World Day against Desertification and Drought
30th year of struggle: ‘United for the earth. Our legacy. Our future.”
Desertification, land degradation and drought are among the most pressing environmental challenges of our time, with over 40 per cent of the world’s land area already considered degraded. But by 2050, drylands could cover between 50 and 60 per cent of the entire earth, with about three quarters of the world’s population living in these areas under severe water scarcity conditions!
Thirty years have already passed since the Convention to Combat Desertification in Countries Suffering from Severe Droughts, particularly in Africa, was adopted in Paris on 17 June 1994.
Image: www.it.m.wikipedia.org
Desertification is identified by the Convention as the degradation of land into arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid areas mainly caused by human activities and climate change. Desertification therefore no longer refers to the process of expansion of existing deserts but to the process of degradation, more or less slow and more or less voluntary, of lands subject to over-exploitation and inappropriate use.
It is now well established that lifestyles based on high consumption in more developed economies and consumption growth in emerging countries are key factors in global land degradation.
Healthy land not only provides us with almost 95% of our food, but much more: it clothes and protects us, provides us with jobs and livelihoods, and protects us from worsening droughts, floods and fires. Yet, every second, an equivalent of four football fields of healthy land suffer degradation, totalling 100 million hectares each year.
Image: www.unccd.int
The objectives of Desertification Day and the theme 2024 call us to our responsibilities and highlight that the future of land management affects us closely and is our most precious resource to ensure the stability and prosperity of billions of people around the world:
- Promoting public awareness of the problems of desertification, land degradation and drought;
- Present human-led solutions to prevent desertification and reverse the intensification of drought;
- Strengthen the implementation of the United Nations Convention to combat Desertification.
WE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD ARE INSPIRED
BY THE POSITION ON INTEGRAL ECOLOGY
AND THE MAGISTERIUM OF POPE FRANCIS:
LAUDATO SI' AND LAUDATE DEUM.
