PART

4Sustainability dimensions

Introduction

With 30 percent of the earth’s land used for growing crops and pastureland, another30 percent covered by forests, and a full 70 percent of abstracted fresh water used byagriculture, there is no question that agriculture must be at the centre of any discus-sion of natural resource management and global environmental objectives. Ensuringadequate food and water for all while at the same time achieving sustainable rural de-velopment and livelihoods for current and future generations hinge upon the responsi-ble management of natural resources. Agriculture, though, has a complex relationshipwith natural resources and the environment.

While agriculture is a major user of land and water it must also maintain the quantityand quality of those resources in order to stay viable. Despite efforts to conserve andrecycle natural resources, the agriculture sector generates waste and pollution thatcan negatively impact landscapes and wildlife habitats. For instance, as the largestconsumer of water, agriculture is the main source of nitrate and ammonia pollution inboth ground and surface water. It is a major contributor to the phosphate pollution ofwaterways and the release of powerful greenhouse gases (methane and nitrous oxide)into the atmosphere.

Increasingly, however, agriculture and forestry are recognized as having potentiallypositive externalities, such as the provision of environmental services and amenities

through water storage and purification, carbon sequestration and the maintenance ofrural landscapes. Moreover, research-driven intensification is saving vast areas of nat-ural forest and grassland that would have been developed in the absence of highercrop, meat and milk yields. But conversely, intensification has in some instances con-tributed to air and water pollution that has led to reduced productivity growth.

Both new and traditional demands for produce are putting intense pressure on scarceagricultural resources. While the sector will be forced to compete for land and waterwith mushrooming urban settlements and industrial zones, it will also be requiredto serve on another major front: to meet the increasing demands of the emergingbio-based economy, especially bioenergy and markets for renewable and sustainableindustrial products.

Key Resources

The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO)

The State of the World’s Forests reports onthe status of forests, recent major policyand institutional developments and key is-sues concerning the forest sector. It makescurrent, reliable and policy-relevant infor-mation widely available to facilitate in-formed discussion and decision-makingwith regard to the world’s forests.

SOFO 2011 considers the theme ‘Changingpathways, changing lives: forests asmulti-ple pathways to sustainable development.’It takes a holistic view of the multipleways in which forests support livelihoods.The chapters include regional trends onforest resources, the development of sus-tainable forest industries, climate changemitigation and adaptation, and the localvalue of forests.

2011: Changing pathways, changing lives:forests as multiple pathways to sustain-able development

2009: Society, forests and forestry: adapt-ing for the future

Publication cycle: Biennial

Webpage:http://www.fao.org/forestry/sofo/en/

The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW)

The State of the World’s Land and WaterResources for Food and Agriculture anal-yses a variety of options for overcomingconstraints and improving resource man-agement in these areas of heightened risk.

By 2050, food production is projected toincrease by about 70 percent globally andnearly 100 percent in developing coun-tries. This incremental demand for food,together with demand from other compet-ing uses, will place unprecedented pres-sure on many agricultural production sys-tems across the world. These “systems atrisk” are facing growing competition forland and water resources and they are of-ten constrained by unsustainable agricul-tural practices. They therefore require par-ticular attention and specific remedial ac-tion.

2011: Managing systems at risk.

Webpage:http://www.fao.org/nr/solaw/en/

PART 4

Land

As populations and economies grow, productive lands insome countries are being displaced by urban and indus-trial development, roads and reservoirs. This is because,for sound historic and strategic reasons, many urbanareas and industrial zones are situated on flat coastalplains or river valleys with fertile soils. Where land can-not be viably expanded, the loss of prime-quality crop-land has put additional pressure on agriculture to per-form, especially through intensification.

Changes in landcover have caused the most pressingenvironmental issue in recent decades. Deforestationand land use intensification, especially its impact on soildegradation, are at the heart of the issue. But, in much ofthe world, the current picture of landcover change showsa continuing slowdown of converting forests to areas forcrop or livestock production and the steady growth ofprotected areas.

The latest estimate of the world’s total forest area isat over four billion hectares, corresponding to 31 per-cent of total land area or an average of 0.6 hectares percapita. The five most forest-rich countries (the RussianFederation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of Americaand China) presently account for more than half of theplanet’s total forest area. Ten countries or areas have noforest at all, and an additional 54 have forest on less than10 percent of their total land area. While the rate of de-forestation and loss of forest from natural causes is stillhigh, it is slowing down. At the global level, it has de-creased from an estimated 16 million hectares per yearin the 1990s to around 13 million hectares per year inthe last decade.

At the same time, afforestation and natural expansionof forests in some countries and areas have significantlyreduced the net loss of forest area at the global level.The net change in forest area over the period 2000–10was estimated at -5.2 million hectares per year, down by35 percent per year in the prior decade. However, most ofthe loss of forest continued to take place in countries andareas in the tropical regions, while most of the gain tookplace in the temperate and boreal zones and in someemerging economies.

On the positive side, close to 75 percent of the world’sforests were covered by a national forest programme– a participatory process for the development and im-plementation of forest-related policies and internationalcommitments at the national level.

Map 54:

Global distribution of risks associated with main agricultural production systems

Source: FAO, Land and Water Division

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.SOLAW, p. 348

→ Land and water are indispensable foragricultural production

→ Many production systems are increas-ingly constrained by low availability ofand access to these key resources

→ Unsustainable practises, growing socio-economic pressures and climate changerepresent additional pressures

284

LAND

Global distribution of risks associated with main agricultural production systems

Chart 98: Land surface in many regions is unable to sustain crop cultivation, leading toenvironmental pressure from the intensification of existing cropland

Land with rainfed crop potential (2007)

Millionha

020040060080010001200

EastAsia

L.Amer. &Carib.

N.East & N.AfricaSouthAsia

Sub-SAfrica

Suitable Not Suitable

Source: FAO, Statistics Division

Metalink: P4.ENV.LND.SUIT, p. 350

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PART 4

Historically, production of wood and wood products hasbeen themain objective of forest management and otherfunctions were not explicitly accounted for. However,there has been a shift towards assigning a higher priorityto the environmental and social functions of forests.

Currently, more than 1.6 billion people depend on forestsfor their livelihoods, with some 300 million living inthem. Forests provide habitats to about two-thirds ofall species on earth. In addition, forests serve as carbonreservoirs by storing large amounts of carbon in treesand soil. When forests are cleared or degraded, their sinkpotential is reduced and they can become a substantialsource of CO2.

Overall, forests contain just over half of the carbon in ter-restrial vegetation and soil, amounting to 1200 Gt of car-bon. Boreal (coniferous) forests account for more carbonthan any other terrestrial ecosystem (26 percent), whiletropical and temperate forests account for 20 and 7 per-cent respectively. The Intergovernmental Panel on Cli-mate Change (IPCC) has estimated that, globally, carbonsequestration from reduced deforestation, forest regen-eration and plantation development could equal approx-imately 15 percent of the total carbon dioxide emissionsgenerated by fossil fuels.

Crop intensification has the potential to structurallylower crop productivity through land degradation. Thisterm refers to the reduction of the land’s capacity to pro-vide an ecosystem functioning over a period of time forthe beneficiaries of these functions, namely farming.

According to the Land Degradation Assessment in Dry-lands (LADA) initiative, land degradation costs an esti-mated US$40 billion annually worldwide, without tak-ing into account the hidden costs incurred by increasedfertilizer use and loss of biodiversity and unique land-scapes. The consequences of land degradation includereduced land productivity and socio-economic problemssuch as uncertainty in food security, migration, lim-ited economic development and damage to ecosystems.Reclamation of degraded land is costly and, if severelydegraded, impractical.

Map 55:

No Data < 1 1 − 1.5 1.5 − 2 2 − 3 > 3

Carbon content in topsoil (% weight, 2009*)

Source: FAO, Statistics Division

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.SQ, p. 348

→ Carbon content in topsoil is a good mea-sure of soil fertility, but when removed,soil depletion results, leading to poorcrop yields

→ Depletion arises owing to excessivelyintense cultivation and inadequate soilmanagement

→ Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia suf-fer from inherently low soil fertility

286

LAND

No Data < 1 1 − 1.5 1.5 − 2 2 − 3 > 3

Carbon content in topsoil (% weight, 2009*)

Chart 99: Rates of annual net loss of forests are still very high in some regions

Average net annual change in forest area (1990-2010)

%p.a.

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

EastAsia

L.Amer. &Carib.

SouthAsia

Sub-SAfrica

World

Source: FAO, 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.DEF, p. 347

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PART 4

Land degradation affects large zones and many peoplearound the world, particularly in dryland areas. Thetransfer of critical production elements to other uses(e.g. dry-season grazing lands), the introduction of cashcrops, and the use of water for industrial and urbanpurposes at the expense of rural agricultural producerssever the links in traditional dryland production chains.Left uncompensated, such changes lead to the break-down of entire production systems.

Removing the protective cover to reduce competition forwater and nutrients, ploughing, heavy grazing and de-forestation leave the soil highly vulnerable to wind ero-sion, particularly during severe droughts. Heavy grazingaround water points or during long droughts prevents ordelays the re-growth of vegetation or favours only inva-sive shrubs.

This problem is particularly acute in numerous partsof sub-Saharan Africa, where inherently low soil fertil-ity, severe nutrient depletion and poor soil structure areprevalent. Large fertilizer applications are unaffordableand too risky in these low-potential rainfed croppingsystems. However, sustainable land and water manage-ment techniques can greatly restore productivity. Thesetechniques include soil fertility management, applyinga combination of organic and inorganic nutrients, agro-nomic techniques (such as plant diversity, agroforestry,crop rotation) and the maintenance of protective soilcover.

Further reading

• FAO The State of theWorld’s Land andWater Resourcesfor Food and Agriculture (SOLAW): managing systems atrisk 2011 (www.fao.org/nr/solaw/solaw-home/en/)

• FAO State of the World’s Forests 2011 (www.fao.org/docrep/013/i2000e/i2000e00.htm)

• FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 (www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/)

• UN International Year of Forests 2011 (www.fao.org/forestry/iyf2011/en/)

• FAO Land degradation assessment (www.fao.org/nr/land/degradation/en/)

• FAO Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands, LADA(www.fao.org/nr/lada/)

Chart 100: Cropland has expanded at the expense of for-est cover

Land use change (1990-2009)

%p.a.

-1

0

1

2

3

DevelopedEastAsia

L.Amer. &Carib.

SouthAsia

Sub-SAfrica

Cropland Forests Pasture Systems

Source: FAO, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT)

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.ESS.LAND.CROP, p. 346

Chart 101: Primary forests now make up a small propor-tion of forest area

Forest characteristics (2010)

%

0

20

40

60

80

EastAsia

L.Amer. &Carib.

SouthAsia

Sub-SAfrica

World

Primary Forest Other Naturally Reg. Forest Planted Forest

Source: FAO, 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.FOCx, p. 347

288

LAND

Map 56: At 4 billion hectares, the world’s forests cover 31 percent of total land area

No Data < 15 15 − 30 30 − 50 50 − 70 > 70Forest area as share of total land area (%, 2010)

Source: FAO, 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.FOA, p. 347

Chart 102: Other than wood production, forests performa diverse set of functions across regions

Primary designated functions of forest (2010)

%

0

10

20

30

40

EastAsia

L.Amer. &Carib.

SouthAsia

Sub-SAfrica

World

MultipleUse

Other orUnknown

Prod.Protect.&Conserv.

SocialSevices

Source: FAO, 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.PFF, p. 347

Chart 103: 289 gigatonnes of carbon are stored in globalforest biomass, but levels have fallen owing to a reduc-tion in prime carbon-storing forests

Carbon stock in living forest biomass (1990-2009)

Gigatonnes

250000

260000

270000

280000

290000

300000

1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Source: FAO, 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010

Metalink: P4.ENV.FAO.FOR.LCF.CSFO, p. 347

289