United Nations (UN) promote actions to fight against desertification during the World Day to Combat Desertification, June 17th. This year the focus is “inclusive cooperation for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality”.

A landscape of soil degradation after the floods, Nsanje District, Malawi. Photo: FAO/Luca Sola

The soil is a non-renewable resource and its conservation is essential for our food security and also is our sustanaible future, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said in 2015 International Year of Soils. In the same document we can consult How can save our soils?

The world’s soils are rapidly deteriorating due to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, loss of soil organic carbon, soil sealing and other threats, but this trend can be reversed provided countries take the lead in promoting sustainable management practices and the use of appropriate technologies, according to a new UN report released today.

A different approach is required. When soil fertility is lost recovery can be so slow that a human life is not simply not enough. We need to think in long term and future to become sustainable.

More than 33 % of land is moving towards degradation. The most important drivers are: salinity, erosion, acidification, soil compaction and pollution with pesticides and agri-chemicals. The speed of the degradation is increased with nutrient depletion and organic carbon losses.

Reed more about FAO information here.

In this video by FAO, we can see the Acacia project in Senegal, wherein the planting and managing of Acacia forests in marginal lands help combat desertification.

The general secretary of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, said:

We need to change course and start securing every hectare of land that can provide food or freshwater and rehabilitate all the degraded land that we can. The international community will be able to make rapid steps towards controlling climate change.

In 2016, UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) in the World Day to Combat Desertification says that the approach is “Protect Earth. Restore Land. Engage People”. Read here.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon in UN. Source: UN

Mr. Ban ki-moon who stressed that:

If we do not change how we use our land, we will have to convert an area the size of Norway into new farmland every year to meet  future needs for food, freshwater, biofuels and urban growth

Read the full UN news here

Read articles related to this:

– About perennials protecting the soil 

– Massive program for reforestation and renewable energy in Brazil

– Energy Crops increase soil fertility