Page 25 - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine December 2023

bne December 2023 Companies & Markets I 25
Between 2015 and 2019, the world lost around 420mn hectares, or 4.2mn square kilometres, of healthy and productive land. / bne IntelliNews
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Central Asia land degradation data demonstrates rapid advance of crisis worldwide says UNCCD
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More than 20% of Central Asia’s land area is degraded, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said on November 13, launching the UNCCD Data Dashboard at the opening of its first-ever meeting held in the region.
The area is equivalent to roughly 80mn hectares, or 800,000 square kilometres, an area almost four times the size of Kyrgyzstan. It affects an estimated 30% of the region’s combined population.
Land degradation is rapidly advancing in the region and around the world, according to the UNCCD. The Dashboard also showed that between 2015 and 2019, the world lost at least 100mn hectares of healthy and productive land each year. The totals add up to around 420mn hectares, or 4.2mn square kilometres, which happens to be slightly over the combined area of the five Central Asian nations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Speaking ahead of the Samarkand, Uzbekistan meeting
– the 21st session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 21) to the UNCCD, taking place from November 13-17 – UNCCD executive secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said: “The first-ever UNCCD Data Dashboard offers an eye-opening insight into rapid loss of healthy and productive land around the world, with dire
consequences for billions of people. At the same time, we are seeing some ‘brightspots’ – countries effectively tackling desertification, land degradation and drought. As we gather in Uzbekistan this week to review global progress towards ending land loss, the message is clear: land degradation demands immediate attention.”
While Uzbekistan reported the highest proportion of degraded land in the Central Asia region, the Dashboard showed it also
Roughly 80% of land in Central Asia is used for pastoralism, with livestock grazing year-round. Today, up to 50% of the region’s rangelands need to be supplied with water. A lack of access to watering points reduces the mobility of herders, causing overgrazing of pastures near settlements and undergrazing of remote areas. Uneven grazing ultimately contributes to the formation of anthropogenic sources of SDS [sand and dust storms], which leads to further deterioration of soils and supresses vegetation – UNCCD factsheet.
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