Question

Essay on land degradation threat to environment
Essay in 450-500 words ​

Answer 1

Answer:

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Explanation:

Land degradation threatens the livelihoods of Earth’s many inhabitants, the so called environmental refugees, including many of the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Degradation caused by over cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and inefficient irrigation affects most of the world’s drylands. Desertification occurs in drylands, which span a third of the Earth’s land surface in over 110 countries.

All continents are under threat including 37 per cent of arid areas in Africa, 33 per cent in Asia, 14 per cent in Australia and some areas in America and the southern fringes in Europe. According to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), over 250 million people are directly affected by land degradation. In addition, some one billion people around world are at risk. Each year 12 million hectares are lost to deserts. That is enough land to grow 20 million metric tons of grain.

The land degradation issue for world food security and the quality of the environment assumes a major significance when one considers that only about 11 per cent of the global land surface can be considered as prime or Class-1 land, and this must feed the 6.5 billion people today and the 8.2 billion expected by the year 2020.

Hence land degradation will remain high on the international agenda in the 21st century. Desertification is often the result of human activity and can therefore be prevented or controlled by human effort. Because of its magnitude, desertification is a global issue, and such can only be addressed through a global partnership.

What is Land?

It is an area of the Earth’s surface including all reasonably stable or predictably cyclic attributes vertically above and below it. Land includes not only the soil resource but also the water, vegetation, landscape and microclimatic components of an ecosystem.