Food, water, energy crises, human tragedies in 2023-2025 detailed in sweeping analysis

Fuelled by climate change and relentless pressure on land and water resources, some of the most widespread and damaging drought events in recorded history have taken place since 2023, according to a UN-backed report launched today.

Prepared by the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), with support from the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the report, “Drought Hotspots Around the World 2023-2025,” available at https://bit.ly/4kkHApR, provides a comprehensive account of how droughts compound poverty, hunger, energy insecurity, and ecosystem collapse.

“It is here, escalating, and demands urgent global cooperation. When energy, food, and water all go at once, societies start to unravel. That’s the new normal we need to be ready for.”

“This is not a dry spell,” says Dr. Mark Svoboda, report co-author and NDMC Director. “This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I’ve ever seen. This report underscores the need for systematic monitoring of how drought affects lives, livelihoods, and the health of the ecosystems that we all depend on.”

“The Mediterranean countries represent canaries in the coal mine for all modern economies,” he adds. “The struggles experienced by Spain, Morocco and Türkiye to secure water, food, and energy under persistent drought offer a preview of water futures under unchecked global warming. No country, regardless of wealth or capacity, can afford to be complacent.”

A wide-ranging crisis

The new report synthesizes information from hundreds of government, scientific and media sources to highlight impacts within the most acute drought hotspots in Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia), the Mediterranean (Spain, Morocco, Türkiye), Latin America (Panama, Amazon Basin), Southeast Asia, and beyond.

Africa: 

• Over 90 million people across Eastern and Southern Africa face acute hunger. Some areas have been enduring their worst ever recorded drought.
• Southern Africa, already drought-prone, was devastated with roughly 1/6th of the population (68 million) needing food aid in August 2024. 
• In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, maize and wheat crops have failed repeatedly.  In Zimbabwe alone, the 2024 corn crop was down 70% year on year, and maize prices doubled while 9,000 cattle died of thirst and starvation. 
• In Somalia, the government estimated 43,000 people died in 2022 alone due to drought-linked hunger. As of early 2025, 4.4 million people – a quarter of the population – face crisis-level food insecurity, including 784,000 expected to reach emergency levels.
• Zambia suffered one of the world’s worst energy crises as the Zambezi River in April 2024 plummeted to 20% of its long-term average. The country’s largest hydroelectric plant, the Kariba Dam, fell to 7% generation capacity, causing blackouts of up to 21 hours per day and shuttering hospitals, bakeries, and factories.

Mediterranean:

• Spain: Water shortages hit agriculture, tourism, and domestic supply. By September 2023, two years of drought and record heat caused a 50% drop in Spain’s olive crop, causing its olive oil prices to double across the country. 
• Morocco: The sheep population was 38% smaller in 2025 relative to 2016, prompting a royal plea to cancel traditional Eid sacrifices.
• Türkiye: Drought accelerated groundwater depletion, triggering sinkholes that present hazards to communities and their infrastructure while permanently reducing aquifer storage capacity.

Latin America

• Amazon Basin: Record-low river levels in 2023 and 2024 led to mass deaths of fish and endangered dolphins, and disrupted drinking water and transport for hundreds of thousands. As deforestation and fires intensify, the Amazon risks transitioning from a carbon sink to a carbon source.
• Panama Canal: Water levels dropped so low that transits were slashed by over one-third (from 38 to 24 ships daily between October 2023 and January 2024), causing major global trade disruptions. Facing multi-week delays, many ships were rerouted to longer, costlier paths via the Suez Canal or South Africa’s infamous Cape of Good Hope. Among the knock-on effects, U.S. soybean exports slowed, and UK grocery stores reported shortages and rising prices of fruits and vegetables.

Southeast Asia

• Drought disrupted production and supply chains of key crops such as rice, coffee, and sugar. In 2023-2024, dry conditions in Thailand and India, for example, triggered shortages leading to a 8.9% increase in the price of sugar and sweets in the US.

“A Perfect Storm” of El Niño and climate change

The 2023–2024 El Niño event amplified already harsh climate change impacts, triggering dry conditions across major agricultural and ecological zones. Drought’s impacts hit hardest in climate hotspots, regions already suffering from warming trends, population pressures, and fragile infrastructure.

“This was a perfect storm,” says report co-author Dr. Kelly Helm Smith, NDMC Assistant Director and drought impacts researcher. “El Niño added fuel to the fire of climate change, compounding the effects for many vulnerable societies and ecosystems past their limits.”

Co-author Dr. Cody Knutson, who oversees NDMC drought planning research, underlined a recent OECD estimate that a drought episode today carries an economic cost at least twice as high as in 2000, with a 35% to 110% increase projected by 2035.

“Ripple effects can turn regional droughts into global economic shocks,” she adds. “No country is immune when critical water-dependent systems start to collapse.”

Women, children among the most affected

Most vulnerable to the effects of drought: Women, children, the elderly, pastoralists, subsistence farmers, and people with chronic illness.  Health risks include cholera outbreaks, acute malnutrition, dehydration, and exposure to polluted water.

The report highlights in particular the disproportionate toll on women and children.

In Eastern Africa, forced child marriages more than doubled as families sought dowries to survive. Though outlawed in Ethiopia, child marriages more than doubled in frequency in the four regions hit hardest by the drought. Young girls who marry can bring their family income in the form of a dowry while lessening the financial burden of providing food and other necessities.

In Zimbabwe, entire school districts saw mass dropouts due to hunger, costs, and sanitation issues for girls.

In the Amazon, the drought upended life for remote Indigenous and rural communities. In some areas, the Amazon River fell to its lowest level ever recorded, leaving residents stranded – including women giving birth – and entire towns without potable water.

“The coping mechanisms we saw during this drought grew  increasingly desperate,” says lead author Paula Guastello, NDMC drought impacts researcher. “Girls pulled from school and forced into marriage, hospitals going dark, and families digging holes in dry riverbeds just to find contaminated water — these are signs of severe crisis.”

“As droughts intensify, it is critical that we work together on a global scale to protect the most vulnerable people and ecosystems and re-evaluate whether our current water use practices are sustainable in today’s changing world,” Guastello says.

Says Deputy Executive Secretary of UNCCD Andrea Meza: “The report shows the deep and widespread impacts of drought in an interconnected world: from its rippling effects on price of basic commodities like rice, sugar and oil from Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean; to disruptions in access to drinking water and food in the Amazon due to low river levels, to tens of millions affected by malnutrition and displacement across Africa.”

“The evidence is clear”, adds Meza. “We must urgently invest in sustainable land and water management, land-use planning and integrated public policies to build our  resilience to drought or face increasingly harsh consequences.”

Public policies and international cooperation frameworks must urgently prioritize drought resilience for the sake of societies and economies.”

Wildlife killed en masse

• Beyond the 200 endangered river dolphins and thousands of fish lost to the Amazon drought, impacts on wildlife include:
• 100 elephants died in Zimbabwe’s Hwange Park due to starvation and limited access to water between August and December 2023.
• Hippos were stranded in dry riverbeds in Botswana in 2024.
• Some countries last year culled wild animals (e.g., 200 elephants in Zimbabwe and Namibia) to feed rural communities and protect ecosystems from overgrazing.

Lessons and recommendations

The report calls for urgent investments in drought preparedness, including:

• Stronger early warning systems and real-time drought and drought impact monitoring, including conditions contributing to food and water insecurity.
• Nature-based solutions such as watershed restoration and indigenous crop use.
• Resilient infrastructure, including off-grid energy and alternative water supply technologies.
• Gender-responsive adaptation, ensuring that women and girls are not further marginalized.
• Global cooperation, especially in protecting transboundary river basins and trade routes.

“Drought is not just a weather event – it can be a social, economic, and environmental emergency,” says Dr. Smith. “The question is not whether this will happen again, but whether we will be better prepared next time.”

“Drought has a disproportionate effect on those with fewest resources. We can act now to reduce the effects of future droughts by working to ensure that everyone has access to food, water, education, health care and economic opportunity.”

“The nations of the world have the resources and the knowledge to prevent a lot of suffering,” Dr. Smith adds. “The question is, do we have the will?”

* * * * *

By the Numbers:

• 68 million: People needing food aid in Southern Africa
• 23 million: People facing acute hunger in Eastern Africa
• 70%: Maize crop lost in Zimbabwe (2024)
• Up to 21 hours/day: Power outages in Zambia
• 200+: Endangered river dolphins killed by heat in the Amazon (Sept 2023)
• 38: Daily Panama Canal transits before drought; 24 during drought
• 50%: Olive oil production drop in Spain
• 1 million+: People in Somalia displaced due to drought (2022); 4.4 million at crisis-level hunger (early 2025); 1.7 million children suffering acute malnutrition (Apr–Jun 2025)
• 70%: Victoria Falls water level drop compared with 2023 (Zambia side, 2024)
• 100+: Drought-related elephant deaths in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park
• 1,600+: Estimated number of sinkholes in Türkiye due to groundwater depletion
• Nearly doubled: Price increase of maize in Zambia
• €22.84 billion: Spain’s investment in irrigation and water infrastructure

* * * * *

About the report

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification sought to document drought’s recent impacts comprehensively to inform global policy and better prepare societies for future droughts.  The report draws on over 250 peer-reviewed studies, official data sources, and news reports across more than a dozen countries and regions.

*****

News release in full, click here

Coverage highlights

Recent droughts are ‘slow-moving global catastrophe’ – UN report, BBC, United Kingdom (144,490,956)

Droughts worldwide pushing tens of millions towards starvation, says report, The Guardian, United Kingdom (80,836,345)

Earth has seen some of its worst droughts ever recorded in last two years, report finds
CBS News, United States (online reach 43,927,397)

Seca é ‘catástrofe global em câmera lenta’, alerta relatório da ONU, G1, Brazil (62,344,597)

Drought claims victims and fuels social injustices: the UN warns, La Repubblica, Italy (18,488,679)

UN agency report: The world faces severe drought challenges, news.sina.com.cn / 新浪新闻, China (17,922,693)

UN-backed report warns of escalating global drought risk, calls for urgent action, 新华网 (Xinhua), China (2,479,924)

El mapa mundial de la sequía sitúa a España en primera línea de una “catástrofe global”, El Mundo, Spain (22,880,882)

„Eine langsam voranschreitende globale Katastrophe: Wo Wassermangel Menschen am härtesten trifft, Der Tagesspiegel, Germany (9,207,919)

UN schlagen Alarm: Dürre-Bericht sieht fortschreitende globale Katastrophe, dpa via ZEIT online, Germany (4,196,119)

Eventos recordes de seca ocorreram nos últimos dois anos, alerta ONU, Folha de S. Paulo, Brazil (8,765,184)

Record temperatures, failed crops, and power outages: the triple impact of climate change-induced droughts, Infobae, Argentina (97,611,329)

UN-backed report warns of escalating global drought risk, calls for urgent action, IANS newswire via ProKerala.com, India (10,017,911)

How climate change-fuelled drought hit India’s sugar production, India Today, India (39,529,942)

Global drought exacerbates famine and displaces millions, Al Jazeera Arabic Online, Qatar (8,817,968)

Recent droughts are “global catastrophe in slow motion”, SAPO, Portugal (6,257,857)

Climate change is causing increasingly devastating droughts, Presse Canadienne newswire via MSN Canada, Canada (3,375,680)

Full coverage summary, click here

Bonn/Ulaanbaatar – Degradation of Earth’s extensive, often immense natural pastures and other rangelands due to overuse, misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss poses a severe threat to humanity’s food supply and the wellbeing or survival of billions of people, the UN warns in a stark report today.

Authors of the Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Rangelands and Pastoralists, launched May 21 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (and available post-embargo at www.unccd.int), say up to 50% of rangelands are degraded.

Symptoms of the problem include diminished soil fertility and nutrients, erosion, salinization, alkalinization, and soil compaction inhibiting plant growth, all of which contribute to drought, precipitation fluctuations, and biodiversity loss both above and below the ground.

The problem is driven largely by converting pastures to cropland and other land use changes due to population growth and urban expansion, rapidly rising food, fibre and fuel demands, excessive grazing, abandonment (end of maintenance by pastoralists), and policies that incentivise overexploitation.

What are rangelands?

The rangelands category of Earth’s land cover consists mostly of the natural grasslands used by livestock and wild animals to graze and forage. 

They also include savannas, shrublands, wetlands, tundra and deserts.  

Altogether, these lands constitute 54% of Earth’s land cover, account for one sixth of global food production and represent nearly one third of the planet’s carbon reservoir.

“When we cut down a forest, when we see a 100-year-old tree fall, it rightly evokes an emotional response in many of us. The conversion of ancient rangelands, on the other hand, happens in ‘silence’ and generates little public reaction,” says UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw. 

“Sadly, these expansive landscapes and the pastoralists and livestock breeders who depend on them, are usually under-appreciated,” Mr. Thiaw adds. “Despite numbering an estimated half a billion individuals worldwide, pastoralist communities are frequently overlooked, lack a voice in policy-making that directly affects their livelihoods, are marginalised, and are even often seen as outsiders in their own lands.”

Mongolia Environment Minister H.E. Bat-Erdene Bat-Ulzii says: “As custodian of the largest grasslands in Eurasia, Mongolia has always been cautious in transforming rangelands. Mongolian traditions are built on the appreciation of resource limits, which defined mobility as a strategy, established shared responsibilities over the land, and set limits in consumption. We hope this report helps focus attention on rangelands and their many enormous values – cultural, environmental, and economic –  which cannot be overstated. If these rangelands cannot support these massive numbers of people, what alternatives can they turn to?”

Mongolia will host the 17th UNCCD Conference of the Parties meeting in 2026, the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP), declared by the United Nations General Assembly on Mongolia’s initiative.

Two billion people – small-scale herders, ranchers and farmers, often poor and marginalised – depend on healthy rangelands worldwide. 

Indeed, in many West African states, livestock production employs 80% of the population. In Central Asia and Mongolia 60% of the land area is used as grazing rangelands, with livestock herding supporting nearly one third of the region’s population.

Ironically, the report underlines, efforts to increase food security and productivity by converting rangelands to crop production in mostly arid regions have resulted in degraded land and lowered agricultural yields.

The report calls out “weak and ineffective governance,” “poorly implemented policies and regulations,” and “the lack of investment in rangeland communities and sustainable production models” for undermining rangelands.

An innovative approach

The new report’s 60+ expert contributors from over 40 countries agree that past estimates of degraded rangeland worldwide – roughly 25% – “significantly underestimates the actual loss of rangeland health and productivity” and could be as much as 50%. 

Rangelands are often poorly understood and a lack of reliable data undermines the sustainable management of their immense value in food provisioning and climate regulation, the report warns.

The report details an innovative conceptual approach that would enable policy-makers to stabilise, restore and manage rangelands.  

The new approach is backed by experience detailed in case studies from nearly every world region, drawing important lessons from successes and missteps of rangeland management.

A core recommendation: protect pastoralism, a mobile way of life dating back millennia centred on the pasture-based production of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels, yaks, llamas or other domesticated herbivores, along with semi-domesticated species such as bison and reindeer.  

Says Mr. Thiaw: “From the tropics to the Arctic, pastoralism is a desirable default and often the most sustainable option that should be incorporated into rangeland use planning.”

The economic engine of many countries 

Rangelands are an important economic engine in many countries and define cultures. Home to one quarter of the world’s languages, they also host numerous World Heritage Sites and have shaped the value systems, customs and identities of pastoralists for thousands of years. 

The report includes detailed analyses of individual countries and regions.

For example, livestock production accounts for 19% of Ethiopia’s GDP, and 4% of India’s. 

Brazil – with over 250 million cattle — produces 16% of the world’s beef, valued at $7.6 billion in 2019.

In Europe, many rangelands have given way to urbanization, afforestation and renewable energy production. 

In the United States, large tracts of grassland have been converted to crops, while some Canadian grasslands have been left fragile by large-scale mining and infrastructure projects.  There are also positive developments noted, such as growing efforts in both countries to reintroduce bison – an animal of great cultural importance to indigenous peoples – to promote rangeland health and food security. 

World areas most acutely affected by rangelands degradation, ranked in descending order:

Central Asia, China, Mongolia

The replacement of government management and oversight with privatization and agricultural industrialization left herders abandoned and dependent on insufficient natural resources causing widespread degradation.

The gradual restoration of traditional and community-based pastoralism is leading to critical advances in sustainable rangeland management.”

North Africa and Near East

The impact of climate change in one of the world’s driest regions is pushing pastoralists into poverty and degrading the rangelands on which they rely.

Updated traditional institutions, such as Agdals – reservoirs of fodder used to feed animals in periods of critical need and allowing for the regeneration of natural resources – and incipient supportive policies are improving the way rangelands are managed.

Sahel and West Africa

Conflict, power balance and border issues have interrupted livestock mobility leading to rangelands degradation.

Unified policies, recognition of pastoralists’ rights and cross-border agreements are reestablishing mobility for animal herders, crucial for landscape restoration. 

South America

Climatic change, deforestation linked to industrialised agriculture and extractive activities, and land use conversion are South America’s main drivers of rangeland degradation.

Multifunctionality and diversity of pastoralist systems hold the key for restoring some of the most interesting rangelands in the world, including the Pampa, the Cerrado and Caatinga savannahs, and the Puno Andean systems.

East Africa

Migration and forced displacement caused by competing uses of land (such as hunting, tourism, etc), are evicting pastoralists from their traditional lands, causing unanticipated degradation consequences.

Women-led initiatives and improved land rights are securing pastoralists’ livelihoods, protecting biodiversity, and safeguarding the ecosystem services provided by rangelands.

North America

The degradation of ancient grasslands and dry rangelands threatens the biodiversity of iconic North American ecosystems such as the tall-grass prairies or the southern deserts.

The incorporation of indigenous people to rangeland governance is a clear step to help recover these historic landscapes.

Europe

Policies favouring industrial farming over pastoralism and misguided incentives are causing rangelands and other open ecosystems to be abandoned and degraded.

Political and economic support, including legal recognition and differentiation, can turn the tide and help address critical environmental crises such as the rising frequency and intensity of wildfires and climate change.

South Africa and Australia

Afforestation, mining, and the conversion of rangelands to other uses are causing the degradation and loss of rangelands.

The co-creation of knowledge by producers and researchers, and respect for and use of traditional wisdom held by indigenous communities, open new paths for restoring and protecting rangelands. 

Paradigm shift

Halting the deterioration requires a paradigm shift in management at every level – from grassroots to global, the report concludes. 

Pedro Maria Herrera Calvo, the report’s lead author, says: “The meaningful participation of all stakeholders is key to responsible rangeland governance, which fosters collective action, improves access to land and integrates traditional knowledge and practical skills”. 

Achieving “land degradation neutrality” (Sustainable Development Goal 15.3) – balancing the amount and quality of healthy land to support ecosystem services and food security – also requires cross-border cooperation.  

Pastoralists with generations of experience in achieving life in balance with these ecosystems should help inform this process at every step, from planning to decision-making to governance, the report says.  

Solutions must be tailored to the characteristics and dynamics of rangelands, which vary widely from arid to sub-humid environments, as seen in West Africa, India or South America.

The report notes that traditional assessment methods often undervalue the real economic contribution of rangelands and pastoralism, highlighting the need for the innovative approach recommended. 

Among key recommendations: 

• Integrated climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies with sustainable rangeland management plans to increase carbon sequestration and storage while boosting the resilience of pastoralist and rangeland communities
• Avoid or reduce rangeland conversion and other land use changes that diminish the diversity and multifunctionality of rangelands, especially on indigenous and communal lands
• Design and adopt rangeland conservation measures, within and outside protected areas, that support biodiversity above and below ground while boosting the health, productivity, and resilience of extensive livestock production systems

• Adopt and support pastoralism-based strategies and practices that help mitigate harms to rangeland health, such as climate change, overgrazing, soil erosion, invasive species, drought, and wildfires
• Promote supportive policies, full people’s participation and flexible management and governance systems to boost the services that rangelands and pastoralists provide  to the whole society.

Additional key figures

• 80 million sq. km: Area of the world’s terrestrial surface covered by rangelands (over 54%)
• 9.5 million sq. km: Protected rangelands worldwide (12%)
• 67 million sq. km (45% of Earth’s terrestrial surface): Rangelands’ area devoted to livestock production systems (84% of rangelands), almost half of which are in drylands.  Livestock provide food security and generate income for the majority of the 1.2 billion people in developing countries living under the poverty threshold
• 1 billion: animals across more than 100 countries maintained by pastoralists, supporting 200 million households while providing about 10% of world meat supply, as well as dairy, wool and leather products 
• 33%: global biodiversity hotspots found in rangelands
• 24%: proportion of world languages found in rangelands
• 5,000 years ago: When pastoralism first emerged as a land-use system in sub-Saharan Africa 

REGIONAL FACTS & FIGURES

• Over 25% and 10%: Supply of world beef and milk, respectively, provided by Latin America’s cattle industry
• Over 25%: GDP of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad attributed to livestock production
• Over 50%: land in the Middle East and North Africa regions deemed degraded (25% of arable land)
• 60%: area of Central Asia and Mongolia used as grazing rangelands, with livestock herding supporting nearly one third of the region’s population
• 40%: area of China covered by pastoral lands. (Notably, the country’s livestock population tripled between 1980 and 2010 to 441 million livestock units)
• 308 million hectares: area of the contiguous United States covered by rangelands, 31% of the country’s total land area, with ~55% of rangelands privately owned

Comments

“Imbalance between the supply of and demand for animal forage lands leads to overgrazing, invasive species, and the increased risk of drought and wildfires – all of which accelerate desertification and land degradation trends around the world.”

“We must translate our shared aspirations into concrete actions – stopping indiscriminate conversion of rangelands into unsuitable land uses, advocating for policies that support sustainable land management, investing in research that enhances our understanding of rangelands and pastoralism, empowering pastoralist communities to preserve their sustainable practices while also gaining tools to thrive in a changing world, and supporting all stakeholders, especially pastoralists, to implement measures that effectively thwart further degradation and preserve our land, our communities, and our cultures.”

Maryam Niamir-Fuller, Co-Chair, International Support Group for the UN’s International Year for Rangelands and Pastoralists – 2026

For the sake of future generations and economic stability, we need to improve awareness of and safeguard the immense value of rangelands. Due to their dynamic nature, predicting the consequences of rangelands degradation on economics, ecology, and societies is challenging. Managers require authoritative insights into the response of rangelands to different disturbances and management approaches, including policy tools that better capture the broad social importance of rangelands.

Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility 

“More than half of the world’s land mass is rangeland – and yet these landscapes and the people who inhabit and manage them have been largely neglected. They are a main source of food and feed for humanity, and yet they are also the world economy’s dumping ground.  It is time to shift perspective – from ‘a rangeland problem’ to ‘a sustainable rangeland solution’.

UN International Year of Rangelands & Pastoralists (IYRP) Working Group

“Pastoralists produce food in the world’s harshest environments, and pastoral production supports the livelihoods of rural populations on almost half of the world’s land. They have traditionally suffered from poor understanding, marginalization, and exclusion from dialogue. We need to bring together pastoralists and the main actors working with them to join forces and create the synergies for dialogue and pastoralist development

UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

“To have any chance of meeting global biodiversity, climate and food security goals, we simply cannot afford to lose any more of our rangelands, grasslands and savannahs. Our planet suffers from their ongoing conversion, as do the pastoralists who depend on them for their livelihoods, and all those who rely on them for food, water and other vital ecosystem services. The Global Land Outlook reinforces that too little political attention or finance is invested in protecting and restoring these critical ecosystems. National and sub-national authorities must take place-based action to safeguard and improve the health and productivity of rangelands, grasslands and savannahs – to benefit people and planet.”

Joao Campari, Global Food Practice Leader, World Wildlife Fund

* * * * * 

About UNCCD

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food, clean water and energy by ensuring land users an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. 

https://unccd.int

About the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists

On the initiative of Mongolia, the United Nations General Assembly has designated 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026) to enhance rangeland management and the lives of pastoralists. With this declaration, UN Member States are called upon to invest in sustainable rangeland management, to restore degraded lands, to improve market access by pastoralists, to enhance livestock extension services, and to fill knowledge gaps on rangelands and pastoralism. The IYRP 2026 will coincide with the UNCCD COP17 to be hosted by Mongolia.

https://iyrp.info

Media coverage highlights

Agence France Presse, Demise of rangelands ‘severely underestimated’: report https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-13441605/Demise-rangelands-severely-underestimated-report.html

Agence France Presse (French version) via Orange actu, France (3,114,035), La dégradation des grands pâturages mondiaux est “gravement sous-estimée”, alerte l’ONU (The degradation of the world’s great pastures is “seriously underestimated”, warns the UN) https://actu.orange.fr/societe/environnement/la-degradation-des-grands-paturages-mondiaux-est-amp-quot-gravement-sous-estimee-amp-quot-alerte-l-onu-CNT000002dVn8N.html

Reuters, United Kingdom, Half of world’s pastures degraded by overuse, climate change, UN report says, https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/half-worlds-pastures-degraded-by-overuse-climate-change-un-report-says-2024-05-21

Reuters Portuguese, Metade das pastagens do mundo está degradada por uso excessivo e clima, mostra relatório da ONU (Half of the world’s pastures are degraded by overuse and climate, UN report shows) https://www.terra.com.br/noticias/mundo/metade-das-pastagens-do-mundo-esta-degradada-por-uso-excessivo-e-clima-mostra-relatorio-da-onu,824cede2269d9c4bfb5fbe0c31add9c46utdeu33.html

Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA), Germany 1) Natur: UN: Graslandschaften in Not(UN: Grasslands in need) https://www.focus.de/wissen/diverses/natur-un-graslandschaften-in-not_id_259961607.html; 2) Fast die Hälfte der Graslandschaften in schlechtem Zustand(Almost half of the grasslands are in poor condition) https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/uno-bericht-fast-die-haelfte-der-graslandschaften-in-schlechtem-zustand-a-1bb638fc-e973-4dd4-99b8-b7a8f6d47c4b

Agencia EFE, Spain, La degradación de los pastizales del planeta ponen en riesgo el suministro de alimentos (The degradation of the planet’s grasslands puts the food supply at risk) https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2024/05/21/la-degradacion-de-los-pastizales-del-planeta-ponen-en-riesgo-el-suministro-de-alimentos

Xinhua Chinese, China, 联合国报告呼吁加强保护牧场 (UN report calls for greater protection of rangelands) https://www.163.com/dy/article/J2NQM4BJ05346RC6.html

Xinhua English, Silent demise of rangelands threatens climate, food security: UN report https://english.news.cn/20240521/0692447051764f068998b629cd2023e6/c.html

Press Trust of India, India ‘Silent demise’ of rangelands threatens climate survival of billions worldwide UN report, https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/national/2024/05/21/del40-env-rangelands.html

BBC, United Kingdom (98,593,830), starts at 45’09’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172zb8w3kb84ys

Radio France International (RFI), France, Les pâturages, des terres fragiles qu’il faut préserver https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/questions-d-environnement/20240521-les-p%C3%A2turages-des-terres-fragiles-qu-il-faut-pr%C3%A9server

The Indian Express, India (60,889,380) Pastoralists in India need better access to land and rights recognition, says UN report https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pastoralists-india-land-un-report-9342969/

Down to Earth, India, Rangelands are facing a ‘silent demise’, suffering losses as high as 50% https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/rangelands-are-facing-a-silent-demise-suffering-losses-as-high-as-50–96257

Full coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Two billion tons of sand and dust, equal in weight to 350 Great Pyramids of Giza, enter the atmosphere every year; UNCCD experts attribute over 25% of the problem to human activities; Wreaks havoc from Northern and Central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa; Health impacts poorly understood

Sand and dust storms are an under-appreciated problem now “dramatically” more frequent in some places worldwide, with at least 25% of the phenomenon attributed to human activities, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Accompanied by policy recommendations, the warning comes as a five-day meeting takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan to take stock of global progress in the Convention’s implementation. The UNCCD is one of three Conventions originated at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The other two address climate change (UNFCCC) and biodiversity (UN CBD).

The meeting, 13-17 November (www.unccd.int/cric21) , includes a high-level session on 15 November hosted by the Government of Uzbekistan on ways to address the impacts of sand and dust storms on global agriculture, industry, transportation ​, water and air quality​, and human health​.

Says Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD’s Executive Secretary: “The sight of rolling dark clouds of sand and dust engulfing everything in their path and turning day into night is one of nature’s most intimidating spectacles. “It is a costly phenomenon that wreaks havoc everywhere from Northern and Central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa.”

“Sand and dust storms present a formidable challenge to achieving sustainable development. However, just as sand and dust storms are exacerbated by human activities, they can also be reduced through human actions,” adds Thiaw. ​

While sand and dust storms (SDS) are a regionally common and seasonal natural phenomenon, the problem is exacerbated by poor land and water management, droughts, and climate change, according to UNCCD experts.

And fluctuations in their intensity, magnitude, or duration “can make SDS unpredictable and dangerous.”

With impacts far beyond the source regions, an estimated 2 billion tons of sand and dust now enters the atmosphere every year, an amount equal in weight to 350 Great Pyramids of Giza.

In some areas, desert dust doubled in the last century.

“Sand and dust storms (SDS) have become increasingly frequent and severe having substantial transboundary impacts, affecting various aspects of the environment, climate, health, agriculture, livelihoods and the socioeconomic well-being of individuals. The accumulation of impacts from sand and dust storms can be significant,” says Feras Ziadat, Technical Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), Chair of the UN Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms.

“In source areas, they damage crops, affect livestock, and strip topsoil. In depositional areas atmospheric dust, especially in combination with local industrial pollution, can cause or worsen human health problems such as respiratory diseases. Communications, power generation, transportation, and supply chains can also be disrupted by low visibility and dust-induced mechanical failures. The United Nations Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms, chaired by FAO, was created in 2019 to lead global efforts to address SDS.”

In their Sand and Dust Storms Compendium (https://bit.ly/3slJ6mE) and accompanying SDS Toolbox (https://bit.ly/3QSPWcI), the UNCCD, FAO and partners offer guidance on approaches and methodologies for collecting and assessing SDS data, monitoring and early warning, impact mitigation and preparedness, and source mapping and anthropogenic source mitigation at sub-national, national, regional and global levels.

The SDS discussion forms part of the agenda of this year’s meeting in Uzbekistan of the UNCCD’s Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 21) and global progress in delivering the Convention’s strategic objectives. It marks the first time since its establishment that UNCCD has agreed to one of its most significant meetings in Central Asia.

The meeting comes at a critical juncture, as recent statistics published via UNCCD’s new data dashboard (https://data.unccd.int) shows the world now losing nearly 1 million square kilometers of healthy and productive land every year – some 4.2 million square kilometers between 2015-2019, or roughly the combined area of ​​five Central Asian nations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

During the meeting (at 18:00 local time / 13:00 GMT, Tuesday 14 November) UNCCD and FAO experts will launch three reports:

Sand and dust storms. A guide to mitigation, adaptation, policy and risk management measures in agriculture (https://bit.ly/40zSEad)
Contingency planning process for catalysing investments and actions to enhance resilience against sand and dust storms in agriculture in the Islamic Republic of Iran (https://bit.ly/3QP8pqF) and
Preparing for sand and dust storm contingency planning with herding communities: a case study on Mongolia (https://bit.ly/3swg8Rd)

Other items on the CRIC 21 agenda include promoting sustainable land management, ensuring fair land rights for women, and tackling droughts and wildfires exacerbated by climate change and environmental degradation.

Background: Sand and dust storms

Sand and dust storms (SDS) are known by many local names: the sirocco, haboob, yellow dust, white storms, or the harmattan.

While SDS can fertilize both land and marine ecosystems, they also present a range of hazards to human health, livelihoods and the environment.

SDS events typically originate in low-latitude drylands and sub-humid areas where vegetation cover is sparse or absent.

They can also occur in other environments, including agricultural and high-latitude areas in humid regions, when specific wind and atmospheric conditions coincide. SDS events can have substantial transboundary impacts, over thousands of kilometers. Unified and coherent global and regional policy responses are needed, especially to address source mitigation, early warning systems, and monitoring.

SDS often have significant economic impacts: for example, they cost the oil sector in Kuwait an estimated US$ 190 million annually, while a single SDS event in 2009 resulted in damage estimated at US$ 229 – 243 million in Australia.

The major global sources of mineral dust are in the northern hemisphere across North Africa, the Middle East and East Asia. In the southern hemisphere, Australia, South America and Southern Africa are the main dust sources.

More than 80% of Central Asia is covered by deserts and steppes which, coupled with climate change and lasting droughts, represent a major natural source of sand and dust storms.

The dried-up Aral Sea is a major source of SDS, emitting more than 100 million tons of dust and poisonous salts every year, impacting the health not just of the people living in the vicinity, but far beyond and generating annual losses of US$ 44 million.

Recognition of SDS as a disaster risk appears to be high in North-East Asia, parts of West Asia and North America but less prominent elsewhere.

Low recognition of SDS as a disaster risk is likely due to the lack (in many cases) of significant immediate direct human fatalities or injuries from individual SDS events, and limited consolidated documentation on their long-term health, economic or other impacts.

SDS and health

SDS can be life-threatening for individuals with adverse health conditions.

Fine dust particles are carried to high tropospheric levels (up to a few kilometers high) where winds can transport them over long distances.

The health implications of SDS have been under increased research for decades, with most studies conducted in East Asia, Europe and the Middle East. There has been a lack of studies in West Africa.

A particular focus of this research has been SDS modification of air pollution.

The cause-and-effect between sand and dust in the atmosphere and health outcomes remains unclear and requires more extensive study. What can be said is that at-risk members of a population, especially those with pre-existing cardiopulmonary issues, including childhood asthma, may have a higher mortality or morbidity rate during a dust storm.

SDS can also impose major costs on the agricultural sector through crop destruction or reduced yield, animal death or lower yields of milk or meat, and damage to infrastructure.

For annual crops, losses are due to burial of seedlings or crops under sand deposits, loss of plant tissue and reduced photosynthetic activity as a result of sandblasting. This can lead to complete crop loss in a region or reduced yield.

There may also be a longer-term effect on some perennial crops due to tree or crop damage (such as lucerne/alfalfa crowns being damaged).

On a positive note, SDS dust can contain soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as organic carbon. Some places benefit from this nutrient deposition on land, and mineral and nutrient deposition on water, particularly ocean bodies. When deposited, these can provide nutrients to downwind crop or pasture areas. These limited benefits, however, are far outweighed by the harms done.

Globally, the main large dust sources are dried lakes; Local sources include glacial outwash plains, volcanic ash zones and recently plowed fields.

The multi-faceted, cross-sectoral and transnational impacts of SDS directly affect 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals yet global recognition of SDS as a hazard is generally low due in part to the complexity and seasonally cumulative impact of SDS, coupled with limited data .

Insufficient information and impact assessments hinder effective decision-making and planning to effectively address SDS sources and impacts.

UNCCD helps governments create policies to promote the scaling-up of sustainable land management practices and to find and use the latest science to develop and implement effective mitigation policies.

Working with The Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia , (https://bit.ly/46aAhKq) UNCCD assists countries vulnerable to drought and sand and dust storms in Central Asia to develop and implement risk reduction strategies at national and regional level. UNCCD encourages countries to adopt a comprehensive risk reduction strategy with monitoring and early warning systems to improve preparedness and resilience to these environmental disasters.

Among the measures most needed are

A multi-sector approach bolstered by information-sharing, short- and long-term interventions, engaging multiple stakeholders, and raising awareness of SDS.

Land restoration, using soil and water management practices to protect soils and increase vegetative cover, which have been shown to significantly reduce the extent and vulnerability of source areas, and reduce the intensity of typical SDS events.

Early warning and monitoring, building on up-to-date risk knowledge, and forecasting, with all stakeholders (including at-risk populations) participating to ensure that warnings are provided in a timely and targeted manner

Impact mitigation, through preparedness to reduce vulnerability, increase resilience, and enables a timely, effective response to SDS events

* * * *

The UNCCD is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food, clean water and energy by ensuring land users an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss.

The UNCCD Secretariat led the creation of the SDS Compendium document in collaboration with the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Women, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and external experts and partners.

* * * * *

Media coverage highlights

Agence France Presse, via Yahoo! News, United States (60,271,710) Threat from sand and dust storms spreading: UN https://news.yahoo.com/threat-sand-dust-storms-spreading-085241715.html

Reuters, United Kingdom (54,756,031)
Worsening sand, dust storms driving global land loss, says UN https://www.reuters.com/article/global-environment-sandstorms/worsening-sand-dust-storms-driving-global-land-loss-says-un-idUSL1N3CG0OS

Deutsche Presse Agentur, via t-online, Germany (21,641,104) Naturkatastrophe | UN-Experten warnen vor Sandstürmen: “Unterschätztes Problem “Natural disaster | UN experts warn of sandstorms: “underestimated problem” https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/panorama/vermischtes/id_100281608/un-experten-warnen-vor-sandstuermen-unterschaetztes-problem-.html

EuroNews, Belgium ‘Unpredictable and dangerous’: What is human activity doing to sand and dust storms?
https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/11/15/unpredictable-and-dangerous-what-is-human-activity-doing-to-sand-and-dust-storms

Europa Press, Spain, via Infobae, Argentina (70,894,996) Aumenta la frecuencia de tormentas de polvo, en parte por causa humana Increases the frequency of dust storms, partly due to human cause https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2023/11/15/aumenta-la-frecuencia-de-tormentas-de-polvo-en-parte-por-causa-humana/

Agencia EFE, Spain, via Infobae, Argentina (70,894,996) Aumenta la frecuencia de tormentas de arena y polvo en el mundo, advierte la ONU Increases the frequency of sand and dust storms in the world, warns the UN https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2023/11/15/aumenta-la-frecuencia-de-tormentas-de-arena-y-polvo-en-el-mundo-advierte-la-onu/

Libération, France (9,050,211)
La fréquence des tempêtes de sable et de poussière «en forte hausse», avertit l’ONU The frequency of sandstorms of sand and dust “upstairs”, warns the UN https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/climat/la-frequence-des-tempetes-de-sable-et-de-poussiere-en-forte-hausse-avertit-lonu-20231115_IB63KDBQJFFGNFUOWPVMB7WMNQ/

Correio Braziliense, Brazil (8,755,803) Temporais de poeira cada vez mais frequentes Increasingly frequent dust storms
https://www.correiobraziliense.com.br/ciencia-e-saude/2023/11/6655232-relatorio-mostra-o-impacto-das-mudancas-climaticas-na-saude-humana.html

Radio France International, France (8,047,661) Pourquoi la désertification et les tempêtes de sable inquiètent? Why desertification and sandstorms worry? https://www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/questions-d-environnement/20231115-pourquoi-la-d%C3%A9sertification-et-les-temp%C3%AAtes-de-sable-inqui%C3%A8tent

ORF Online, Austria (7,591,460) Sandstürme sind unterschätztes Problem Sandstorms are underestimated problemhttps://science.orf.at/stories/3222137/

ANTARA News, Indonesia (7,220,692) PBB: Lahan produktif hilang akibat badai pasir, debu yang memburuk UN: Productive land is lost due to sandstorm, deteriorating dusthttps://www.antaranews.com/berita/3824529/pbb-lahan-produktif-hilang-akibat-badai-pasir-debu-yang-memburuk

GEO, France (7,117,832) 350 pyramides de Khéops par an : pourquoi tant de sable et de poussière s’élèvent-ils vers l’atmosphère ? 350 pyramids of khéops per year: why so much sand and dust rise to the atmosphere?https://www.geo.fr/environnement/desertification-350-pyramides-kheops-par-an-pourquoi-tant-de-sable-et-poussiere-elevent-vers-atmosphere-vents-217532

Le Temps, Switzerland (2,600,762) Les tempêtes de sable se multiplient en raison du changement climatique, alerte l’ONU Sandstorms are increasing due to climate change, alerts the UN https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/les-tempetes-de-sable-se-multiplient-en-raison-du-changement-climatique-alerte-l-onu

RTBF, Belgium (5,577,094) with AFP/Belga newswires
Climat: l’ONU alerte contre l’augmentation “dramatique” des tempêtes de sable Climate: the UN alerts against the “dramatic” increase in sandstorms https://www.rtbf.be/article/climat-l-onu-alerte-contre-l-augmentation-dramatique-des-tempetes-de-sable-11286973

Protothemanews, Greece (4,604,704) ΟΗΕ: Γιατί οι καταιγίδες άμμου και σκόνης γίνονται χειρότερες – Ο κόσμος χάνει σχεδόν 1 εκατομμύριο τ.χλμ. γης UN: Why sand and dust storms get worse – people lose almost 1 million sq. Km. land https://www.protothema.gr/environment/article/1435735/oie-giati-oi-kataigides-ammou-kai-skonis-ginodai-heiroteres-o-kosmos-hanei-shedon-1-ekatommurio-thlm-gis/

Bnn, India (1,691,953) Story 1) Land Degradation: A Global Crisis Worsened by Human Activities https://bnn.network/breaking-news/climate-environment/land-degradation-a-global-crisis-worsened-by-human-activities; Story 2) Desertification Threatens Global Economy and Security, Says UNCCD https://bnn.network/breaking-news/climate-environment/desertification-threatens-global-economy-and-security-says-unccd/

UzDaily, Uzbekistan (52,582) 25% песчаных и пыльных бурь вызывает человеческая деятельность 25% of sand and dusty storms caused by human activity http://www.uzdaily.uz/ru/post/81273

Imag, Ukraine (32,083) «Для Узбекистана проблема песчаных и пыльных бурь актуальна как никогда» — глава Минэкологии“For Uzbekistan, the problem of sandy and dust storms is more relevant than ever” – the head of the Ministry of Ecology https://imag.one/news/dlya-uzbekistana-problema-peschanyh-i-pylnyh/14137343

Full coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Key role in 60% of global plant and animal extinctions; Annual costs now >$423 Billion – have quadrupled every decade since 1970; Report provides evidence, tools and options to help governments achieve ambitious new global goal on invasive alien species

The severe global threat posed by invasive alien species is underappreciated, underestimated, and often unacknowledged. According to a major new report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), more than 37,000 alien species have been introduced by many human activities to regions and biomes around the world. This conservative estimate is now rising at unprecedented rates. More than 3,500 of these are harmful invasive alien species – seriously threatening nature, nature’s contributions to people and good quality of life. Too often ignored until it is too late, invasive alien species are a significant challenge to people in all regions and in every country.

Approved Sept 2 in Bonn, Germany, by representatives of the 143 member States of IPBES,  the Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control finds that alongside dramatic changes to biodiversity and ecosystems, the global economic cost of invasive alien species exceeded $423 billion annually in 2019, with costs having at least quadrupled every decade since 1970.

In 2019, the IPBES Global Assessment Report found that invasive alien species are one of the five most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss – alongside changes in land- and sea-use, direct exploitation of species, climate change and pollution. On the basis of this finding, Governments tasked IPBES to provide the best available evidence and policy options to deal with the challenges of biological invasions. The resulting report was produced by 86 experts from 49 countries, working for more than four and a half years. It draws on more than 13,000 references, including very significant contributions from Indigenous Peoples and local communities, making it the most comprehensive assessment ever carried out of invasive alien species around the world.

“Invasive alien species are a major threat to biodiversity and can cause irreversible damage to nature, including local and global species extinctions, and also threaten human wellbeing,” said Professor Helen Roy (United Kingdom), co-chair of the Assessment with Prof. Anibal Pauchard (Chile) and Prof. Peter Stoett (Canada). 

The authors of the report emphasize that not all alien species become invasive – invasive alien species are the subset of alien species that are known to have become established and spread, which cause negative impacts on nature and often also on people. About 6% of alien plants; 22% of alien invertebrates; 14% of alien vertebrates; and 11% of alien microbes are known to be invasive, posing major risks to nature and to people. People with the greatest direct dependence on nature, such as Indigenous Peoples and local communities, are found to be at even greater risk. More than 2,300 invasive alien species are found on lands under the stewardship of Indigenous Peoples – threatening their quality of life and even cultural identities.        

While many alien species were historically introduced on purpose for their perceived benefits to people, the IPBES report finds that the negative impacts of those that do become invasive are enormous for nature and people. “Invasive alien species have been a major factor in 60% and the only driver in 16% of global animal and plant extinctions that we have recorded, and at least 218 invasive alien species have been responsible for more than 1,200 local extinctions . In fact, 85% of the impacts of biological invasions on native species are negative,” said Prof. Pauchard. Examples of such impacts include the ways that North American beavers (Castor canadensis) and Pacific Oysters (Magallana gigas) change ecosystems by transforming habitats – often with severe consequences for native species.    

Nearly 80% of the documented impacts of invasive alien species on nature’s contributions to people are also negative – especially through damage to food supplies – such as the impact of the European shore crab (Carcinus maenas) on commercial shellfish beds in New England and the damage caused by the Caribbean false mussel (Mytilopsis sallei) to locally important fishery resources in India.  

Similarly, 85% of documented impacts negatively affect people’s quality of life – for instance through health impacts, including diseases such as malaria, Zika and West Nile Fever, spread by invasive alien mosquito species like Aedes albopictusand Aedes aegyptii. Invasive alien species also damage livelihoods, for example in Lake Victoria where fisheries have declined due to the depletion of tilapia, as a result of the spread of water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes), which is the world’s most widespread terrestrial invasive alien species. Lantana (Lantana camara), a flowering shrub, and the black rat (Rattus rattus) are the second and third most widespread globally, with far-reaching impacts on people and nature. 

“It would be an extremely costly mistake to regard biological invasions only as someone else’s problem,” said Pauchard. “Although the specific species that inflict damages vary from place to place, these are risks and challenges with global roots but very local impacts, facing people in every country, from all backgrounds and in every community – even Antarctica is being affected.” 

The report shows that 34% of the impacts of biological invasions were reported from the Americas, 31% from Europe and Central Asia, 25% from Asia and the Pacific and about 7% from Africa. Most negative impacts are reported on land (about 75%) – especially in forests, woodlands and cultivated areas – with considerably fewer reported in freshwater (14%) and marine (10%) habitats . Invasive alien species are most damaging on islands, with numbers of alien plants now exceeding the number of native plants on more than 25% of all islands.

“The future threat from invasive alien species is a major concern,” said Prof. Roy. “37% of the 37,000 alien species known today have been reported since 1970 – largely caused by rising levels of global trade and human travel. Under ‘business-as-usual’ conditions, we project that total numbers of alien species will continue to increase in this way.”

“But business-as-usual is actually unlikely,” continues Roy. “With so many major drivers of change predicted to worsen, it is expected that the increase of invasive alien species and their negative impacts, are likely to be significantly greater. The accelerating global economy, intensified and expanded land- and sea-use change, as well as demographic changes are likely to lead to increases in invasive alien species worldwide. Even without the introduction of new alien species, already established alien species will continue to expand their ranges and spread to new countries and regions. Climate change will make the situation even worse.” The report underscores that interactions between invasive alien species and other drivers of change will be likely to amplify their impacts – for example invasive alien plants can interact with climate change, often resulting in more intense and frequent fires, such as some of the devastating wildfires experienced recently around the world, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The IPBES experts point to the generally insufficient measures in place to tackle these challenges. While 80% of countries have targets related to managing invasive alien species in their national biodiversity plans, only 17% have national laws or regulations specifically addressing these issues. This also increases the risk of invasive alien species for neighbouring States. The report finds that 45% of all countries do not invest in the management of biological invasions.    

On a more positive note, the report highlights that future biological invasions, invasive alien species, and their impacts, can be prevented through effective management and more integrated approaches. “The good news is that, for almost every context and situation, there are management tools, governance options and targeted actions that really work,” said Prof. Pauchard. “Prevention is absolutely the best, most cost-effective option – but eradication, containment and control are also effective in specific contexts. Ecosystem restoration can also improve the results of management actions and increase the resistance of ecosystems to future invasive alien species . Indeed, managing invasive alien species can help to mitigate the negative effects of other drivers of change.” 

Prevention measures – such as border biosecurity and strictly enforced import controls – are identified by the report as having worked in many instances, such as the successes achieved in Australasia in reducing the spread of the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys). Preparedness, early detection and rapid response are shown to be effective at reducing rates of alien species establishment, and to be especially critical for marine and connected water systems . The PlantwisePlus programme, assisting smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America is spotlighted by the report as a good example of the importance of general surveillance strategies to detect new alien species.

Eradication has been successful and cost-effective for some invasive alien species, especially when their populations are small and slow-spreading, in isolated ecosystems such as islands. Some examples of this are in French Polynesia where the black rat (Rattus rattus) and rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have been successfully eradicated. The report indicates that eradication of alien plants is more challenging due to the length of time that seeds may lie dormant in soil. The authors add that successful eradication programmes depend on, amongst other elements, the support and engagement of stakeholders and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

When eradication is not possible for different reasons, invasive alien species can often be contained and controlled – especially in land-based and closed water systems, as well as in aquaculture – an example being the containment of the invasive alien Asian tunicate (Styela clava) in aqua-cultured blue mussels in Canada. Successful containment can be physical, chemical or biological – although the appropriateness and effectiveness of each option is dependent on local context. The use of biological control for invasive alien plants and invertebrates, such as introducing a rust fungus (Puccinia spegazzinii) to control bitter vine (Mikania micrantha) in the Asia-Pacific region, has been effective – with success in more than 60% of known cases.

“One of the most important messages from the report is that ambitious progress in tackling invasive alien species is achievable,” said Prof. Stoett. “What is needed is a context-specific integrated approach, across and within countries and the various sectors involved in providing biosecurity, including trade and transportation; human and plant health; economic development and more. This will have far-reaching benefits for nature and people.” Options explored in the report include considering coherent policies and codes of conduct across sectors and scales; commitment and resourcing; public awareness and engagement, such as citizen science campaigns like those promoting ‘check, clean and dry’; open and interoperable information systems; filling knowledge gaps (the authors identify more than 40 areas where research is needed); as well as inclusive and fair governance.

“The immediate urgency of invasive alien species, with extensive and growing harm to nature and people, makes this report so valuable and timely,” said Dr. Anne Larigauderie, the Executive Secretary of IPBES. “The Governments of the world agreed, in December last year, as part of the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, to reduce the introduction and establishment of priority invasive alien species by at least 50% by 2030. This is a vital, but also very ambitious commitment. The IPBES Invasive Alien Species Report provides the evidence, tools and options to help make this commitment more achievable.”

* * * * *

Species

• >37,000: alien species established worldwide
• 200: new alien species recorded every year
• >3,500: invasive alien species recorded globally, including 1,061 plants (6% of all alien plant species), 1,852 invertebrates (22%), 461 vertebrates (14%) and 141 microbes (11%)
• 37%: proportion of known alien species reported since 1970
• 36%: anticipated increase in alien species by 2050 compared to 2005, under a “business-as-usual” scenario (assumes past trends in drivers of change continue)
• >35%: proportion of alien freshwater fish in the Mediterranean basin that have arisen from aquaculture

Impacts

• 34%: proportion of impacts reported in the Americas (31% Europe and Central Asia; 25% Asia Pacific; 7% Africa
• 75%: impacts reported in the terrestrial realm (mostly in temperate and boreal forests and woodlands and cultivated areas)
• 14%: proportion of impacts reported in freshwater ecosystems 
• 10%: proportion of impacts reported in the marine realm
• 60%: proportion of recorded global extinctions to which invasive alien species have contributed
• 16%: proportion of recorded global extinctions in which invasive alien species have been the sole driver
• 1,215: local extinctions of native species caused by 218 invasive alien species (32.4% were invertebrates, 50.9% vertebrates, 15.4% plants, 1.2% microbes)
• 27%: invasive alien species impacts on native species through ecosystem properties changes (24% through interspecific competition; 18% through predation; 12% through herbivory)
• 90%: global extinctions on islands attributed mainly to invasive alien species
• >$423 billion: estimated annual economic cost of biological invasions, 2019
• 92%: proportion of economic costs of biological invasions attributed to invasive alien species damaging nature’s contributions to people and good quality of life (with the remaining 8% of costs related to biological invasion management)
• >2,300: invasive alien species documented on lands managed, used and/or owned by Indigenous Peoples
• 400%: rise in the economic cost of biological invasions in every decade since 1970

Policy and management:

• 80% (156 out of 196): countries with targets in national biodiversity strategies and action plans for managing biological invasions
• >200%: increase in the last decade in the number of countries with national invasive alien species checklists, including databases (196 countries in 2022)
• 83%: countries without specific national legislation or regulations on invasive alien species
• 88%: success rate of eradication programmes (1,550) conducted on 998 islands
• >60%: success rates of biological control programs for invasive alien plants and invertebrates

IPBES Partner Comments

Humanity has been moving species around the world for centuries. This practice has brought some positives. However, when imported species run rampant and unbalance local ecosystems, indigenous biodiversity suffers. As a result, invasive species have become one of the five horsemen of the biodiversity apocalypse that is riding down harder and faster upon the world.

While the other four horsemen – changing land- and sea-use, over exploitation, climate change and pollution – are relatively well understood, knowledge gaps remain around invasive species. The IPBES Invasive Alien Species Report is a welcome effort to close these gaps. By providing critical information on trends in invasive species and policy tools to address them, this report can provide a springboard to concrete action on invasive species.

I ask all decision-makers to use this report’s recommendations as a basis to act on this growing threat to biodiversity and human well-being – and make a real contribution to achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by 2030.

Inger Andersen, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Invasive alien species pose a substantial threat to livelihoods and food security around the world. They can, for example, manifest as destructive crop or forest pests or displace species targeted by fisheries. They are an important driver of biodiversity loss and hence a threat to the various ecosystem services that support agricultural production and sustainable livelihoods. 

The information contained in this report will contribute greatly to efforts to combat the spread of invasive alien species and to meeting Target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It will be especially valuable for all of us who work to integrate the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into the world’s agrifood systems to enhance their productivity and resilience.

QU Dongyu, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Invasive alien species — plants, animals or microorganisms that are introduced intentionally or unintentionally into areas where they are not native — remain one of the most striking symptoms of the adverse effect of human activities on our natural world. They not only contribute to wildlife species extinctions, but also pose a rapidly growing risk to progress on the Global Goals — affecting entire ecosystems, economies and food security to human health, wellbeing, and livelihoods. 

As anthropogenic factors such as climate change provide the perfect petri dish for alien species to multiply and spread, our decisions and actions must be rooted in a comprehensive understanding of this threat and its future implications. 

Addressing this need, this timely analysis by IPBES combines the latest science, data, and new thinking to guide countries, communities, and the United Nations family to prevent, mitigate, and manage invasive alien species, a pivotal step towards advancing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets. That includes leveraging invaluable local knowledge and outlining a range of practical solutions. 

This new understanding will allow our global community to take new measures to protect both people and planet from the unwanted and severe consequences of invasive alien species.

Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Invasive alien species are one of the five main direct drivers of biodiversity loss globally and the threats they pose to species, to ecosystems and to human well-being are rapidly increasing. 

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, in its Target 6, aims to tackle the impacts of invasive alien species on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and to reduce the rate of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species by at least 50% by 2030. This is an ambitious target, especially when we consider the increasing levels of global trade and travel. 

The IPBES Assessment will provide the best available scientific knowledge to help countries and stakeholders understand and address this growing threat. It will identify tools and policy measures for identifying and regulating pathways of introduction and for eliminating or controlling invasive species that have already been established. Critically, the assessment will take into account different value systems and help to focus actions on priority species, pathways and sites.

Congratulations to IPBES for this critical work. I look forward to seeing its active use by Parties and stakeholders. I believe it will be a critical resource to facilitate the urgent actions necessary to achieve Target 6 and work towards living in harmony with nature.  

David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary, The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

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IPBES has now released the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Invasive Alien Species Report. The SPM presents the key messages and policy options, as approved by the IPBES Plenary. To access the SPM, photos, ‘B-roll’ and other media resources go to: www.bit.ly/IASMedia The full six-chapter Report (including all data) will be published later this year.

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About IPBES:

Often described as the “IPCC for biodiversity”, IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising more than 140 member Governments. Established by Governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regarding the planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use these vital natural assets. For more information about IPBES and its assessments visit www.ipbes.net

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Coverage highlights

New York Times, United States
Invasive Species Are Costing the Global Economy Billions, Study Finds
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/04/climate/invasive-species-cost-ipbes.html

Washington Post, United States
Scientists warn invasive pests are taking a staggering toll on society Invasive pests are wreaking havoc across the planet, destroying crops, disseminating pathogens, depleting fish people rely on for food
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/scientists-warn-invasive-pests-are-taking-a-staggering-toll-on-society/ar-AA1gdunT

Agence France Presse, France
World losing high-stakes fight against invasive species
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/world-losing-high-stakes-fight-against-invasive-species/ar-AA1gdL3l

The Hill, United States
Invasive species are costing society more than $423 billion a year: report
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/invasive-species-are-costing-society-more-than-423-billion-a-year-report/ar-AA1geTLO

Business Insider, United States
From non-native bluegrass in Antarctica to beautiful spotted bugs in the middle of NYC, here are 5 invasive species that are as stunning as they are threatening to humanity
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/from-non-native-bluegrass-in-antarctica-to-beautiful-spotted-bugs-in-the-middle-of-nyc-here-are-5-invasive-species-that-are-as-stunning-as-they-are-threatening-to-humanity/ar-AA1gf4Il

CNN, United States
Invasive species cost the world $423 billion every year and are causing environmental chaos, UN reports finds
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/invasive-species-cost-the-world-423-billion-every-year-and-are-causing-environmental-chaos-un-reports-finds/ar-AA1gfHg8

Newsweek, United States
Invasive Raccoons Wreaking Havoc on Europe’s Wildlife
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/invasive-raccoons-wreaking-havoc-on-europe-s-wildlife/ar-AA1ghqiM

Daily Mail, United Kingdom
Revealed: The invasive species wreaking havoc on Britain – including Asian hornets, giant hogweed, and killer shrimp
http://www.nla-eclipsweb.com/service/redirector/article/96343761.html

Reuters, United Kingdom
Invasive species costs global economy $423 bln per year – UN report
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-12478751/Invasive-species-costs-global-economy-423-bln-year–UN-report.html

UK Press Association, United Kingdom
Invasive alien species `travelling around the world at unprecedented rates
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-12478757/Invasive-alien-species-travelling-world-unprecedented-rates.html

Australian Associated Press
Alien invaders driving destruction of nature worldwide
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-12478767/Alien-invaders-driving-destruction-nature-worldwide.html

Full coverage summary click here

News release in full, click here

Humanity is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought and accelerating mitigation must be done “urgently, using every tool we can,” says a new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

“​​Drought In Numbers, 2022,” released today to mark Drought Day at UNCCD’s 15th Conference of Parties (COP15, 9-20 May in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire) – calls for making a full global commitment to drought preparedness and resilience in all global regions a top priority. 

The report, an authoritative compendium of drought-related information and data, helps inform negotiations of one of several decisions by UNCCD’s 196 member states, to be issued 20 May at the conclusion of COP15.

“The facts and figures of this publication all point in the same direction: an upward trajectory in the duration of droughts and the severity of impacts, not only affecting human societies but also the ecological systems upon which the survival of all life depends, including that of our own species.” says Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.

The report creates a compelling call to action. For example:

• Since 2000, the number and duration of droughts has risen 29%
• From 1970 to 2019, weather, climate and water hazards accounted for 50% of disasters and 45% of disaster-related deaths, mostly in developing countries
• Droughts represent 15% of natural disasters but took the largest human toll, approximately 650,000 deaths from 1970-2019
• From 1998 to 2017, droughts caused global economic losses of roughly USD 124 billion
• In 2022, more than 2.3 billion people face water stress; almost 160 million children are exposed to severe and prolonged droughts

Unless action is stepped up:

• By 2030, an estimated 700 million people will be at risk of being displaced by drought
• By 2040, an estimated one in four children will live in areas with extreme water shortages 
• By 2050, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population, and an estimated 4.8-5.7 billion people will live in areas that are water-scarce for at least one month each year, up from 3.6 billion today.  And up to 216 million people could be forced to migrate by 2050, largely due to drought in combination with other factors including water scarcity, declining crop productivity, sea-level rise, and overpopulation
• See below for additional report highlights

“We are at a crossroads,” says Mr. Thiaw.  “We need to steer toward the solutions rather than continuing with destructive actions, believing that marginal change can heal systemic failure.”

“One of the best, most comprehensive solutions is land restoration, which addresses many of the underlying factors of degraded water cycles and the loss of soil fertility. We must build and rebuild our landscapes better, mimicking nature wherever possible and creating functional ecological systems.”

Beyond restoration, he adds, is the need for a paradigm shift from ‘reactive’ and ‘crisis-based’ approaches to ‘proactive’ and ‘risk-based’ drought management approaches involving coordination, communication and cooperation, driven by sufficient finance and political will.  

Needed as well: 

• Sustainable and efficient agricultural management techniques that grow more food on less land and with less water
• Changes in our relationships with food, fodder and fiber, moving toward plant-based diets, and reducing or stopping the consumption of animals
• Concerted policy and partnerships at all levels
• Development and implementation of integrated drought action plans
• Set up effective early-warning systems that work across boundaries
• Deployment of new technologies such as satellite monitoring and artificial intelligence to guide decisions with greater precision
• Regular monitoring and reporting to ensure continuous improvement
• Mobilize sustainable finance to improve drought resilience at the local level
• Invest in soil health 
• Work together and include and mobilize farmers, local communities, businesses, consumers, investors, entrepreneurs and, above all, young people

The new UNCCD report notes that 128 countries have expressed willingness to achieve or exceed Land Degradation Neutrality. And nearly 70 countries participated in the UNCCD’s global drought initiative, which aims to shift from reactive approaches to drought to a proactive and risk-reducing approach. 

Mr. Thiaw underlined the importance of promoting public awareness about desertification and drought, and letting people know the problems can be effectively tackled “through ingenuity, commitment and solidarity.” 

“We all must live up to our responsibility to ensure the health of present and future generations, wholeheartedly and without delay.”

The COP15 decision on drought is expected to touch on five interrelated areas: 

• drought policies
• early warning, monitoring and assessment
• knowledge sharing and learning
• partnerships and coordination, and 
• drought finance

* * * * *

Additional highlights, Drought in Numbers, 2022

Drought around the world (1900-2022)

• More than 10 million people died due to major drought events in the past century, causing several hundred billion USD in economic losses worldwide.  And the numbers are rising 
• Severe drought affects Africa more than any other continent, with more than 300 events recorded in the past 100 years, accounting for 44% of the global total. More recently, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the dramatic consequences of climate disasters becoming more frequent and intense
• In the past century, 45 major drought events occurred in Europe, affecting millions of people and resulting in more than USD 27.8 billion in economic losses. Today, an annual average of 15% of the land area and 17% of the population within the European Union is affected by drought
• In the U.S., crop failures and other economic losses due to drought have totaled several hundred billion USD over the last century – USD 249 billion alone since 1980
• Over the past century, the highest total number of humans affected by drought were in Asia 

Impacts on human society

• Over 1.4 billion people were affected by drought from 2000 to 2019. This makes drought the disaster affecting the second-highest number of people, after flooding. Africa suffered from drought more frequently than any other continent with 134 droughts, of which 70 occurred in East Africa
• The effect of severe droughts was estimated to have reduced India’s gross domestic product by 2-5% over the 10 years 1998 to 2017
• As a result of the Australian Millennium Drought, total agricultural productivity fell by 18% from 2002 to 2010
• Greater burdens and suffering are inflicted on women and girls in emerging and developing countries in terms of education levels, nutrition, health, sanitation, and safety 
• The burden of water collection – especially in drylands – falls disproportionately on women (72%) and girls (9%), who, in some cases, spend as much as 40% of their calorific intake carrying water

• Droughts have deep, widespread and underestimated impacts on societies, ecosystems, and economies, with only a portion of the actual losses accounted for
• A 2017 California case study showed that an increase of about 100 drought stories over two months was associated with a reduction of 11 to 18% in typical household water-use

Impacts on ecosystems

• The percentage of plants affected by drought has more than doubled in the last 40 years, with about 12 million hectares of land lost each year due to drought and desertification 
• Ecosystems progressively turn into carbon sources, especially during extreme drought events, detectable on five of six continents
• One-third of global carbon dioxide emissions is offset by the carbon uptake of terrestrial ecosystems, yet their capacity to sequester carbon is highly sensitive to drought events
• 14% of wetlands critical for migratory species, as listed by Ramsar, are located in drought-prone regions
• The megadrought in Australia contributed to ‘megafires’ in 2019-2020 resulting in the most dramatic loss of habitat for threatened species in postcolonial history; about 3 billion animals were killed or displaced in the Australian wildfires
• Drought-induced peatland fires in Indonesia resulted in decreasing biodiversity, including both the number of individuals as well as plant species
• Photosynthesis in European ecosystems was reduced by 30% during the summer drought of 2003, which resulted in an estimated net carbon release of 0.5 gigatons 
• 84% of terrestrial ecosystems are threatened by changing and intensifying wildfires
• During the first two decades of the 21st century, the Amazon experienced 3 widespread droughts, all of which triggered massive forest fires. Drought events are becoming increasingly common in the Amazon region due to land-use and climate change, which are interlinked. 
• If Amazonian deforestation continues unabated, 16% of the region’s remaining forests will likely burn by 2050

Predictable futures

• Climate change is expected to increase the risk of droughts in many vulnerable regions of the world, particularly those with rapid population growth, vulnerable populations and challenges with food security
• Within the next few decades, 129 countries will experience an increase in drought exposure mainly due to climate change alone – 23 primarily due to population growth and 38 mostly due to the interaction between climate change and population growth 
• If global warming reaches 3 degrees Celsius by 2100 as some predict, drought losses could be five times higher than they are today, with the largest increase in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic regions of Europe
• In Angola, more than 40% of livestock, a significant livelihood source accounting for 31.4% of the agricultural GDP, is currently exposed to droughts and expected to rise to 70% under projected climate conditions
• In the E.U. and U.K., annual losses from drought are currently estimated to be around EUR 9 billion and projected to rise to more than EUR 65 billion without meaningful climate action

Successful business cases

• By adopting drip irrigation, small-scale vegetable farmers in drought-prone provinces of VietNam (Binh Phouc), Cambodia (Prey Veng and Svay Reing), the Philippines (Lantapan and Bukidnon) and Indonesia (Reing and Bogor, West Java; Rembang, East Java) were able to increase water use efficiency by up to 43% and yield by 8-15%
• With the highest water efficiency rate in agriculture, reaching a 70-80% rate, drip irrigation has helped to solve the problem of water scarcity in Israel

Other highlights

• Information Technology and Indigenous Knowledge with Intelligence (ITIKI) is a drought early warning system that integrates Indigenous knowledge and drought forecasting to help small-scale farmers make more informed decisions, for example, on when and how to plant which crops. The support forecast models provides accuracy of 70-98% for lead-times of up to four years, as shown by trials in Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa
• Up to USD 1.4 trillion in production value can be generated globally by adopting sustainable land and water management practices 
• Approximately 4 million hectares of degraded land within “strict intervention zones” have been rehabilitated under the framework of the African Union–led restoration initiative known as the Great Green Wall – 4% of the Wall’s ultimate target of restoring 100 million hectares, helping to reduce the immanent threats of desertification and drought

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Related: UNCCD’s flagship Global Land Outlook 2(GLO2) report, five years in development with 21 partner organizations, and with over 1,000 references, is the most comprehensive consolidation of information on the topic ever assembled. 

Released Apr. 27, it reported up to 40% of all ice-free land is already degraded, with dire consequences for climate, biodiversity and livelihoods.

* * * * *

Media coverage highlights:

Associated Press, United States: Jordan’s restoration efforts push back on degrading land, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jordans-restoration-efforts-push-back-on-degrading-land/ar-AAWElVc

Agence France Presse, France: Restoring damaged land key to climate, biodiversity goals, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/restoring-damaged-land-key-to-climate-biodiversity-goals/ar-AAWEhFr

Daily Mail, United Kingdom: Humanity is ‘at a crossroads’ in the management of droughts; Number and duration has surged 29% since 2000 – and mitigation is needed urgently, UN warns https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10805363/Number-droughts-surged-29-2000-mitigation-needed-urgently-warns.html

BBC, United Kingdom: Nature loss: ‘Insatiable greed’ degrading land around the world, https://news.yahoo.com/nature-loss-insatiable-greed-degrading-152555489.html

The Independent, United Kingdom
World ‘at crossroads’ as droughts surge 29% in 20 years and are only getting worse, UN warns

ABC News, United States
Millions of lives at risk as famine stalks Horn of Africa

francetv info, France
Côte d’Ivoire : L’humanité à la croisée des chemins selon la COP15, Conférence sur la désertification et la dégradation des terres, qui se tient à Abidjan

The Hill, United States
Droughts increase 29 percent in a generation, only getting worse: UN

The Hindu, India
Explained | The UN report that highlights India’s vulnerability to drought

Full coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

• Up to 40 % of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affects half of humanity, threatens roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion);
• If business as usual continued through 2050, report projects additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America;
• Nations’ current pledge to restore 1 billion degraded hectares by 2030 requires $US 1.6 trillion this decade – a fraction of today’s annual $700 billion in fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies;
• As food prices soar amid rapid climate and other planetary changes, “crisis footing” needed to conserve, restore and use land sustainably;
• Most comprehensive report on topic ever, released shortly before UNCCD’s COP15 in Africa

The way land resources – soil, water and biodiversity – are currently mismanaged and misused threatens the health and continued survival of many species on Earth, including our own, warns a stark new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).  

It also points decision makers to hundreds of practical ways to effect local, national and regional land and ecosystem restoration. 

UNCCD’s evidence-based flagship Global Land Outlook 2 (GLO2) report, five years in development with 21 partner organizations, and with over 1,000 references, is the most comprehensive consolidation of information on the topic ever assembled. 

It offers an overview of unprecedented breadth and projects the planetary consequences of three scenarios through 2050: business as usual, restoration of 50 million square km of land, and restoration measures augmented by the conservation of natural areas important for specific ecosystem functions.

It also assesses the potential contributions of land restoration investments to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, human health and other key sustainable development goals.

Warns the report: “At no other point in modern history has humanity faced such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks and hazards, interacting in a hyper-connected and rapidly changing world. We cannot afford to underestimate the scale and impact of these existential threats.”

“Conserving, restoring, and using our land resources sustainably is a global imperative, one that requires action on a crisis footing…Business as usual is not a viable pathway for our continued survival and prosperity.”

GLO2 offers hundreds of examples from around the world that demonstrate the potential of land restoration. It is being released before the UNCCD’s 15th session of the Conference of Parties to be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (COP15, 9-20 May). 

Says Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD: “Modern agriculture has altered the face of the planet more than any other human activity. We need to urgently rethink our global food systems, which are responsible for 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use, and the single greatest cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.”

“Investing in large-scale land restoration is a powerful, cost-effective tool to combat desertification, soil erosion, and loss of agricultural production. As a finite resource and our most valuable natural asset, we cannot afford to continue taking land for granted.”

Future scenarios

The report predicts the outcomes by 2050 and risks involved under three scenarios:

• Baseline: Business as usual, continuing current trends in land and natural resource degradation, while demands for food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy continue to rise. Land management practices and climate change continue to cause widespread soil erosion, declining fertility and growth in yields, and the further loss of natural areas due to expanding agriculture.

By 2050:

• 16 million square kilometers show continued land degradation (almost the size of South America)
• A persistent, long-term decline in vegetative productivity is observed for 12-14% of agricultural, pasture and grazing land, and natural areas – with sub-Saharan Africa worst affected.
• An additional 69 gigatonnes of carbon is emitted from 2015 to 2050 due to land use change and soil degradation This represents 17% of current annual greenhouse gas emissions: soil organic carbon (32 gigatonnes), vegetation (27 gigatonnes), peatland degradation/conversion (10 gigatonnes).

• Restoration: Assumes the restoration of around 5 billion hectares (50 million square kilometers or 35% of the global land area) using measures such as agroforestry, grazing management, and assisted natural regeneration. (Current international pledges: 10 million square kilometers).

By 2050:

• Crop yields increase by 5-10% in most developing countries compared to the baseline. Improved soil health leads to higher crop yields, with the largest gains in the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and subSaharan Africa, limiting food price increases.
• Soil water holding capacity would increase by 4% in rainfed croplands.
• Carbon stocks rise by a net 17 gigatonnes between 2015 and 2050 due to gains in soil carbon and reduced emissions.
• Biodiversity continues to decline, but not as quickly, with 11% of biodiversity loss averted.

• Restoration and Protection: This scenario includes the restoration measures, augmented with protection measures of areas important for biodiversity, water regulation, conservation of soil and carbon stocks, and provision of critical ecosystem functions. 

By 2050: 

• An additional 4 million square kilometers of natural areas (the size of India and Pakistan); largest gains expected in South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. Protections would prevent land degradation by logging, burning, draining, or conversion.
• About a third of the biodiversity loss projected in the baseline would be prevented
• An additional 83 gigatonnes of carbon are stored compared to the baseline. Avoided emission and increased carbon storage would be equivalent to more than seven years of total current global emissions. 

See below for additional scenario projections and information

Other key points in the report include:

•  $US 44 trillion – roughly half the world’s annual economic output – is being put at risk by the loss of finite natural capital and nature’s services, which underpin human and environmental health by regulating climate, water, disease, pests, waste and air pollution, while providing numerous other benefits such as recreation and cultural benefits. 
• The economic returns of restoring land and reducing degradation, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss could be as high as $US 125-140 trillion every year – up to 50% more than the $93 trillion global GDP in 2021
• Repurposing in the next decade just $US 1.6 trillion of the annual $700 billion in perverse subsidies given to the fossil fuel and agricultural industries would enable governments to meet current pledges to restore by 2030 some 1 billion degraded hectares – an area the size of the USA or China – including 250 million hectares of farmland
• Restoring land, soils, forests and other ecosystems would contribute more than one-third of the cost-effective climate change mitigation needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C while supporting biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, human health and other key sustainable development goals
• Many traditional and modern regenerative food production practices can enable agriculture to pivot from being the primary cause of degradation to the principal catalyst for land and soil restoration
• Poor rural communities, smallholder farmers, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and other at-risk groups are disproportionately affected by desertification, land degradation, and drought. At the same time, traditional and local knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, proven land stewards, represent a vast store of human and social capital that must be respected and can be used to protect and restore natural capital
• Immediate financial support is needed to fund conservation and restoration in those developing countries with a greater share of the global distribution of intact, biodiverse, and carbon-rich ecosystems
• Restoration projects and programs tend to have long-term multiplier effects that strengthen rural economies and contribute to wider regional development. They generate jobs that cannot be outsourced, and investments stimulate demand that benefits local economies and communities
• Bringing together national action plans currently siloed under the UNCCD, Convention on Biological Diversity, and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change represents an immediate opportunity to align targets and commitments to implement land restoration, realize multiple benefits, and maximize returns on investment
• Land and resource rights, secured through enforceable laws and trusted institutions, can transform underperforming land assets into sustainable development opportunities, helping maintain equitable and cohesive societies
• Inclusive and responsible land governance, including tenure security, is an effective way to balance trade-offs and harness synergies that optimize restoration outcomes
• Grasslands and savannas are productive, biodiverse ecosystems that match forests both in their global extent and their need for protection and restoration. Equally important are wetlands, which are in long-term decline averaging losses at three times the rate of global forest loss in recent decades. Sustaining their capacity to absorb and store carbon is key to a climate-resilient future
• Intensive monocultures and the destruction of forests and other ecosystems for food and commodity production generate the bulk of carbon emissions associated with land use change
• If current land degradation trends continue, food supply disruptions, forced migration, rapid biodiversity loss and species extinctions will increase, accompanied by a higher risk of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, declining human health, and land resource conflicts

GLO2 offers hundreds of good practice snapshots from around the world that illustrate context-specific measures to combat environmental degradation, restore land health, and improve living conditions.

Many regenerative agriculture practices have the potential to increase crop yields and improve their nutritional quality while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and drawing down carbon from the atmosphere, it says.

Examples include rewilding – reducing the human footprint to allow natural ecological processes to re-establish themselves – in the Greater Côa Valley in northern Portugal and the Iberá wetlands in Argentina; drought preparedness and risk reduction through national programmes in Mexico, the USA, and Brazil; sand and dust storm source mitigation in Iraq, China, and Kuwait; and gender-responsive land restoration in Mali, Nicauragua, and Jordan. There are also cases of integrated flood and drought strategies as well as forest landscape restoration using high-value crops.

Good practices can involve terrace and contour farming, conserving and restoring watersheds, and rainwater harvesting and storage. In addition to their economic benefits, these measures improve water retention and availability, prevent soil erosion and landslides, reduce flood risk, sequester carbon, and protect biodiversity habitat.

Africa’s Great Green Wall, meanwhile, which aims to restore the continent’s degraded landscapes, exemplifies “a regional restoration initiative that embraces an integrated approach with the promise of transforming the lives of millions of people,” says the report.

“The case studies from around the world showcased in GLO2 make clear that land restoration can be implemented in almost all settings and at many spatial scales, suggesting that every country can design and implement a tailored land restoration agenda to meet their development needs,” says Mr. Thiaw.

Many of the cases, he adds, underscore the value of education, training, and capacity building, not just for local communities, but also for government officials, land managers, and development planners. Linking local engagement to national policies and budgets will help ensure a responsive and well-aligned restoration agenda that delivers tangible outcomes for people, nature, and the climate.   

Preventing, halting, and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide is the focus of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), which calls for a broad and balanced response, addressing all ecosystems and their connectivity to reestablish a healthy landscape mosaic. These efforts are closely aligned with SDG target 15.3, which calls on countries to strive to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030.

“Hope remains as the decade of restoration has begun,” says Mr. Thiaw. “Now is the time to harness political will, innovation, and collective action to restore our land and soil for short-term recovery and long-term regeneration to ensure a more stable and resilient future.”

* * * * *

By the numbers, GLO2:

• 50%: Proportion of humanity affected by land degradation
• $US 7-30: benefits returned for every dollar invested in restoring degraded land
• Four: planetary boundaries (used to define a ‘safe operating space for humanity’) already exceeded: climate change, biodiversity loss, land use change, and geochemical cycles, breaches directly linked to human-induced desertification, land degradation, and drought
• 40%+: global land area occupied by agriculture
• 15%: proportion of the $US 700 billion paid out in commercial subsidies each year that positively impact natural capital, biodiversity, long-term job stability, or livelihoods
• 70%+: Tropical forest cleared for agriculture between 2013 and 2019 in violation of national laws or regulations
• 1%: Farms that control more than 70% of the world’s agricultural land
• 80%: Farms smaller than two hectares, representing 12% of total farmland
• 50%: Reduction of degraded land by 2040 pledged by G20 leaders in November 2020
• 115+: countries that had made quantitative, area-based commitments by the end of 2021, collectively a pledge to restore 1 billion hectares of farms, forests, and pastures
• 100+: Countries with plans for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030: ‘frameworks for action’ by local and national authorities, civil society, and the private sector
• 130: Countries that reaffirmed in the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use (Nov. 2021) their respective individual and collective commitments under the three Rio Conventions – on Desertification (UNCCD), Biological Diversity (CBD), and Climate Change (UNFCCC), supported by unprecedented corporate and donor pledges. It also includes commitments to facilitate trade and development policies that avoid deforestation and land degradation, especially regarding internationally-traded agricultural commodities, such as beef, soy, palm oil, and timber.

* * * * * 

Comments

“The second edition of the Global Land Outlook is a must-read for the biodiversity community. The future of biodiversity is precarious. We have already degraded nearly 40 % and altered 70 % of the land. We cannot afford to have another “lost decade” for nature and need to act now for a future of life in harmony with nature. The GLO2 shows pathways, enablers and knowledge that we should apply to effectively implement the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.”

• Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary, UN Convention on Biological Diversity

“Land is the operative link between biodiversity loss and climate change, and therefore must be the primary focus of any meaningful intervention to tackle these intertwined crises. Restoring degraded land and soil provides fertile ground on which to take immediate and concerted action.”  

• Andrea Meza Murillo, Deputy Executive Secretary, UNCCD

“As a global community we can no longer rely on incremental reforms within traditional planning and development frameworks to address the profound development and sustainability challenges we are facing in coming decades. A rapid transformation in land use and management practices that place people and nature at the center of our planning is needed, prioritizing job creation and building vital skill sets while giving voice to women and youth who have been traditionally marginalized from decision making.”

• Nichole Barger, report steering committee member, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, USA

“Just as COVID-19 vaccines were developed, tested, and rolled out at unprecedented speed and scale, so too must land restoration and other nature-based solutions be undertaken to prevent further environmental decline and ensure a healthy and prosperous future. We can reduce the risk of zoonotic disease transmission, increase food and water security, and improve human health and livelihoods by managing, expanding, and connecting protected and natural areas, improving soil, crop, and livestock health in food systems, and creating green and blue spaces in and around cities.”

• Barron Orr, Lead Scientist, UNCCD

“Restoring long term health and productivity in food landscapes is a top priority to ensure future sustainability. Much as an investor uses financial capital to generate profits, regenerating a forest or improving soil health provides returns in the form of a future supply of timber or food.” 

• Louise Baker, Director, Global Mechanism, UNCCD

“Indigenous Peoples and local communities are proven land stewards. The recognition of their rights and their involvement in the long-term management of their lands and of protected areas will be vital to success.”

• Miriam Medel, Chief, External Relations, Policy and Advocacy, UNCCD

“By designing an innovative, customized land restoration agenda that suits their needs, capacities, and circumstances, countries and communities can recover lost natural resources and better prepare for climate change and other looming threats.”

• Johns Muleso Kharika, Chief, Science, Technology and Innovation, UNCCD

* * * * * 

GLO2: Additional scenario projections

Baseline: Business as usual

By 2050:

• 16 million square kilometers show continued land degradation (almost the size of South America)
• A persistent, long-term decline in vegetative productivity is observed for 12-14% of agricultural, pasture and grazing land, and natural areas – with sub-Saharan Africa worst affected.
• An additional 69 gigatonnes of carbon is emitted from 2015 to 2050 due to land use change and soil degradation This represents 17% of current annual greenhouse gas emissions: soil organic carbon (32 gigatonnes), vegetation (27 gigatonnes), peatland degradation/conversion (10 gigatonnes).
• A slowing in the growth of agricultural yields While agricultural yields are still projected to rise in all regions, land degradation will curb increases, especially in the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. The loss of soil organic carbon and the soil’s ability to hold water and nutrients, such as phosphorus or nitrogen, will be primarily responsible for this slowing, while the associated risks of drought and water scarcity are expected to increase.
• The demand for food, expected to rise by 45% between 2015 and 2050, will have to be met by further intensification and expansion of agricultural land, resulting in the further loss of 3 million square kilometers of natural areas (the size of India), mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Restoration Scenario

Assumes that land restoration done on a massive scale – across a potential 50 million square kilometers (5 billion hectares) with measures such as:

• Conservation agriculture (low- or no-till farming)
• Agroforestry and silvopasture (combining trees with crops, livestock, or both)
• Improved grazing management and grassland rehabilitation
• Forest plantations
• Assisted natural regeneration
• Cross-slope barriers to prevent soil erosion

This scenario envisions these measures applied to roughly 16 million square kilometers of cropland, 22 million of grazing land, and 14 million of natural areas. Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are estimated to have the largest areas with the potential for land restoration. 

Compared to the baseline scenario, by 2050:

• Crop yields increase by 5-10% in most developing countries compared to the baseline Improved soil health leads to higher crop yields, with the largest gains in the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America, and subSaharan Africa, limiting food price increases.
• Soil water holding capacity would increase by 4% in rainfed croplands.
• Carbon stocks rise by a net 17 gigatonnes between 2015 and 2050 due to gains in soil carbon and reduced emissions. This is the balance of a net increase in soil organic carbon, increased carbon in agroforestry, and a continued loss of vegetation carbon due to land conversion. It does not account for the potential carbon storage gains above ground from forest restoration. Soil carbon stocks would be 55 gigatonnes larger in 2050 compared to the baseline, with the largest gains in Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America, while the biggest losses would be avoided in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Slowed biodiversity decline and loss of natural areas. Globally, the extent of natural areas continues to decline due to the expansion of agricultural and urban areas, except in Latin America where natural areas are projected to increase by 3%. Biodiversity would continue to decline, but not as quickly, with 11% of biodiversity loss averted.

Restoration and protection scenario, projections

This scenario includes the restoration measures, augmented with protection measures expanded to cover close to half of the Earth’s land surface by 2050 – a threefold increase on the current coverage. These protected areas are important for biodiversity, water regulation, conservation of soil and carbon stocks, and provision of critical ecosystem functions. 

However, significantly increasing the extent of protected land would limit the expansion of agriculture. Under this constraint, current yields would have to be 9% higher by 2050 than in the baseline scenario to meet expected demand. Nonetheless, food prices are projected to increase, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, where a scarcity of agricultural land is already impacting food security.

Under this scenario, most of the new protected areas would have to be in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

When compared to the baseline, the restoration and protection scenario would mean, by 2050:

• An additional 4 million square kilometers of natural areas (the size of India and Pakistan). With the largest gains expected in South and Southeast Asia and Latin America, protected areas would prevent land degradation by logging, burning, draining, or conversion.
• While biodiversity would continue to decline, about a third of the loss projected in the baseline would be prevented under restoration and protection measures.
• An additional 83 gigatonnes are stored compared to the baseline. Avoided emission and increased carbon storage would be equivalent to more than seven years of total current global emissions. 

Further reading: 

The global potential for land restoration: Scenarios for the Global Land Outlook 2 

https://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/the-global-potential-for-land-restoration-scenarios-for-the-global-landoutlook-2

Restoration Commitments and Scenarios Goals and Commitments for the Restoration Decade: A global overview of countries’ restoration commitments under the Rio Conventions and other pledges

https://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/goals-and-commitments-for-the-restoration-decade

* * * * *

Notes to editors

Land degradation: The persistent or long-term loss of land-based natural capital. It gives rise to poverty, hunger, and environmental pollution, while making communities more vulnerable to disease and disasters like drought, floods, or wildfires. This is especially true in the drylands that cover more than 45% of the Earth’s land surface, home to one in three people.

Land restoration: A continuum of sustainable land and water management practices that can be applied to conserve or ‘rewild’ natural areas, ‘up-scale’ nature-positive food production in rural landscapes, and ‘green’ urban areas, infrastructure, and supply chains.  Regenerative land use practices employed to boost soil health or recharge groundwater also enhance our ability to cope with drought, floods, wildfires, and sand and dust storms.

* * * * *

The formal launch of GLO2 will take place Tuesday 10 May during the high-level segment of the UNCCD’s 15th Conference of Parties (COP15, 9-20 May), Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.  

Two new regional reports, covering Central and Eastern Europe and Southern Africa, will also be released at COP15.

COP15 programme, registration and other media information: https://www.unccd.int/cop15

* * * * *

About 

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD.int)

UNCCD is the global vision and voice for land. We unite governments, scientists, policymakers, private sector and communities around a shared vision and global action to restore and manage the world’s land for the sustainability of humanity and the planet. Much more than an international treaty signed by 197 parties, UNCCD is a multilateral commitment to mitigating today’s impacts of land degradation and advancing tomorrow’s land stewardship in order to provide food, water, shelter and economic opportunity to all people in an equitable and inclusive manner. .

* * * * *

Media coverage highlights

878 articles (captured here) at 624 different news sites across 72 countries in 25 languages

Newswires

The Associated Press (via MSN.com, United States, 211,809,090 potential impressions)

Jordan’s restoration efforts push back on degrading land https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jordans-restoration-efforts-push-back-on-degrading-land/ar-AAWElVc

Associated Press Television Network here

Agence France Presse, France (via MSN.com, 211,809,090)

1) Restoring damaged land key to climate, biodiversity goals https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/restoring-damaged-land-key-to-climate-biodiversity-goals/ar-AAWEhFr 

2) Earth’s degraded land at ‘breaking point’, warns UN expert (Q&A with Ibrahim, via Deccan Herald, India, 5,666,729) https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/earths-degraded-land-at-breaking-point-warns-un-expert-1104424.html

Reuters, via Reuters United States (58,647,126)

U.N. report highlights land use trends and costs of degradation https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/un-report-highlights-land-use-trends-costs-degradation-2022-04-27/

Thomson Reuters Foundation, via Daily Mail, United Kingdom (95,023,695)

EXPLAINER-Here’s how to reverse Africa’s land degradation https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-10759331/EXPLAINER-Heres-reverse-Africas-land-degradation.html

Agencia EFE, Spain (via Yahoo! Noticias en Español, United States, 346,440)La ONU alerta de una degradación crónica del suelo terrestre https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/onu-alerta-degradaci%C3%B3n-cr%C3%B3nica-suelo-133548870.html

EFE, French service (3,457,494)La ONU alerta de una degradación crónica del suelo terrestre https://www.efe.com/efe/america/sociedad/la-onu-alerta-de-una-degradacion-cronica-del-suelo-terrestre/20000013-4793011

IndoAsian News Service, India, (via ProKerala, India, 11,703,301) Up to 40% of planet’s land degraded: UN https://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a1272626.html

Deutsche Presse Agentur, Germany (via TAZ, Germany, 8,092,677)UN-Bericht zur Wüstenbildung: Der Erde gehen die Böden aus https://taz.de/UN-Bericht-zur-Wuestenbildung/!5847354/

News sites

The Independent, United Kingdom (55,838,979)

World must ‘urgently rethink global food systems’ to avoid loss of land the size of South America, UN report warns https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/soil-biodiversity-land-degradation-un-b2066656.html

BBC News, via Yahoo! News, United States (39,438,604)Nature loss: ‘Insatiable greed’ degrading land around the world https://www.yahoo.com/news/nature-loss-insatiable-greed-degrading-152555489.html

BBC World Service Radio (Newsday) Five minutes, starts at ~44:20 minutes https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172yf8gcghvp5s

El Español, Spain (30,880,112), La ONU alerta de una crisis de desertificación: se prevé que se seque un área del tamaño de América del Sur https://www.elespanol.com/enclave-ods/noticias/20220427/onu-alerta-crisis-desertificacion-tamano-america-sur/668183384_0.html

Le Monde, France (22,197,112), La dégradation des terres affecte la moitié de la population mondiale https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2022/04/27/la-degradation-des-terres-affecte-la-moitie-de-la-population-mondiale_6123905_3244.html

ZEIT online, Germany (13,590,748), Klimawandel: UN warnen vor existenziellen Bedrohungen durch Versteppung https://www.zeit.de/wissen/umwelt/2022-04/klimawandel-vereinte-nationen-versteppung-wueste-klimaschutz

ORF Online, Austria (10,268,557)
Versteppung ist existenzielle Bedrohung https://science.orf.at/stories/3212803/

Science, United States (7,688,810)
Global land degradation serious, U.N. report finds, but restoration offers hope https://www.science.org/content/article/global-land-degradation-serious-u-n-report-finds-restoration-offers-hope

Libération, France (6,011,368), Désertification : les scénarios pour restaurer et protéger les terres  https://www.liberation.fr/environnement/agriculture/desertification-les-scenarios-pour-restaurer-et-proteger-les-terres-20220427_E4RV7UVH75GEXP4M3KGNECSTHQ

Tag 24, Germany (5,756,363)Existenz-Gefahr für die Menschheit: Was uns laut UN-Bericht gefährlich wird!  https://www.tag24.de/nachrichten/klima/klimawandel/existenz-gefahr-fuer-die-menschheit-was-uns-laut-un-bericht-gefaehrlich-wird-2431041

The Guardian, United Kingdom (3,527,430), UN says up to 40% of world’s land now degraded https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/27/united-nations-40-per-cent-planet-land-degraded

News release in full, click here

1st assessment of water security in Africa is based on 10 indicators

Despite global Sustainable Development Goals and commitments made in 2015, just 29 African nations have made some progress over the past three to five years, 25 have made none, according to the UN’s first-ever assessment of water security in Africa.

Published on the eve of World Water Day (March 22) by UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water Environment and Health, the assessment employed 10 indicators to quantify water security in Africa’s 54 countries.  Water security is elaborated below.

UNU-INWEH authors Grace Oluwasanya, Duminda Perera, Manzoor Qadir and Vladimir Smakhtin, the Institute’s Director, say the assessment is limited by “very poor” data on water security-related issues such as access to drinking water or sanitation, but it nevertheless offers some “preliminary but obvious conclusions.”

“Data limitations do not change the main outcome of this assessment, which is strong and clear,” says lead author Grace Oluwasanya.  “Overall levels of water security in Africa are low. Not a single country let alone a subregion have at present achieved a state that can be seen as ‘model’ or even ‘effective’ stage of water security.”

Says co-author Duminda Perera: “This assessment for African countries aimed to create a quantitative starting point and a platform for subsequent discussions with national, regional and international agents; it is neither a prescription nor a guide.”

“As this quantitative tool develops, it will help generate targeted policy recommendations and inform decision-making and public-private investments toward achieving water security in Africa.”

Results in brief

Overall

Except for Egypt, all country scores are below 70 (on a scale of 100). Only 13 of 54 countries reached a modest level of water security in recent years, and over a third are deemed to have levels of water security below the threshold of 45.  

Together, the 19 countries below the threshold are home to half a billion people.

Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius and Tunisia are Africa’s top five most water-secure countries in Africa, yet with only modest absolute levels of water security achieved. 

Somalia, Chad and Niger appear to be the least water-secure countries in Africa. 

There has been little progress in national water security of most African states over the past three to five years, the report finds. The number of countries that made some progress (29) is close to the number of those that made none (25).

Indicator 1 

Access to drinking water ranged from 99% in Egypt to 37% in the Central African Republic, and between subregions from 92% in North Africa to 62% in Central Africa. Africa’s average basic drinking water service is 71%, “leaving behind some 29% of the total population” or more than 353 million people. 

Indicator 2 

Access to sanitation is broadly similar at the subregional level, but a few countries — Seychelles and most countries in North Africa countries — have reached or nearly reached 100%. The most challenged countries are Chad and Ethiopia (under 20% access), with 60% average access to even limited sanitation; thus at least 40% of the total population (483 million people) are left behind. 

Indicator 3

Access to hygiene facilities and practices (e.g. hand washing) are greatest in North Africa (67%), worst in West Africa (with Rwanda, Liberia lowest among eight countries with less than 10% access; Chad and the Central African Republic suffer the highest number of deaths from diarrhea).

Indicator 4

Per capita water availability is highest in Central Africa (with the Republic of Congo considered Africa’s most water-rich country — over 31,000 cubic meters per capita), while half of North African countries appear to be absolutely water scarce — less than 500 cubic meters of water per capita per annum. Due to their population growth, water availability has recently declined in West, Central and Southern Africa sub-region, and, on a country scale, in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Somalia, Mozambique, and Malawi.

Indicator 5

Water use efficiency appears to be lowest in North Africa (with Somalia lowest at the national level) highest in Central Africa (with Angola highest at a national level). In general, agriculture-dominant countries score lower.  An improvement seen in water use efficiency in Africa as a whole is primarily due to efforts in Tunisia, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, and Uganda, but poor data quality makes assessment difficult.

Indicator 6

Water infrastructure is deemed best in the Southern Africa sub-region, worst in East Africa. South Africa, with over 25% of all large dams in Africa, is outscored by Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, likely due to just one mega reservoir in those countries. Half of all countries score very low, reflecting the continent’s low level of water storage development. Only Ethiopia and Namibia have increased their storage over recent years, while Ivory Coast and Gabon have shown a decline, partly explained by rising populations with no or minimal increase in storage. Africa-average per capita storage capacity increased by only 3% over five recent years. 

Indicator 7

Wastewater treatment scores are highest in North African countries, lowest in East and West Africa, where 12 countries in each region treat less than 5% of wastewater. No country treats more than 75%, only Tunisia, Egypt and Lesotho treat over 50% and 67% of African countries treat less than 5%. The issue is poorly tracked in Africa overall. 

Indicator 8

Water governance appears to be most advanced in North and Southern Africa sub-regions, while Central Africa the least advanced. Nationally, Ghana reported reaching 86% of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) implementation, a significant improvement in just two years. Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Comoros are the lowest-performing countries, but again the assessment may be affected by the quality of national reporting. 

Indicator 9

Disaster risk has either remained unchanged (North and Southern Africa sub-regions) or increased. North Africa appears to be the least risky subregion, West Africa the riskiest. Egypt appears to be the least risky country, while Cape Verde is the most, followed by Djibouti and Comoros. Some 49 of 54 African countries have seen increased disaster risk scores over five recent years, explained by the impacts of changing climate worsening countries’ exposure to natural disasters and outpacing their ability to adapt. 

Indicator 10

Water dependency on neighboring nations and water resources variability:  Egypt stands out as Africa’s most water-dependent country; the Southern Africa sub-region has the most variable water resources. Naturally existing physiographic conditions may, to an extent, determine how much effort is needed for a country to achieve higher levels of water security. 

Call for global standards

To compare Africa’s situation globally, the authors call for global standards for water security measurement data and assessment. 

“Some critical components of water security simply cannot be assessed without introducing surrogates or proxies,” as used in the report in the case of drinking water and sanitation, for example. 

“With such poor data availability, progress toward water security is difficult to assess accurately.” 

For example, it is not possible to estimate the percentage of the African population that will have access to safely managed drinking water services or safely managed sanitation by 2030, a key UN Sustainable Development Goal globally agreed in 2015. 

“Data availability – or the lack of it – in itself may be an excellent indicator of water security,” says Dr. Oluwasanya. “Action needs to be taken immediately by national governments with support from international agents to radically improve data collection efforts for Africa.”

What is water security?

The UN’s concept of water security encompasses various needs and conditions — water for drinking, economic activity, ecosystems, hazard resilience, governance, transboundary cooperation, financing, and political stability.

See https://bit.ly/3hUzIh4

Hence water security is not just about how much natural water a country has but also how well the resource is managed.  It is defined as “The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”

UNU-INWEH led the UN’s development and definition of water security and its related tools are now the most widely-accepted in the world.  This was a fundamental milestone, contributing to conceptualization of the SDGs and to on-going efforts to assess national water security in a quantifiable way.

The assessment tool is still a work in progress, Dr. Smakhtin notes, adding that UNU-INWEH’s goal is to have by 2025 — five years before the deadline for meeting the UN’s Agenda 2030 — “an improved, influential and nationally-owned tool” for assessing water security in all African countries. 

* * * * *

About UNU and UNU-INWEH 

The United Nations University (UNU), an academic arm of the UN, includes 13 institutes and programmes located in 12 countries around the world, and dealing with various issues of development.

UNU-INWEH was established as a public service agency and a subsidiary body of the UNU, in 1996. Its operations are secured through long-term host-country and core-funding agreements with the Government of Canada.

The Institute is located in Hamilton, Canada, and its facilities are supported by McMaster University. 

UNU-INWEH’s mission is to help resolve pressing water challenges that are of concern to the United Nations, its Member States, and their people, through critical analysis and synthesis of existing bodies of scientific discovery; targeted research that identifies emerging policy issues; application of on-the-ground scalable science-based solutions to water issues; and global outreach. 

UNU-INWEH carries out its work in cooperation with the network of other research institutions, international organisations and individual scholars throughout the world. 

* * * * *

Media coverage highlights:

New York Times, United States (181,487,873): Climate change is making armed conflict worse. Here’s how. Click here

Reuters, United Kingdom, Africa’s water security perilous – but data reveals surprises, click here

Agencia EFE, Spain (via e.g. Infobae, Argentina, 49,192,499)
1) Some 500 million people live in Africa without water security, click here
2) Spanish: Unos 500 millones de personas viven en África sin seguridad del agua, click here
3) Russian, click here

The Hill, United States (15,808,772): 500 million people in Africa remain ‘water insecure’: UN report, click here (also distributed via MSN, United States (198,375,148) and Yahoo News, United States (61,261,480)

ORF Online, Austria (7,871,539), Jedes dritte Land ohne Wassersicherheit, click here

Deutsche Press Agentur, via e.g. Handelsblatt, Germany (6,134,345), UN: Mehr als ein Drittel der Länder in Afrika ohne Wassersicherheit, click here

Xinhua (新华网), Mainland China (4,312,277), UN report says Africa’s fragile water security a threat to sustainability agenda, click here

IndoAsian News Service, India (via ProKerala, 10,631,550)25 African nations ‘least’ water-secure, click here

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia, Italy (4,066,652)Rischio acqua per oltre mezzo miliardo di persone in Africa, click here

France 24 (EN) France (2,853,455), Eye on Africa video program – Water security in Africa ‘unacceptably low’ (UN), click here

Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Germany (4,274,603), click here

Diario de Sevilla, Spain: Alrededor de 500 millones de personas viven en África sin seguridad del agua, click here

* * * * *

Mainstream media coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Even the Arctic, previously all but immune, faces rising wildfire risk; Wildfires and climate change are “mutually exacerbating”; Governments are called to radically shift their investments to focus on prevention and preparedness

Climate change and land-use change are projected to make wildfires more frequent and intense, with a global increase of extreme fires of up to 14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent by the end of 2050 and 50 per cent by the end of the century, according to a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and GRID-Arendal. 

The paper calls for a radical change in government spending on wildfires, shifting their investments from reaction and response to prevention and preparedness. 

The report, Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires, finds an elevated risk even for the Arctic and other regions previously unaffected by wildfires. The report is released before representatives of 193 nations convene in Nairobi for the resumed 5^th session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2), between 28 February and 2 March, 2022. 

The publication calls on governments to adopt a new ‘Fire Ready Formula,’ with two-thirds of spending devoted to planning, prevention, preparedness, and recovery, with one third left for response. Currently, direct responses to wildfires typically receive over half of related expenditures, while planning and prevention receive less than one per cent. 

To prevent fires, authors call for a combination of data and science-based monitoring systems with indigenous knowledge and for a stronger regional and international cooperation.

Current government responses to wildfires are often putting money in the wrong place. Those emergency service workers and firefighters on the frontlines who are risking their lives to fight forest wildfires need to be supported. We have to minimize the risk of extreme wildfires by being better prepared: invest more in fire risk reduction, work with local communities, and strengthen global commitment to fight climate change” said Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director.

Wildfires disproportionately affect the world’s poorest nations. With an impact that extends for days, weeks and even years after the flames subside, they impede progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals and deepen social inequalities:

• People’s health is directly affected by inhaling wildfire smoke, causing respiratory and cardiovascular impacts and increased health effects for the most vulnerable; 
• The economic costs of rebuilding after areas are struck by wildfires can be beyond the means of low-income countries;

• Watersheds are degraded by wildfires’ pollutants; they also can lead to soil erosion causing more problems for waterways;
• Wastes left behind are often highly contaminated and require appropriate disposal.

Wildfires and climate change are mutually exacerbating. Wildfires are made worse by climate change through increased drought, high air temperatures, low relative humidity, lightning, and strong winds resulting in hotter, drier, and longer fire seasons. At the same time, climate change is made worse by wildfires, mostly by ravaging sensitive and carbon-rich ecosystems like peatlands and rainforests. This turns landscapes into tinderboxes, making it harder to halt rising temperatures.

Wildlife and its natural habitats are rarely spared from wildfires, pushing some animal and plant species closer to extinction. A recent example is the Australian 2020 bushfires, which are estimated to have wiped out billions of domesticated and wild animals. 

There is a critical need to better understand the behaviour of wildfires. Achieving and sustaining adaptive land and fire management requires a combination of policies, a legal framework and incentives that encourage appropriate land and fire use.

The restoration of ecosystems is an important avenue to mitigate the risk of wildfires before they occur and to build back better in their aftermath. Wetlands restoration and the reintroduction of species such as beavers, peatlands restoration, building at a distance from vegetation and preserving open space buffers are some examples of the essential investments into prevention, preparedness and recovery.

The report concludes with a call for stronger international standards for the safety and health of firefighters and for minimising the risks that they face before, during and after operations. This includes raising awareness of the risks of smoke inhalation, minimising the potential for life-threatening entrapments, and providing firefighters with access to adequate hydration, nutrition, rest, and recovery between shifts. 

The report was commissioned in support of UNREDD and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. UNEP will be exploring how further investments can be made to reduce fire risks in critical ecosystems around the world.

• The full report is available post-embargo here: https://bit.ly/3p7UiP0

Coverage highlights:

Associated Press, United States: UN: Wildfires getting worse globally, governments unprepared
Spanish

Agence France Presse, France
World must brace for more extreme wildfires: UN
French
Spanish
Portuguese
German

Reuters, United Kingdom
1) Extreme wildfires are here to stay – and multiply
2) EXPLAINER: ‘Catastrophic’ wildfire risk is growing. Here’s how to cut it

Press Association, United Kingdom: Wildfires getting worse worldwide, with governments unprepared – UN report

Agencia EFE, Spain: Naciones Unidas advierte que el número de incendios forestales aumentará en un 50 % para el 2100

LUSA, Portugal: Peritos da ONU alertam para aumento da intensidade e frequência dos incêndios

Anadolu Agency, Turkey: UN: Šumski požari se pogoršavaju, svijet nepripremljen

Xinhua / 新华网, Mainland China: UNEP calls for investments to mitigate wildfires amid threat

AAP Australia: Extreme wildfires here to stay

News sites

United States

Washington Post
1) Risk of uncontrollable wildfires will rise and spread globally, United Nations warns
2) Editorial: Opinion: The extreme wildfires raging around the world could become a lot worse

New York Times: Climate Change Could Increase Risk of Wildfires 50% by Century’s End

Wall Street Journal: Wildfires Will Become More Intense and Frequent, U.N. Study Finds

The Hill: Wildfire incidence to increase by 50 percent by 2100: UN study

CNN International: Wildfires are getting more extreme and burning more land. The UN says it’s time to ‘learn to live with fire’

Bloomberg: Extreme Wildfire Impacts to Rise Dramatically by 2100, UN Says

Los Angeles Times: Wildfires are getting worse across the globe. How does California compare?

The Verge: Firefighting strategies need an extreme makeover, UN warns

Forbes:
1) Climate Change Could Drive Wildfire Risk Up 50% By End Of Century, UN Warns
2) Wildfires Could Increase 50% This Century. Here’s What To Do About It

BBC United Kingdom: Global warming and land use change to drive more extreme wildfires

The Guardian United Kingdom: Wildfires likely to increase by a third by 2050, warns UN

The Independent, United Kingdom: Global warming ‘turning landscapes into tinderboxes,’ UN wildfires report warns

El Confidencial, Spain: El número de incendios aumentará un 50% de aquí a 2100 y los Gobiernos no están preparados

stern, Germany: UN-Bericht Extreme Waldbrände werden in kommenden Jahren drastisch zunehmen

Der Spiegel, Germany: KatastrophenExperten warnen vor extremem Anstieg von Waldbränden

FAZ, Germany: Schwere Wald- und Buschbrände sollen massiv zunehmen

CGTN, Mainland China: Wildfires to increase by 50% by 2100: UN Environment Programme report

Naver, Korea: UN 기후변화로 2050년엔 산불 30% 증가한다

Tribunnews, Indonesia:
1) PBB: Dunia Bersiap Hadapi Kebakaran Hutan yang Lebih Ekstrem
2) PBB: Jumlah Kasus Kebakaran Hutan di Dunia akan Meningkat karena Pemanasan Global

Sydney Morning Herald, Australia: Longer fire seasons, warmer nights predicted as firefighters reach technological limits

NRK Norway: Varsler 30 til 50 prosent flere katastrofebranner i fremtiden

Sciences et Avenir, France: Le monde n’est pas prêt à affronter les méga-feux appelés à augmenter

Television

CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy3ijaYbJvg
Reuters TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQYHC2470zY
Associated Press Television: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysq031QxAZI
AFP TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e1dqLAQZcI
ANSA TV, Italy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muqNLc5XQ-c
Adnkronos, Italy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNz5sUV1_vs
PBS Newshour, USA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl1SdsvZNFQ
CBC Television, Canada, The National https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFHig_KeGmM

Newspapers in print

USA
New York Times, United States, Pages 1, 5
Wall Street Journal, United States, Page 9
Washington Post United States Page 16
New York Daily News United States Page 13
Baltimore Sun United States Page: 7
Philadelphia Inquirer United States Page 9
Chicago Tribune United States Page 18
Los Angeles Times United States Page 2
San Francisco Chronicle United States Page 2
Dallas Morning News United States Page 3

The Guardian United Kingdom Page: 27
Deutsche Welle, Germany Page 33
Millennium Post, India Page: 8
Hindustan Times (Delhi) India Page: 4
The Straits Times Singapore Page: 19
Manila Standard Philippines Page: 6
ABC Spain Page: 37
The Irish Times Ireland Page 1
Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review Turkey Page: 1
El Heraldo (Colombia), Page: 1

Full coverage summary, click here

News release in full, click here

Of the 18 science news releases produced in 2021, 16 were environment-themed: food waste, e-waste, oceans, biodiversity, dams, and floods. And one announced 14 living male relatives of Leonardo da Vinci, advancing a project investigating his DNA. 

2 minute slideshow: Click here

These releases generated over 9,200 news articles, published at thousands of online news sites in scores of countries and dozens of languages, ~33 billion potential public impressions in all, according to the Meltwater news search engine, which estimates actual impressions via online news sites at 825 million. Millions of additional impressions were also generated via print newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and social media.

With thanks to the researchers and collaborators behind these stories, and to the many journalists who covered them, the following releases were the most noted last year.

Unprecedented changes in climate and biodiversity, driven by human activities, have combined and increasingly threaten nature, human lives, livelihoods and well-being around the world. Biodiversity loss and climate change are both driven by human economic activities and mutually reinforce each other. Neither will be successfully resolved unless both are tackled together.

This is the message of a workshop report, published today by 50 of the world’s leading biodiversity and climate experts.

The peer-reviewed workshop report is the product of a four-day virtual workshop between experts selected by a 12-person Scientific Steering Committee assembled by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the first-ever collaboration between these two intergovernmental bodies.

The report finds that previous policies have largely tackled biodiversity loss and climate change independently of each other, and that addressing the synergies between mitigating biodiversity loss and climate change, while considering their social impacts, offers the opportunity to maximize benefits and meet global development goals.

“Human-caused climate change is increasingly threatening nature and its contributions to people, including its ability to help mitigate climate change. The warmer the world gets, the less food, drinking water and other key contributions nature can make to our lives, in many regions” said Prof. Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee.

“Changes in biodiversity, in turn, affect climate, especially through impacts on nitrogen, carbon and water cycles,” he said. “The evidence is clear: a sustainable global future for people and nature is still achievable, but it requires transformative change with rapid and far-reaching actions of a type never before attempted, building on ambitious emissions reductions. Solving some of the strong and apparently unavoidable trade-offs between climate and biodiversity will entail a profound collective shift of individual and shared values concerning nature – such as moving away from the conception of economic progress based solely on GDP growth, to one that balances human development with multiple values of nature for a good quality of life, while not overshooting biophysical and social limits.”

The authors also warn that narrowly-focused actions to combat climate change can directly and indirectly harm nature and vice-versa, but many measures exist that can make significant positive contributions in both areas.

Among the most important available actions identified in the report are:

• Stopping the loss and degradation of carbon- and species-rich ecosystems on land and in the ocean, especially forests, wetlands, peatlands, grasslands and savannahs; coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes, kelp forests and seagrass meadows; as well as deep water and polar blue carbon habitats. The report highlights that reducing deforestation and forest degradation can contribute to lowering human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, by a wide range from 0.4-5.8 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year.
• Restoring carbon- and species-rich ecosystems. The authors point to evidence that restoration is among the cheapest and quickest nature-based climate mitigation measures to implement – offering much-needed habitat for plants and animals, thus enhancing resilience of biodiversity in the face of climate change, with many other benefits such as flood regulation, coastal protection, enhanced water quality, reduced soil erosion and ensuring pollination. Ecosystem restoration can also create jobs and income, especially when taking into consideration the needs and access rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.
• Increasing sustainable agricultural and forestry practices to improve the capacity to adapt to climate change, enhance biodiversity, increase carbon storage and reduce emissions. These include measures such as diversification of planted crop and forest species, agroforestry and agroecology. Improved management of cropland and grazing systems, such as soil conservation and the reduction of fertilizer use, is jointly estimated by the report to offer annual climate change mitigation potential of 3-6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
• Enhancing and better-targeting conservation actions, coordinated with and supported by strong climate adaptation and innovation. Protected areas currently represent about 15% of land and 7.5% of the ocean. Positive outcomes are expected from substantially increasing intact and effectively protected areas. Global estimates of exact requirements for effectively protected and conserved areas to ensure a habitable climate, self-sustaining biodiversity and a good quality of life are not yet well established but range from 30 to 50 percent of all ocean and land surface areas. Options to improve the positive impacts of protected areas include greater resourcing, better management and enforcement, and improved distribution with increased inter-connectivity between these areas. Conservation measures beyond protected areas are also spotlighted – including migration corridors and planning for shifting climates, as well as better integration of people with nature to assure equity of access and use of nature’s contributions to people.
• Eliminating subsidies that support local and national activities harmful to biodiversity – such as deforestation, over-fertilization and over-fishing, can also support climate change mitigation and adaptation, together with changing individual consumption patterns, reducing loss and waste, and shifting diets, especially in rich countries, toward more plant-based options.Some focused climate mitigation and adaptation measures identified by the report as harmful to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people include:
• Planting bioenergy crops in monocultures over a very large share of land areas. Such crops are detrimental to ecosystems when deployed at very large scales, reducing nature’s contributions to people and impeding achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals. At small scales, alongside pronounced and rapid reductions in fossil-fuel emissions, dedicated bioenergy crops for electricity production or fuels may provide co-benefits for climate adaptation and biodiversity.
• Planting trees in ecosystems that have not historically been forests and reforestation with monocultures – especially with exotic tree species. This can contribute to climate change mitigation but is often damaging to biodiversity, food production and other nature’s contributions to people, has no clear benefits for climate adaptation, and may displace local people through competition for land.
• Increasing irrigation capacity. A common response to adapt agricultural systems to drought that often leads to water conflicts, dam building and long- term soil degradation from salinization.
• Any measures that focus too narrowly on climate change mitigation should be evaluated in terms of their overall benefits and risks, such as some renewable energies generating surges of mining activity or consuming large amounts of land. The same applies to some technical measures too narrowly focused on adaptation, such as building dams and sea walls. Although important options for mitigating and adapting to climate change exist, these can have large negative environmental and social impacts – such as interference with migratory species and habitat fragmentation. Such impacts can be minimized, for instance, by developing alternative batteries and long-lived products, efficient recycling systems for mineral resources, and approaches to mining that include strong considerations for environmental and social sustainability.

The report authors stress that while nature offers effective ways to help mitigate climate change, these solutions can only be effective if building on ambitious reductions in all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. “Land and ocean are already doing a lot – absorbing almost 50% of CO2 from human emissions – but nature cannot do everything,” said Ana María Hernández Salgar, Chair of IPBES. “Transformative change in all parts of society and our economy is needed to stabilize our climate, stop biodiversity loss and chart a path to the sustainable future we want. This will also require us to address both crises together, in complementary ways.”

Highlighting the significance of the co-sponsored workshop, Dr. Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC, said: “Climate change and biodiversity loss combine to threaten society – often magnifying and accelerating each other. By focusing on synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation, this workshop advanced the debate on how to maximize benefits to people and the planet. It also represented an important step in collaboration between our two communities.”

“It may be impossible to achieve win-win synergies, or even manage the tradeoffs between climate and biodiversity actions in every single patch of a landscape or seascape,” said Prof. Pörtner, “But achieving sustainable outcomes becomes progressively easier when integrating a mix of actions at larger spatial scales, through cross-border collaboration and joint consultative spatial planning, which is why it is important to also address the lack of effective governance systems and mechanisms to improve integration between solutions for climate change and biodiversity.”

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The Governments of the United Kingdom and of Norway co-hosted the virtual workshop. “This is an absolutely critical year for nature and climate,” said Lord Zac Goldsmith, UK Minister of State for Pacific and the Environment. “With the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, and the Glasgow Climate Change Conference in the UK, we have an opportunity and responsibility to put the world on a path to recovery. This hugely valuable report by the experts of IPBES and IPCC makes it clear that addressing biodiversity loss and climate change together offers our best chance of doing so.”

Sveinung Rotevatn, Norwegian Minister for Climate and Environment added: “Policies, efforts and actions to solve the global biodiversity and climate crises will only succeed if they are based on the best knowledge and evidence, which is why Norway welcomes this expert workshop report. It is clear that we cannot solve these threats in isolation – we either solve both or we solve neither.”

Paying tribute to the work of all the authors and expert reviewers, the Executive Secretary of IPBES, Dr. Anne Larigauderie, also recalled the recent and tragic passing of Prof. Robert Scholes, the other Co-Chair of the workshop’s Scientific Steering Committee, and his many contributions to both the IPCC and IPBES.

It is important to note that the workshop report has not been subjected to IPBES or IPCC review, and that IPBES and IPCC co-sponsorship of the workshop does not imply IPBES or IPCC endorsement or approval of the workshop or its conclusions.

The report is available at http://www.ipbes.net/biodiversityclimatescience

* * * * *

Coverage highlights:

The New York Times: click here

The Guardian, click here

Associated Press, click here

Reuters, click here

Deutsche Presse Agentur, click here

Agencia EFE, click here

BBC, click here

Le Monde, click here

EL PAÍS, click here

Süddeutsche Zeitung, click here

New Scientist, click here

MSN News, click here

France24, click here

Independent, click here

The Hindu, click here

Full news release, click here

Coverage summary, click here