A major new scientific report was launched on Sunday, a day ahead of the opening of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP16), charted an urgent course correction for how the world grows food and uses land in order to avoid irretrievably compromising earth’s capacity to support human and environmental well-being.
Produced under the leadership of Professor Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in collaboration UNCCD, the report, titled Stepping back from the precipice: Transforming land management to stay within planetary boundaries, was launched as nearly 200 countries convene for COP16 starting on Monday in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
The report draws on roughly 350 information sources to examine land degradation and opportunities to act from a planetary boundaries’ perspective. It underlines that land is the foundation of earth’s stability and regulates the climate, preserves biodiversity, maintains freshwater systems and provides life-giving resources including food, water and raw materials.
It outlines how deforestation, urbanisation and unsustainable farming are causing global land degradation at an unprecedented scale, threatening not only different earth system components but human survival itself.
The deterioration of forests and soils further undermines the Earth’s capacity to cope with the climate and biodiversity crises, which in turn accelerate land degradation in a vicious, downward cycle of impacts.
“If we fail to acknowledge the pivotal role of land and take appropriate action, the consequences will ripple through every aspect of life and extend well into the future, intensifying difficulties for future generations,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw.
According to the UNCCD, the global area impacted by land degradation — approx. 15 million square km, more than the entire continent of Antarctica or nearly the size of Russia — is expanding each year by about a million square km.
The report situates both problems and potential solutions related to land use within the scientific framework of the planetary boundaries, which has rapidly gained policy relevance since its unveiling 15 years ago.
“The aim of the planetary boundaries framework is to provide a measure for achieving human wellbeing within earth’s ecological limits,” said Johan Rockstrom, lead author of the seminal study introducing the concept in 2009. “We stand at a precipice and must decide whether to step back and take transformative action, or continue on a path of irreversible environmental change,” he adds.
The planetary boundaries define nine critical thresholds essential for maintaining earth’s stability. The report talks about how humanity uses or abuses land directly impacts seven of these, including climate change, species loss and ecosystem viability, freshwater systems and the circulation of naturally occurring elements nitrogen and phosphorus.
Six boundaries have already been breached to date, and two more are close to their thresholds: ocean acidification and the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere. Only stratospheric ozone — the object of a 1989 treaty to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals — is firmly within its “safe operating space”.
Conventional agriculture is the leading culprit of land degradation according to the report, contributing to deforestation, soil erosion and pollution.
Unsustainable irrigation practices deplete freshwater resources, while excessive use of nitrogen- and phosphorus-based fertilisers destabilise ecosystems. Degraded soils lower crop yields and nutritional quality, directly impacting the livelihoods of vulnerable populations. Secondary effects include greater dependency on chemical inputs and increased land conversion for farming.
Meanwhile, climate change — which has long since breached its own planetary boundary — accelerates land degradation through extreme weather events, prolonged droughts, and intensified floods. Melting mountain glaciers and altered water cycles heighten vulnerabilities, especially in arid regions.
Rapid urbanisation intensifies these challenges, contributing to habitat destruction, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
*Except for the heading, this story has not been edited by The enewstime.in and has been published from IANS feed.
