Desertification costs around $42 billion per year. You might be asking yourself why are we losing so much money? Whose allowing this to happen? And most of all what is desertification?
Desertification is simply defined by Allan Savory as “a fancy word for land that is turning to a desert.”And when land becomes desert, millions of people are left without food and water, and often forced to flee.
Droughts as a result of climate change and unsustainable farming practices are some of the reasons why 12 million hectares of land are lost each year. We are living in the official United Nations decade for deserts and the fight against desertification (2010-2020). So let’s review the facts.
- By 2050 it is expected that the world’s 9 billion human population will increase the demand for food by 70%
- Currently, 40% of the world’s population suffers from water shortages
- 135 million will be at risk of being displaced by desertification over the next decade
- 60 million people are expected to move from desertified areas to northern Africa and Europe by 2020
Here are some solutions undertaken around the world to combat desertification.
- SLM (sustainable land management) practices like agroforestry, where trees and shrubs are grown with crops, and conservation agriculture can increase crop yields and prevent future degradation
- Sand dams are where the runoff during monsoons is stored in underground containers for use during the dry season in East Africa and India
- #50milliontrees is a social media campaign started by over 1,000 young Tanzanians to combat deforestation with the goal of planting 50 million trees
Agroforestry is a popular land management technique used to prevent soil erosion and bring nutrients to the crops.
Droughts in North Dakota, California and Connecticut show us that this isn’t some other country’s fight, but everyone’s fight.
Get your friends or organize a group and plant trees around your community. Tell politicians the goals of UNCCD are our goals and encourage stronger accountability for use of sustainable farming and animal grazing techniques. Most of all, never believe that your actions don’t matter because it’s up to every single one of us to reverse and prevent any harm done to the land all 7.5 billion of us share.
Watch Allan Savory’s TED talk if you’re still curious.