion hectares<\/strong> of <strong>degraded land by 2030<\/strong>, with ongoing efforts in places like <strong>Burkina Faso and the Philippines.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>UNCCD stresses the need for urgent action to prevent further land degradation, as failure to do so will create long-term consequences for future generations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>COP16 Goals in Riyadh:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Accelerate land restoration by 2030<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Build resilience to droughts, sand, and dust storms<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Restore soil health and increase nature-positive food production<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Secure land rights and promote equity in land stewardship<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure land continues to provide climate and biodiversity solutions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unlock economic opportunities, including decent land-based jobs for youth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source :DTE<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 16th session of the UNCCD Conference of Parties (COP16) is going to be held from December 2-13, 2024, marking the convention\u2019s 30th anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33053,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33052\/revisions\/33053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}