Abstract:
Desertification and land degradation is occuring at an alarming rate in dry lands of the globe. Over 2 billion hectares of land worldwide are degraded. It is estimated that 12 million hectares of land is lost to degradation affecting 40 per cent of population especially rural population, small farmers and poor people in underdeveloped countries. There are large number of reports that indicate extinction of a sizable number of plant and animal species. Global warming and climate change due to excessive release of green house gases and carbon emissions in the environment and uncontrolled human activities exacerbate desertification and land degradation. Steadily increasing population particularly in the developing countries and the pursuit of better living conditions led to an increasing use of energy which released large amount of green house gases in the atmosphere causing more frequent and intense droughts and prolonged heat waves. This global problem has been recognized by the United Nations as life threatening to millions of people and therefore listed as goal no. 15 under Sustainable Development Goals and it was decided to restore 150 million hectares of the deforested and degraded land of the planet by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030, and revive native plant life to the landscape. Forests, mangroves, coral reefs, peat lands and other ecosystems that support life also store a large amount of carbon, hence their protection is equally important for mitigating and reversing climate change, which is essential for stopping of further spread of desertification. In this paper efforts initiated at International and National level to mitigate further land degradation to save Planet Earth are reviewed.
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