Cop17 races for desertification deal as report warns half world’s soils under threat
More than half of the world's soils are in poor condition, threatening global food supplies and biodiversity, while proven measures to improve soil health are not being implemented, said the UN report released on Thursday.
The report was presented at the Cop17 summit on desertification in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, where representatives hope to agree a global deal to combat drought. Cop16, held in Riyadh two years ago, failed to reach such an agreement.
One of the main sticking points is whether countries should tackle land degradation alongside climate change, biodiversity loss and water scarcity, rather than treating each problem separately.
For the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a change in land management is essential.
"Globally, we must shift from a mindset of soil exploitation to one of soil stewardship," the body said.
Soils "support 95 percent of our food production, host 59 percent of global biodiversity, and serve as the planet's second-largest carbon sink after the oceans," said the report's authors – yet "soil degradation continues to accelerate at an alarming rate".
France says US risks 'blocking everything' at UN talks to protect world's soils
The FAO said limited access to resources and high upfront costs were preventing farmers from implementing better soil management, rather than a lack of knowledge, and called for greater financial incentives, more localised data and the use of indigenous knowledge, among other suggestions.
The UN report found that in 52.5 percent of regions and sub-regions, soil management was poor or very poor. In a third of them it was fair, while in only 14 percent was it good or very good.
Population explosion
This is the second major report by the FAO assessing soil health across the planet, with the last published in 2015. It found that most of the world's soils were in fair, poor or very poor condition.
Since then, the FAO said, the world's population has grown by 800 million, while 80 million hectares of additional land, almost the combined area of France and Germany, had been turned over to major crops.
By far the greatest threat to soil is from erosion, the experts said, with soil washed or blown away because of unsustainable practices.
Other threats include loss of the organic matter in soil (known as soil organic carbon), nutrient mismanagement, depleted soil biodiversity, salt build-up, pollution and urban expansion.
How degradation and drought are threatening the land that feeds us
Climate change threatens to make most of these problems worse, while soil degradation itself can in turn contribute to climate change – meaning that improving soil health could also improve resilience and help fight global warming.
The authors said most techniques for protecting and restoring soils were already well known prior to 2015, but were still not being widely implemented.
In the period between the two reports, soil management improved in just 10 percent of assessed areas and deteriorated in 58 percent.
One major technique for reducing soil degradation is reducing – or abandoning – tillage, such as ploughing. While this method is as old as agriculture itself, tillage destroys organic life in the soil and, by breaking it up, leaves it prone to erosion.
Other methods for protecting and improving soil include planting cover crops, such as legumes and brassicas, which are grown on fallow fields to lock soils in place and improve their nutrient content, as well as agroforestry, in which trees are integrated into farming practices.