United Nations Environmental Programme Update

Paper

Topic A: Desertification in India

Since the Agricultural Revolution, mankind has utilized Earth’s natural resources in an

effort to provide for themselves and undergo advancements in cultivation. As our civilizations

grew larger and more complex, mankind’s continual utilization of the resources around us has

resulted in an unintentional consequence: desertification. Desertification is a process by which

fertile land becomes barren due mainly to unsustainable practices and overuse of land, ultimately

resulting in “declines of agricultural yields, livestock yields, plant standing biomass, and plant

diversity”.1 As India continues developing, challenges regarding desertification intensify, which

can be seen clearly in satellite images.2 This ongoing problem has prompted debate and action by

both the Indian government and the United Nations.

India’s population has been booming for the past fifty years. Since 1971, the population

has increased from 550 million to 1.22 billion, which is 17% of the world’s population.3 Due to

this incredibly high growth-rate, the country has had a very difficult time providing healthy diets

for all of its citizens and keeping them out of poverty. In an effort to produce enough food at an

affordable price, India has adopted many unsustainable agricultural practices, such as abundant

usage of chemical pesticides, “overgrazing, over-exploitation, deforestation, [and] inappropriate

irrigation,”.4 Although these practices are helpful in building India’s economy in the short term,

1 Gerrie Coetzee, "Impacts of Desertification," IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Accessed December 22, 2017.2 Anuradha Nagaraj, “Desertification Eating into Agricultural Land in India, Satellite Image,” Reuters, 18 Aug. 2016.3 Vikash Mehra, “Increasing Population in India Is a Problem,” Important India, 19 July 2017.4 Akash Vashishtha, “Desertification Affects Quarter of India’s Land.” India Today, 18 June 2014.

which is prioritized due to present rapid population growth,5 the damage caused to the land will

make agriculture impossible in the future due to the degradation of farmland.

At the natural rate of desertification, Earth’s systems are able to renew themselves and

maintain a healthy and balanced environment.6 However, at the drastically increased rate that

desertification is occurring in India, it is difficult for natural systems to replenish nutrients in the

soil. It is currently estimated that twenty- five percent of India's total land is undergoing

desertification.7 If this trend continues, more of India’s land will be unable to grow crops,

potable water will become scarce due to a lack of filtration by vegetation, some species may go

extinct, and famine will continue to spread throughout the country.8 The only way that India will

avoid this fate is if it alters its agricultural practices to ones that are sustainable and makes an

effort to further protect its wildlife.

Fortunately, many measures have recently been put in place to counteract desertification.

After recognizing the serious impact of this phenomenon, India’s government pledged to be land

degradation neutral- meaning that land is stable enough to consistently support both ecosystems

and human agricultural needs9- by 2030.10 Some different initiatives that this pledge includes are

“integrated land use planning on landscape basis,” and, “coordination among different

stakeholders,”.11 Additionally, India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention to Combat

Desertification,12 and as such the nation celebrates the World Day to Combat Desertification

5 Ibid6 “Desertification: 4. What Are the Major Causes of Desertification?,” Greenfacts, Accessed December 31, 2017.7 Ibid8 Greentumble Editorial Team, “Causes and Effects of Desertification.” Greentumble, 8 May 20179 “Land Degradation Neutrality | UNCCD,” UNCCD, Accessed December 31, 2017.10 Shri Prakash Javadekar, “Aim to Become Land Degradation Neutral by 2030.” Press Information Bureau, 17 June 201411 Ibid12 “United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).”

every year on the 17th of June.13 This holiday promotes public awareness of this pressing issue

and facilitates international cooperation for the implementation of the UNCCD.

India, home to 17% of the world’s population, struggles to provide enough food for its

citizens. Unsustainable agricultural practices, designed for mass production and low costs, have

resulted in land degradation and desertification across the country. Despite the negative effects

that India faces due to the desertification of farmland, the nation is working diligently to restore

its environment and adopt sustainable cultivation techniques through communication and

coordination between India’s own governmental agencies and different members of the United

Nations.

Topic A: Land Restoration Efforts in Africa

Although desertification is a global problem, African nations are especially prone to its

negative effects. Roughly two thirds of the African continent are considered drylands or desert,

and about three fourths of this land is degraded to some degree.14 This trend in desertification and

land degradation is especially harmful to African peoples, as they rely heavily on agriculture for

both self-sustenance and income.15 Therefore, in order to ensure the sustainability and continuity

of the livelihoods of the millions of people in African nations, measures must be taken to

mitigate the impacts of desertification, and to institute more sustainable agricultural practices for

the future.

The creation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is

one example of a vital approach to combating desertification in territories that are vital to

economies relying primarily on subsistence farmers. This convention presents potential

13 Shri Prakash Javadekar, “Aim to Become Land Degradation Neutral by 2030.” Press Information Bureau, 17 June 201414 “Desertification | Ecology,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Accessed December 31, 2017.15 Ibid

approaches to combating the worsening of desertification, one such approach being the

encouragement of the people living in an area undergoing desertification to participate in anti-

desertification efforts including practicing more sustainable farming techniques and partaking in

soil restoration initiatives.16 All African nations are members of the UNCCD, and most of them

have submitted National Action Programmes, or NAPs. These NAPs are constantly changing so

that they can best represent the current needs of the nations affected by desertification. In

addition, the African countries have created a Regional Action Programme (RAP). The current

RAP was adopted in 1999 and is composed of six thematic programme networks (TPNs) that

contain policy on a variety of topics, including water management, soil conservation, and

sustainable farming systems.17 After the adoption of the UNCCD’s 10-year strategy, which calls

for awareness-raising through better integration of science and technology frameworks,18 work

has begun on aligning the RAP and its sub-programmes to the strategy, which should improve

their effectiveness in achieving land degradation neutrality- a state where land quality is

consistently or increasingly stable enough to support ecosystems and enhance food security.19

The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) is another organization

committed to combating desertification in Africa. The aim of the organization is to, “restore

forests and tree cover on 100 million hectares of land in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030,”20 by

bringing together a group of political, technical, and financial partners including the World Bank,

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as private

impact investors.21 This restoration stands to bolster local economies, increase food production,

16 “About the Convention,” UNCCD, Accessed December 31, 2017.17 “Annex I: Africa,” UNCCD, Accessed December 31, 2017.18 Willem Van Cotthem, “UNCCD 10 year strategic plan,” Desertification.Wordpress, Accessed December 31, 201719 “Land Degradation Neutrality | UNCCD,” UNCCD, Accessed December 31, 2017.20 “African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative,” wri.org, Accessed December 31, 2017.21 Ibid

and help mitigate the effects of climate change in the region.22 Twenty-one African nations are

currently members of the AFR100, and have donated a total of 63.3 million hectares of land to

be restored.23

Another organization working to combat desertification in Africa is the International

Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), a nonprofit research organization dedicated to reducing

hunger and poverty, and safeguarding natural resources in developing nations.24 CIAT scientists

are currently developing a strategy to combat land degradation by prioritizing defining and

understanding the problem of desertification, developing methods to restore land to a usable

state, monitoring the progress of attempts of land restoration, and determining the best way to

preserve the environment while helping farmers and communities support themselves.25

Initiatives like those promoted by the CIAT, UNCCD, and AFR100 are helping greatly by

proposing possible solutions for addressing the problems of land degradation in African nations.

By continuing to support and develop the ideas contributed by these organizations, the status of

desertification in Africa can continue to improve, and successful plans can be translated to other

stricken regions in the future.

Topic B: Biodiversity Loss and Threats to Global Food Security

The issues surrounding global food security arise from a complex web of causes. Although the

threats to food security are numerous, the disfavorable agricultural conditions resulting from decreased

biodiversity are some of the main menacing factors. Despite agricultural efforts to use regionally stable

crops and fertilizers, food insecurity around the world has been on the rise; one region particularly

threatened over the past few years is the Horn of Africa. In order to combat these crises and the cascade

of problems they cause, safer and more sustainable agricultural practices that take the effects of

22 Ibid23 Ibid24 “What We Do,” CIAT, Accessed December 31, 201725 “Land Use and Restoration,” CIAT, Accessed December 31, 2017.

biodiversity into account must be implemented worldwide. By considering the linkage between

biodiversity and food security, we can come up with viable solutions, or at least improvements, to

ongoing global food crises.

Biodiversity is fundamentally necessary for agriculture, as complex and diverse ecosystems allow

humans to harvest a larger variety of food and livestock.26 Therefore, as biodiversity is increasingly

diminished, food production dwindles. In 2016, 108 million people were already reported to be facing

“crisis” level food insecurity,27 and the current situation is only being exacerbated by rapid population

growth. As global populations continue to expand, food production must adapt in turn. This means that,

since the population is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, food production will need to increase by a

projected 60%.28 This reality makes the problem of biodiversity loss even more pressing, as several

nations including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Uganda are becoming increasingly threatened.29 With

more people to feed and continuously dwindling biodiversity, food insecurity will continue to increase if

appropriate measures are not taken to combat it.

Countries in the Horn of Africa are facing particularly significant food crises. In Djibouti, one of

the largest causes of food insecurity is prolonged drought, which has been found to have a severely

negative effect on the biodiversity of crops and vegetation necessary for supporting agriculture.30 Food

insecurity and inability to reliably harvest crops has significantly affected Djibouti due to its economic

dependence on agriculture and pastoralism. For instance, in the Obock region, 70% of the population

faced “extremely inadequate” food consumption due to drought and harmful agricultural conditions.

These conditions not only caused a significant loss of livestock, which is both a source of food and

income for the society, but a large decline in the yield and variety of crops grown.31 Ethiopia is

undergoing a similar crisis, and is currently facing both widespread hunger and malnutrition due to 26 “Biodiversity and Agriculture,” Harvard School of Public Health, Accessed December 31, 2017.27 “Global Report on Food Crises 2017,” Food Security Information Network, 2017.28 “Biodiversity and Sustainable Food Security,” In Search of Biohappiness, 2011, pp. 9–17.29 Ibid30 Tom Whitham, Community and Biodiversity Consequences of Drought. PDF. Accessed December 20, 201731 “Biodiversity and Sustainable Food Security,” In Search of Biohappiness, 2011, pp. 9–17.

similar poor diversity levels and agricultural conditions caused by drought. In spring 2016, 2.7 million

children under five were acutely malnourished, and 0.4 million were severely malnourished. In addition,

Ethiopia has even more dependence on agriculture than Djibouti; It is estimated that over 85% of the

population depends on agriculture for food and income. Drought has also lead to significant crisis, with

3.8 million people requiring emergency food assistance.32

The ongoing loss of global biodiversity is continuing to worsen the state of food security.

Therefore, to ease the effects that accompany poor food security, such as malnourishment and food

shortage, we must work to increase biodiversity and implement more sustainable agricultural

practices in order to increase food production to a healthy level. One method by which

agricultural practices can be improved is by promoting policies that encourage sustainable development.

These policies can include efforts to combat soil erosion and deforestation, which decrease both the

quality of soil and levels of biodiversity. By working to restore the diverse ecosystems in soil,

increasingly sustainable agricultural practices such as intercropping and growing pest-resistant

crops will become more feasible,33 and societies dependent on agricultural practices will have more

stable access to a wider variety of foodstuffs.

32 “Horn of Africa Crisis,” World Food Programme. 2017.33 “Contributing to food security and sustainability in a changing world,” Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, 2011.