Do you see any "disturbed peace of Humans" in this cracked land?

Before diving into this cracked land, first understand some terminologies.

Dry Land: In simple terms, when land receives limited precipitation or has low water availability, making it challenging for agriculture and supporting ecosystems.

Land Degradation: Decrease in the biological productivity of land or ability of land to support the vegetative cover decreases.

Deforestation: Process of clearing the forests by humans.

Now, we will understand the term Desertification.

This is the condition of land(Dry Land) formed after prolonged drought, deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable land management practices. In this condition, land decreases the ability to support vegetative cover and thus, soil erosion takes place (the fertile part of the soil gone away), which eventually decreases the biological productivity of the soil.

Desertification is a global problem. However, we will understand this problem separately, first in the context of India and then in the context of the World.

INDIA

As per the Ministry of Environment

India has approx. 70% of its lands are in the category of Dry Land.

29.77% of India's Area is facing land degradation. 89.69 million hectares area of India is witnessing Desertification. Mostly in Rajasthan.

What are our Targets?

Land Degradation Neutrality: Land Degradation is Compensated by Land Restoration.

Union Ministry of Environment's target is to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030 and No new addition to Land Degradation. Also, set a target to restore 26 million hectares of Degraded land by 2030.

WORLD

UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification)

Dedicated International legally binding agreement dealing exclusively with Desertification, including 197 countries. Adopted on 17th June 1994.

To know more about global initiatives, first, we will understand the term COP(Conference of Parties)

COP is a supreme governing body where member countries (parties) meet regularly to review and discuss the implementation of the convention's objectives and make decisions on various matters.

Some of the outcomes (from 38 outcomes) of the COP-15 (2022), which is hosted by Abidjan (City in Côte d’Ivoire)

1. Promote land restoration of 1 billion hectares of degraded land.

2. Promotion of land-based jobs

3. Promoting the role of women in land Management, including land ownership right

4. Controlling Desertification induced Migration

5. Developing a framework to tackle the problems of sand and dust storms. (Almost 150+ countries are facing this problem.)

6. Enhancing Drought Resilience

COP-14(2019): Hosted by India

Some of the globally taken initiatives:

1. Great Green Wall Initiative of Sahara and Sahel:

An initiative of many countries led by the African Union.

Focus: 100 million hectares of land Restoration + Carbon Sequestration + Job Creation

2. Peace Forest Initiative (Seoul Initiative)

3. The Bonn Challenge :

   It was launched by IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature) and the Government of Germany in 2011 to respond to the urgent issue of land degradation and deforestation. On 2 September 2020, the Bonn Challenge announced that 72 pledgors have committed to restoring 210 million hectares of degraded and deforested land (almost 6x the size of Germany). 

4. New York Declaration on Forest (hosted by UN Secretary-General)

   Aim: Reducing Deforestation by half by 2020 and stop Deforestation by 2030.

Conclusion:

Today, we are facing the problem of heavy traffic. One of the reasons is the forced migration of people due to desertification. There are many such problems that we are facing are driven by this phenomenon. This is not an individual problem but requires individual efforts. Let's add individual efforts to make it a huge collective effect, which can create a strong driving force to fight against desertification and land degradation.